Category: Update
2022 Annual Report – What’s New at New Directions
Read our 2022 Annual Report
Our 2022 Annual Report is now available, showcasing our tremendous gratitude towards our staff, the individuals we support, and our community over the past year.
It has been a difficult year for everyone, but thanks to our staff, our management team, and our communities, we showed how resilient we can be in such trying times.
You can read the 2022 Annual Report through the link below.
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New Directions Shows our Pride
For the first time since the pandemic began, New Directions had the opportunity to show our pride and march in the Winnipeg Pride Parade.
We want to thank all of our amazing community members who joined us on that day and showed their own PRIDE!
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New Directions Turns 137
This past month we were thrilled to celebrate our 137th Anniversary!
As the oldest social services agency in Western Canada, we can look back over our history and see how we have helped many individuals achieve their dreams.
But we can also look to the future and know that thanks to our staff, volunteers, donors, service providers and community members, we can continue to help individuals reach their life-long goals.
We have had an amazing 137 years, and we will continue to provide the best services possible to our community!
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Regional Services Hits 10-Year Milestone
Our Regional Services (based out of Portage la Prairie), celebrated 10 years of providing services to individuals outside of the Winnipeg area.
The services have grown over the years, and we are excited to see their growth in the years to come.
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New Directions’ Director of Clinical Services Speaks To Media on Mental Health Supports for Children and Youth
“The demand for mental health supports for children and youth is increasing, partly due to the pandemic.” Dr. Lindsay Woods C.Psych, New Directions’ Director of Clinical Services, spoke with CTV News about the growing wait times for mental health services for children and youth in the province.
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Presentation at National Conference
Dr. Carolyn Peters R.S.W., our Director of Organizational Development and Learning, had the great opportunity to work with a student and professor from the University of Winnipeg on a project called Barriers and Enhancers of Info-structure, Evaluation, and Evidence Use at New Directions’ Supported Independent Living Program.
The students and Dr. Peters presented the project at the Canadian Evaluation Society National Conference, which took place from June 13 – 15.
2022 Annual Report
Storybook for Ukrainian Families – What’s New at New Directions?
Storybook Distributed to Refugee Families
“We are pleased to contribute to Manitoba’s Ukrainian Refugee Reception Centre, a welcome centre for refugees that has already assisted nearly 350 people that were displaced due to the war in Ukraine,” says CEO Dr. Jennifer Frain.
Physical copies of Big Feelings Come and Go, a storybook created to help caregivers and families talk through trauma and learn self-regulation skills, is being offered to families in both Ukrainian and Russian.
You can learn more about the book and download a digital copy of your own through the link below.
Child & Youth Care Practitioners Week
The first week of May was Child and Youth Care Practitioners Week. We celebrated and thanked the amazing work Child and Youth Care Workers are doing in our community!
No matter the age, their work with the young ones in our programs is instrumental in helping them continue their journeys.
So we want to say “Thank you, for all that you do! Our community would not be the same without you.”
M.A.C.C. Offers New Therapy Groups
Our Multidisciplinary Assessment and Consultation Centre (M.A.C.C.) offered Online Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) groups to individuals in our community.
You can find more information on the various groups through the link below.
Upcoming Training & Workshops
You can still sign up for one of our five great Training opportunities & workshops in June, all designed to help you grow your professional and/or caregiving skills.
Target Audience(s):
Case Managers, Social Workers, Parents, Caregivers, Child Care Workers, Front-line Workers
Direct Support Workers in Portage
Our Service Areas in Portage la Prairie are looking for hard working individuals to join our team as a Direct Support Workers.
Casual, Part-time, and Full-time positions are available.
If you or someone you know is interested, send your resume and cover letter to: employment.regional@newdirections.mb.ca
Subject line: Portage Opportunities
What’s New at New Directions? May ’22
The last week in April was National Volunteer Appreciation Week, and again we want to thank all the amazing volunteers in our organization who selflessly give their time and expertise to making our community better.
Theresa is one of those volunteers and throughout Fall 2022, she volunteered 285 hours with several of our Service Areas.
You can read Theresa’s full story through the link below.
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Provincial Supports Impacts New Directions
In a news release last week, the Provincial Government announced nearly $29 million toward supporting disability services in the Province.
New Directions will receive $8 million of this fund to develop the two-year Bridge Program for Children and Youth with a disability pilot.
Read the full story through the link below.
May Trainings & Workshops
You can still sign up for one of our 9 great Training opportunities & workshops in May, all designed to help you grow your professional and/or caregiving skills.
The Target Audience(s) for these opportunities are: Case Managers, Social Workers, Parents, Caregivers, Child Care Workers, and Front-line Workers.
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Earth Day 2022
Earth Day usually sees New Directions staff gathering together and picking up trash around our office buildings.
This year, with our main office still under repair, we decided to encourage staff to spend some time cleaning their own neighbourhoods.
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Storybook Translation – What’s New at New Directions?
What’s New at New Directions?
Our staff and the individuals we support have been busy this past month, and we have plenty of good news to share with all of you.
