Hey everyone, CLBC is hosting a teleconference call this coming Monday (Oct. 26) at 10:35 AM to provide COVID-19 health and safety updates from Dr. Daniele Behn Smith (Deputy Provincial Health Officer), Ross Chilton (CEO of CLBC), and Brenda Gillette (CEO of the BC CEO Network).
Call 1-877-353-9184 and use participant code 37568#
Please begin to dial in as early as 10:15 a.m
Pre-submit questions related to COVID to CLBCInfo@gov.bc.ca by 12 p.m. on Friday, October 23, using the words “COVID CALL” in the subject line.*
Just a reminder that you can always access the latest information from CLBC here.
Hey everyone, this week’s social distancing reminder is an invitation to the Nelson Cares LIVE-STREAM SPOOKTACULAR happening next Friday night!
Hi folks,
In honour of Community Inclusion Month, we are going to try something different this Spook-tober…
We are going to have our most excellent DJ, Lucas, return for a live streaming Halloween music event on Friday October the 30th! The event will take place on zoom, and the log in is the same for any self-advocacy meeting (see poster below) Lucas will be sharing tunes while the rest of us can use the chat bar to converse and the video to show off our costumes and react together. Maybe folks will feel like dancing in their house or just listening is fine too.
Either way, please feel free to dress up, dance in your room, or have a little house party with your pod and enjoy the tunes together!
Hey everyone, October is Community Inclusion Month! With the ongoing response to COVID-19, we are celebrating a little differently this year — check out Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran as he proclaims October Community Inclusion Month, an event that has in past years included the Pathways Inclusion Chain:
How are you celebrating Community Inclusion Month this year? Let us know in the comments!
Hey everyone, don’t miss out on these upcoming training opportunities!
October 22 – November 26, 2020 Thursdays from 1:30-3:30 PM EST Let’s Learn Research Join a virtual course for adults with developmental disabilities to learn about mental health research. Let’s Learn Research is led by researchers at the Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre and will run every Thursday from October 22 to November 26 from 1:30 to 3:30 pm.
November 3 – December 8, 2020 Tuesdays from 1:00-2:30 PM EST Mental Health for adults with developmental disabilities during COVID The Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre at CAMH is hosting a new virtual course beginning November 3, 2020. This course is for family caregivers of adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD). The curriculum will specifically address the mental health challenges that this population can face during the COVID-19 pandemic.
November 26-27, 2020 7th Biennial Conference on Developmental Disabilities: Health and Wellbeing across the LifespanVIRTUAL CONFERENCE Online registration is now OPEN, Early Bird Registration available until October 30th.
The term developmental disabilities (DD) refers to people with intellectual disability, autism spectrum, fetal alcohol spectrum and related neurodevelopmental genetic syndromes. Children, youth, and adults with DD are vulnerable to high rates of general health and mental health concerns. This interactive 2020 conference will focus on practical strategies to optimize the quality of life for people with DD. Our goal is to help clinicians and caregivers learn effective ways to work with people with DD, and their families, in partnership to improve their quality of life experience. The conference will also provide educational and informative psychiatric, behavioural, mental health, and complex physical health updates specific to people with DD, and showcase best practices in the field. This conference will engage health care providers and educators from a wide range of professional disciplines in knowledge transfer and interdisciplinary collaboration. Please note that the conference is scheduled to run from 8:30am – 12:30 pm PST / 11:30 – 3:30pm EST (-/+ 30 minutes) from November 26-27, 2020. The registration fee includes access to the conference portal for the days registered, as well as viewing of all session recordings for two weeks after the conference adjourns.
Hey everybody, we are celebrating rights (and responsibilities) this month! Today’s post is about VOTING. You can register to vote in BC if you are:
18 or older by General Voting Day (Oct. 24)
a Canadian citizen, and
a BC resident for the past six months as of General Voting Day (Oct. 24)
While Election Day in BC is coming up next Saturday (Oct. 24), in many places advance voting starts TODAY (Oct. 15)! If you plan to vote, check out what political parties say they will do about issues you care about. For example, the BC Special Olympics focused in on health care, check out this article for more information. Inclusion BC wrote to the political parties to find out what their plans were, check out their questions and issues here. You will need to decide which political party you will vote for in the election.
When you have decided who you will vote for, you will need to know where to go to vote. Find the place you will be voting (either in advance, or on Oct. 24) on the Elections BC website.
You will need to bring some specific items with you when you go to vote. You might want to get the items together in advance (i.e. your ID, a mask, etc). If you aren’t sure what you need, there is more information in this Elections BC voter guide.
Most importantly, if you’re planning to vote… ask for help, if you need it! Here are some ideas of who you could talk to and ask for help:
Your family or your friends
Your support worker or your home share provider
People you know at your church or in your neighborhood
When you’re making your plan to get out there and vote, you might need to know what help is available at the voting station. You can find information about what help is available on this Elections BC webpage.
Elections BC also has a webpage all about keeping healthy and safe while you vote — check it out here.
Hey everyone, if you haven’t already – check out the LINK! training all about safety, sexuality and relationships, starting next week online through posAbilities! This training is open to participants in the Okanagan and in the Kootenays.
Hey everyone, if you’re going to vote in the upcoming BC election there’s a webinar that can help answer your questions about voting — happening tomorrow!
You Can Vote! Webinar with Guest Melanie Callas from Elections BC WHEN: October 14th, 2020 at 1:00-1:45PM (PST)
Inclusion BC is pleased to welcome Melanie Callas, Outreach Coordinator with Elections BC, to host the 5th webinar in our Virtual Learning Series. Melanie will talk about the voting process and answer questions about voting and the election. Send us your questions! Inclusion BC is collecting questions to ask Melanie in the webinar. We want to hear from you! Please send your questions to Semanthi at swanni@inclusionbc.org
Hey everyone, have your say in accessible parking in Kelowna and enter to win a $50 gift card to a local business:
The City is reaching out to accessible parking users to take a survey and share their experiences using City of Kelowna accessible parking stalls. Survey feedback will be used to create a new accessible parking program and respondents can enter to win a $50 gift card to a local business for their participation.
“We completed the Downtown Area Parking Plan last year and during that process we heard from residents that there are barriers to accessible parking in Kelowna,” says Andrew Rolston, Parking Operations Coordinator. “This survey will help us understand more clearly what those barriers are and what solutions users would prefer.”
The survey is open to anyone who regularly uses or has used accessible parking stalls in City owned parking lots and on-street parking, for themselves, friends, family members or clients. The survey is open until 4 p.m., Oct. 20.
Hey everyone, there is a great opportunity coming up for sexual health training! PosAbilities is offering their LINK! Safety, Relationships, Sexuality course for adults with disabilities in the Creston and surrounding Kootenay region starting on October 20. These ZOOM sessions offer individualized training on hygiene, sexuality, relationships and ways to stay safe. Check out this PDF for more info and pass it along if you know someone who would be interested. You can also register online here.
