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Community Living Campbellford/Brighton
By Nicole Zummach
February 26, 2007
CAMPBELLFORD, ON // What would life be like for people with intellectual disabilities if they didn't have to spend their days in government institutions? That's probably what Mary Cook, a Campbellford area woman, was asking herself in 1960 when she began her crusade to bring services for children with intellectual disabilities to her community. She succeeded, and Community Living Campbellford/Brighton is the legacy of her efforts. Today, the organization serves more than 100 individuals and is an integral part of community life. But it's not simply an alternative to institutions. Through innovative practices and dedication to its mission, the organization has set the bar high for others working in the field.
This is evidenced by the fact that Community Living Campbellford/Brighton has garnered much praise and recognition for its work, including receiving the prestigious $20,000 William H. Donner Award for Excellence in the Delivery of Social Services not once, but twice, most recently in 2005. CharityVillage spoke with executive director Chris Grayson about the agency, how it has evolved, and what it truly takes to make community living work.
CharityVillage: Your organization has received many awards and accolades over the years. What are you doing right?

Chris Grayson: We've been blazing the trail in Ontario for quite some time now. In 1998, our organization committed to use what are known as personal outcome measures, which are a quality-of-life assessment tool. It's based on each person, so the whole premise of this tool is that it's one person at a time. When you take an organization with a hundred people, you are then basically tailoring your services to those hundred. That's not an easy task and it changes from day to day as people's lives change. As an organization, we always have to continue to check in with people and see what is going on, whether they are comfortable where they are, whether their goals are being met, whether staff is doing the right stuff. It really shifted the status quo within this agency.
As well, we committed to go through a process of accreditation as part of our strategic plan in 1998. In June of 2000, 18 months after we made the decision, we became the first agency in Canada to get a three-year accreditation with distinction, which is the highest you can get. This accreditation, provided at that time by Accreditation Ontario, demonstrates to families, funders, and taxpayers that what we are doing is of the highest quality possible.
CV: What have you learned through the process of applying for the Donner Awards and the subsequent evaluation they provide to applicants?

CG: The struggle we have is that our system funds us as a transfer payment agency in Ontario. That is the way the developmental service sector has evolved. We are transfer payment agencies doing community work since the beginning. That penalizes us in a dramatic fashion in the [Donner Award] scoring. Income independence is one of the things they evaluate. For example, in one of the evaluations we scored 2.3; the winner that year scored 10. For the number of volunteers versus staff, we scored 2.7. They scored 10. So because we are a staff-driven and government funded organization, we lose huge scores in those two categories.
Where we make up that difference is in our board governance, our strategic management, and our outcome monitoring. We scored tens across the board. So if we can get less government funding and more volunteers, we're going in the right direction. We've been trying to chip away at that. The first year we applied to the Donner Awards we were approximately 89% government reliant. Last year, we were approximately 78% government reliant, so we're getting there.
CV: The world was a lot different for people with intellectual disabilities when Community Living Campbellford/Brighton opened its doors in 1960. Looking at the big picture, how have things evolved for your clients and the way you operate?

CG: I think back then it was the family that refused to give into the system, which was telling them to send their child to an institution. That was happening all across the province, in fact, all across the country. That one woman [Mary Cook] said, "No, we're not going to do that. We're going to build what we need and try to do it in town." That grassroots energy is really now coming back. As an agency, we are about to welcome ten people back out of those government institutions. They have been there, in some cases, most of their life, more than 40 years. It's one person at a time. And as soon as they get into our building we will look at their profiles and their medical records and immediately begin to ask them what they want.
CV: Is the community supportive of what you are doing?

CG: You bet. We're one of the largest employers but we're also one of the best supporters of the community. I sit on the local economic development committee. We are on the accessibility awareness committee. One of our outcome measures is whether or not people have valuable social roles, and social roles are as limitless as your imagination. Just because you are a nonprofit, you don't have to take all the time. You can give. That's something we do quite a bit of. The hours that I sit on that economic development committee might not benefit me but it is benefiting the community, which makes it a healthier spot to live and a healthier community for our folks to be a part of.
CV: What advice would you give to other organizations working to achieve excellence in their endeavours?

CG: I think we're all in this business to do the right thing for the people we are supporting. If everyone asked the question, "What is it you want us to do for you, or with you?" their agency would feel that shift.
For more information about Community Living Campbellford/Brighton, visit: www.communitylivingcampbellford.com.

To learn more about the Donner Awards, visit: www.donnerawards.org/main/index.php.