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Storybook Translated into Ukrainian & Russian
Children experiencing trauma from fleeing the war in Ukraine will be receiving copies of Big Feelings Come and Go, a storybook which helps families understand and manage difficult emotions.
This is possible thanks to our partners at The Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P), and Suojellaan Lapsia, a Finnish child protection organization, who will
provide copies of the book, translated into Ukrainian and Russian, to families seeking refuge in Finland.
Developed by therapists, Big Feelings Come and Go explains the body’s fight, flight, and freeze reactions to children, helping them understand and manage difficult emotions.
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2nd Anniversary of Covid at New Directions
Two years ago, Covid-19 changed life at New Directions.
The world is a different place since 2020, full of new challenges and hardships, but our staff and service providers have met those challenges head-on.
Services have gone from in-person to virtual, and back again with varying levels of capacity, and our staff have managed to navigate these changes and continue to provide the best services available.
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Individualized Home Share Provider
An individual supported by our Adult Home Share team needs placement with a Home Share Provider willing to support him in his life’s journey.
You can learn more about becoming a Home Share Provider here.
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Upcoming Training & Workshops
April is full of great training opportunities and workshops to help advance your professional skills and knowledge.
Check out our April opportunities, and all upcoming training opportunities below.
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Thanks to You, Alex has a Winter Jacket
Because of your support, individuals we serve are able to overcome the barriers life has put in their way.
Your donations help people like Alex receive basic necessities.
Getting a winter jacket allowed Alex to return to school and properly care for his younger siblings while their mom was in hospital.
You can read more on how your donations impact people like Alex below.
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M.A.C.C. Program Offering Counseling Groups
Our Multidisciplinary Assessment and Consultation Centre (M.A.C.C.) program is offering various CBT therapy groups this Spring.
These groups are:
1. CBT for Depression
2. CBT for Anxiety
3. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
4. Understanding Relationships
Follow the link for more information.
Two Year Covid-19 Update
Two years ago, Covid-19 changed life at New Directions.
The world is a different place since 2020, full of new challenges and hardships, but our staff and service providers have met those challenges head-on.
Services have gone from in-person to virtual, and back again with varying levels of capacity, and our staff have managed to navigate these changes and continue to provide the best services available.
When we thought things were headed towards a sense of normalcy, a fire blazed through the first floor of our main office at 717 Portage, throwing our services into disarray once again. Without access to a building, some Service Areas were put on hold, while others graciously offered their time and skill to get us up and running.
Thankfully, we have been able to find a temporary home until ours is repaired.
For the time being, our front-line staff will remain diligent and be required to wear their masks indoors during work hours. New hires are also required to be fully vaccinated.
We can’t guess where things will take us in the future, but we know our staff are more than capable of meeting those challenges with bravery and courage and giving the best services possible to individuals supported by our programs.
And, we hope that you can help them too by keeping them safe and getting your Covid-19 vaccine.
What’s New at New Directions? February 2022
Update on the Fire at 717 Portage Ave.
The fire that devastated our main office last month caused extensive damage throughout the entire building.
Thankfully, nobody was hurt, and now the recovery process has begun, but is is going to take months to get back to where we were before.
Our staff do a remarkable job of working hard for the people we support. Not having a central site for them to come to is, and has been, difficult, but our staff continue to show why they are the best!
Find a full update of the recovery process below.
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Working Together – PPE
Without access to our main office building, we were left without storage capabilities for all of our Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) many of our staff use.
In a joint effort between three of our Service Areas, staff and individuals we support carried all of our PPE equipment from the fifth floor into a moving truck and then back into one of our Service Area offices on St. Mary Ave.
It was an inspiring sight seeing staff and individuals we support from across the agency working together!
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Classes Go Virtual… Again
The fire has impacted each of our Service Areas in some way. Thankfully though, our staff have had plenty of practice adjusting the services we offer and how they are delivered due to the current pandemic.
Our Training Opportunities for Youth programs have turned their classes towards online programming, something that was initially started in response to Covid-19.
We hope our programs can return to in-person soon, but we know our staff continue to offer the best programs available through virtual teaching.
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Strat Plan Launches
Though it’s launch has been slowed in response to the fire last month, 2022 brings with it a new Strategic Plan.
This new Strategic Plan will bring many great changes to New Directions, and we cannot wait to tell you more as time goes on!
Stay tuned for more updates on the Strategic Plan in further issues.
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2022 Trainings Begin
February has brought with it the first of many trainings and workshops we are offering throughout 2022.
There are plenty of opportunities for individuals in a variety of professional fields.
Check out our current and upcoming training opportunities below.
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Consider Donating
Our community has always shown tremendous support for us, which has only been made more obvious since the fire.
We appreciate any and all donations you can make in our effort to recreate and/or replace Indigenous items lost by our Opikihiwawin program.
Consider donating on our Donation Page.
Update on fire at 717 Portage Ave. Office
Good afternoon everyone!
