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Paige Phillips shared a brief history, after being started by all local Rotary Clubs, in 1957, it has grown to include 5 sites - Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Guelph, and Fergus. - in the last fiscal year, 17,394 children were seen, amounting to over 95,000 visits - 21% is done in Cambridge - 20,000 visits, and 1,000 kids on the wait list... - Cambridge is the only site specializing in feeding issues, where an SLP, OT, and D (Speech Language Pathologist, Occupational Therapist, and Dietician) work together - this new site replaces the location on Ardelt, where at the end they were at 113% capacity... - they have 26,000 square feet, all on 1 floor, so totally accessible; the old site was 13,000 on 2 floors - 3 years ago a Research and Development team was set up to better the business operations, and it's been hugely successful, reducing wait time, removing barriers, and improving the quality of service provided Jennifer Foster, the CEO, took to the stage - Jennifer spoke abut their strategic plan, that has JUST been completed - focus is going to be on improving the product - where many find the services fragmented, when more than one is required - wish to provide strong united care, having all agencies working together to serve each child, wherever necessary - and to improve their purpose, which is to provide hope for families Jennifer also noted that for the 5,000 kids on the waiting list, there is probably another 5,000 kids where the families are yet unaware their child SHOULD be visiting KidsAbility... There were many questions, excellent answers, and we wrapped up with a tour of the facility. One HUGE advantage technology has had, is that rather than EVERY employee (there are over 400 of them...) requiring their own dedicated desk space, they have 'landing spaces' that are used by whomever, whenever necessary - this frees up lots of extra space that can be used for servicing children It was a great day - so awesome that Pres Paul totally forgot to ask me to tell a joke - everyone was spared.... |
