It’s been an exciting month at Community Services as we finish up the first phase of our marketing plan, celebrate our 13th annual Country Christmas Concert and begin the busy month of December with festive events and program parties. Thanks to the brilliant facilitation of Mainstreet Communications; our marketing strategies include relevant core values, purpose statements; even a brand promise is in the works. Thanks to the BC Job grant, we leveraged everyone’s perspective and learning into the marketing plan.

I am writing my submission for our agency newsletter as I sit on the deck of my Uncle's cottage overlooking Babtiste Lake. I hope the summer has been good to everyone. For me, it provided a reminder to the importance of family and living life in the present.  Today I had the privilege of touring downtown, reminiscing with my 82 year old dad. In addition to his memories of the town's structural history, he shared stories of his family farm, of his 10 brothers and sisters, attending school in a 1-room classroom without books only chalk and traveling into town by horse and cart.

This gorgeous summer weather was the icing on the cake as we showcased our agency for the accreditation peer reviewers. This month, we hosted two highly accomplished social service reviewers who, as part of our 4-year accreditation cycle; examined all aspects of the organization.  Preparation for such a comprehensive review began over 18-months ago as continuation of agency committees; performance quality measures, client feedback systems and best practice service delivery set the foundation for our re-accreditation process.

If you are an Oprah Winfrey fan you’ll understand that I’m referring to her famous Christmas show where she generates a roof blowing craze as she gifts item after item to each and everyone in her studio audience. As you can imagine, the resulting gifts are instantly met with screams of delight, tears of disbelief and shouts of gratitude from the audience.

I recently had the opportunity to travel as an accreditation peer reviewer to a social service organization in the southern states.  My responsibility as a volunteer reviewer was to assess the organization’s practices against applicable accreditation standards. In this case, the organization was reviewed against USA standards according to their specific range of programs and services. Although Community Services is an accredited organization working towards our re-accreditation visit in June 2015; this was my first chance to experience the process as a reviewer.

“A true success story of partnership and neighbors helping neighbors”

It has been an exciting and busy few months at Community Services as we received our first business nomination through the Chamber of Commerce, initiated our re-accreditation journey with Council on Accreditation, successfully navigated through collective bargaining with a 5-year agreement, received funding from the Department of Justice for Victim’s Week, participated in the community GP for Me initiative and hosted agency training on the Meyers Briggs Assessment tool.

Neighbors helping neighbors in their time of need is the theme behind the Maple Ridge Community Chest initiative. This is a pilot project between the Maple Ridge Community Foundation and the Ridge Meadows Katzie Community Network. Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Community Services is the organization that is hosting the project by working with vendors and processing requests. Community organizations, that are part of the pilot project, can refer individuals and families to access the fund to address a short-term financial crisis.

After many hours of discussion and exploration of various possibilities, a decision was reached to renovate and maintain the agency’s buildings rather than purchase or build at this time. I am excited to report that during the months of September through November, we will see needed improvements to the buildings including the walkways, roof, building repair and new paint. We will do our best to provide notification and alternate access points to the building as we continue to operate programs and services during renovations.

Vicki Kipps
Executive Director

On May 15th, Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Community Services hosted a highly successful strategic business planning session. Wonderful in-put was gathered from over 60 participants who engaged in powerful conversations related to all aspects of the organization. Employees, volunteers, community stakeholders and board members actively participated in the day-long session focused on organizational health, service delivery, community connectedness and community presence.