As you may already know, the fire at our main office site, at 717 Portage Avenue on January 3rd has resulted in significant damage. Half of the first floor was incinerated and has been off limits to staff since the day of the fire. The smoke from the fire centred in the main floor kitchen area on the Opikihiwawin/Resources for Adolescent Parents side of the building travelled quickly through the building leaving nasty soot on EVERYTHING throughout the building.
With this, all ceiling tiles are being replaced and all soft materials (e.g., upholstery, work station walls, carpets) are being tested to see if they are salvageable with cleaning or need to be replaced. All computer equipment and other electronics are likely no longer good as this soot is corrosive and eats away at electronics over time.
Luckily, restoration experts in this type of work have been on site since January 4th and are working with amazing speed. But, given the scope of work, it is very likely we will all be working outside of this building for several to many months. We have no exact estimation of the time frame because many things have yet to be understood fully (e.g., damage to the mechanics of the building and best route to fix).
In the meantime, we immediately moved to get a mail and delivery depot at one of our buildings at 574 on Erin St. This is a small space but is serving the immediate need. We were also offered lots of help from the community, our peers and realtors/landlords among others.
To our staff, please do all that you can to continue working hard for the people we support. Not having a central site for them to come to is, and has been, difficult. Hopefully soon we will be more accessible than we are today.
I thank all the staff of 717 for their work to empty the building of their personal belongings and for being so supportive overall in managing this massive disruption.
I can only believe that New Directions will emerge, yet again, stronger and even more cohesive after living through this latest challenge that’s been thrown at us!
On we go New Directions!!
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Dr. Jennifer Frain, CEO
New Directions
Photo from The Winnipeg Free Press
Mailing Address Change
For the time being, our mailing address has changed until operations out of our main office can resume.
For now, all mail can be sent to:
New Directions
574 Erin Street
Winnipeg, MB R3G 2V9
What’s New at New Directions: January ’22
Fire at Main Office Building
Earlier this week our main office at 717 Portage Ave caught fire, causing damage to the eastern half of the main floor. Luckily nobody was injured in the accident, but there was extensive damage done to a portion of our first-floor rooms.
As of now, our building is inaccessible to staff and community members due to smoke and water damage, but we will provide updates in the following weeks/months when changes arise.
For now, we work to the best of our abilities remotely except for those working on shifts in the 24/7 areas.
This is not the way we wanted to start off 2022, but it WILL get better and we will carry on our good work!
Thank you for your commitment to New Directions!
R.A.P – No Longer Off Campus!
The Resources for Adolescent Parents (RAP) classroom moved on campus to Gordon Bell High School this past September. This move from an off-campus classroom has brought several great changes to the program. They now have two classrooms and use one as a quiet room, lunchroom, and tutoring/counselling room. The program is also located beside the Gordon Bell Child Care lab, giving students the opportunity to register their children in childcare if they want.
The on-campus classroom has been a different experience, but staff are excited to see their students in class with other Gordon Bell students, when they are ready to take courses outside of the RAP classroom. It is almost the end of their first semester on campus, and the entire RAP team are excited to see, as they get closer to the end of their first year, the successes of the RAP students!
New Service Manager in Portage la Prairie
We are pleased to share that Jason Dyck has joined our Adult Services management team. Jason previously worked as the Executive Director of Prairie Partners in Boissevain, and, in his more recent position, the Executive Director of Arcane Horizon based out of Winnipeg.
Jason lives in the Southwest region of the Province with his wife Carla, an ancient dog, honeybees, and 18,936 cats (well 3 actually), and is the proud father of 2 daughters. Jason and Carla are currently building a house on their acreage south of Portage la Prairie, and Jason is passionate about woodworking, gardening, wilderness camping, canoeing, cooking, and winemaking.
We look forward to further expanding our Adult Services within the Portage La Prairie and surrounding regions under Jason’s leadership. Welcome Jason!
Adopting Personal Outcome Measures
What are Personal Outcome Measures?
Personal Outcome Measures or POM is a planning tool that asks people who are supported what they would like their life to look like. There are 21 “outcomes” or indicators that ask about important things in 5 broad categories- My Human Security, My Community, My Relationships, My Choices and My Goals.
Services at New Directions have been moving towards Personal Outcome Measurements to better serve our community members.
Find out more about Personal Outcome Measurements here.
Home Share Holiday Party
Adult Home Share hosted a Zoom event, for the individuals supported within the program, giving them an opportunity to connect, celebrate and sing with others in the program. Staff delivered about 35 different treat bags full of chocolate, candy canes, popcorn, crafts and a Christmas cracker.
Along with the music event, individuals enjoyed doing a creative craft competition. Event co-creator, Tanya Baker (music therapist) facilitated a fun festive environment encouraging everyone’s participation. Individuals had a chance in the spotlight, and sang there favorite Christmas Carol.
It was great to see everyone connecting virtually and building those relationships with one another.
Training Opportunities for Youth Holiday Party
Staff and Students in the Training Opportunities for Youth program celebrated the holidays with some friendly (and socially distanced) games of jeopardy, charades, and even a little gift stealing.
Santa also made an appearance, bringing gifts and activities for the students after enjoying a delicious meal together.