The Voice - 2025 IDPD Day

Listen to the exhibitors at IDPD talk about what IDPD means and information about their organizations.

Transcript

It's IDPD day today. What do you guys think of that?

I think it should be IDPD week, but that's just my opinion. No, I think that's awesome. Anytime that we can get out into the community, like as service providers, and not just speak with the... the customer or the client, but also with each other face to face. I think that's way better than that. Yes, yes. Over the phone or even by a keyboard.

Yeah, absolutely. And tell me about your guys' booth.

Well, we're with DATs. I'm Jason and this is Katrina here. We, you know, I think transit is something that a lot of people just take for granted, I think, in a city like this, of this size, that it just happens. But I'm just so proud of all the work that we do behind the scenes to make sure that people get to where they need to be on a daily basis. And not a lot of people know about DATS, which is the Dedicated Accessible Transit Service, but that's why we're here, is to make sure people do know that we are here, that we are a resource that they can use if they are eligible. But also just for the general public, right? Who might have any questions of, oh yeah, I see those white buses all the time. What are they doing picking up my neighbor and then heading off? I don't, what is that, right? So, no, happy to be here. So important.

It's IDPD day. What do you think of that?

I think it's absolutely great. It's a celebration on the international level. I think that Calgary, Edmonton, and Alberta-wide have a long ways to go when it comes to individuals with disabilities. And I think we're backsliding a little bit when it comes to people and advocating for people and their rights to have a good life. So Plan Edmonton actually was created by families about 40 years ago. who were all asking the question, what does it mean to have a good life? And one of the most important things is relationships and friendships and a sense of belonging and contribution. So PLAN helps families with an adult with a disability to foster a network of unpaid relationships. So oftentimes the needs are met and the The things are paid, but the family has no extra time or energy to help foster those relationships. So that's where a Plan Edmonton facilitator would come in and find out what the focus person's likes and interests and desires are so that the family can have a peace of mind.

It's IDPD day. What do you think of that? International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Sorry. What do I think of that? I think it's great. Yeah.

Okay. And tell me about your Booth.

So we're with Taproot Community Support Services, and we provide services to individuals with disabilities and brain injuries across Canada. I'm with the Acquire Brain Injury Program, so I work with individuals with brain injury to help them rehabilitate and adapt to their new life and regain independence.

Nice. and I oversee all the programs here in the Edmonton area. I think we support people in 24-hour housing and also in semi-independent living in their own apartments and helping them get housing and stuff.

Nice. Thank you guys. Thank you. I'm good. So I'm asking everybody what do they think about IDPD today?

Okay. All right. To us at Friends of Medicare, this is a day to celebrate the contributions of folks with people with disabilities. But it's also a day to raise awareness for everyone around both the successes, but also still a lot of the challenges that we know folks with disabilities face. You know, I think here in Edmonton, there's lots of folks doing amazing work. to raise awareness. But still, you know, when I said to friends what I was doing today, they're like, oh, I didn't know there was an international day for people with disabilities. So in some ways, we still have a long way to go to raise awareness.

And tell me about your booth.

Well, we are Friends of Medicare. We're a not-for-profit, non-partisan group that advocates for public health care. It's a hot topic these days. And so one of our jobs is to make sure that we have a strong public health care system that's free and accessible. One of our big campaigns is talking about PharmaCare, knowing that it's the missing puzzle piece in our universal health care, Medicare program, right? The ability for folks to access life-saving drugs when they need them. and at no cost to them. So yeah, we're really passionate about making sure that Alberta is known for more than destroying our health care system. And so, yeah, like I said, it's a hot topic these days. It is. Thank you. Yeah.

It's IDPD day today. What do you think of that?

It's a time to celebrate them and to bring awareness to them that hiring people with disabilities makes good business sense. And that employers should be considering all skill from anybody.

And tell me about your booth.

Our booth is EmployAbilities. We are here to promote, again, hiring persons with disabilities and to get the message out that, again, hiring somebody with a disability makes good business sense.

Perfect. Thanks, guys. I'm asking everybody what do they think about IDPD Day today?

It's been great. Yeah, it's a great place to make connections.

Awesome.

And tell me about your booths.

Well, we're the Glenrose Hospital, and we have services for many people with many different kinds of disabilities. And so we just wanted to come here and talk about how we do specialized rehabilitation, not just for Edmonton, but for most of the North Roop office.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Tell me about what you do.

I build accessible houses and do accessible reservations. We specialize in accessible construction.

Perfect. Thank you. No problem. What do you think about IDPD day today?

I think it's wonderful so far. There's a ton of different wonderful resources in the community, so it's great to connect and see where we can, you know, support. So yeah, lots and lots of great resources.

Perfect, and tell me about your booth.

So I'm with Congdon's Aids to Daily Living, so we do everything from home health care products, mobility and accessibility. Yeah, we serve Edmonton and surrounding areas, and we're here to help wherever we can.

Perfect, thank you.

Yeah, you're welcome.

What do you think of IDPD day today?

I think it's going very well. There's a great turnout of vendors and, you know, we've had a few people stop by and looks well organized and it's bright in here, which I like. Yeah, I think it's been really well organized. So thank you for that. Perfect. And tell me about your booth. So we are from the Office of the Advocate for Persons with Disabilities. We're an advocacy office in Edmonton. We support people throughout Alberta, whether it's adults, children, seniors. And we do concerns resolution, so we help try to resolve their concerns or provide resources. We also do education, so we spend time out in the community like at the IDPD event today. And then we're doing some education. So we're connecting with stakeholders within the community and trying to make connections with them and provide our information.

Perfect, thanks guys.

You're welcome, thank you.

Tell me what you think about IDPD Day.

It's vastly important, especially for myself as somebody who lived with a disability now for 21 years, like the presence of having disabilities known more in the community, helps give the community a better understanding of different disabilities, supports, resources, or anything that intersects along those lines. So that's what I think of it, vastly important. I mean, yeah, I can go there.

Okay, and tell me about your booth.

Our booth's Spinal Cord Injury Alberta. We work specifically with individuals with spinal cord injuries and similar physical disabilities. We have client services coordinators, which I am one myself, that work directly with clients, patients coming into Glenrose, families, you name it. Client services are responsible for assisting individuals with whatever goals they may have in mind, whether that's helping access vocational counseling, and education, you know, whatever that may be that they work on that client with and developing a plan for that, executing that plan and supporting those individuals over that time, the timeframe of achieving their goals. Yeah, with the individuals coming out of hospital that are newly injured, it's helping them reintegrate back into their community, normalizing what's gone on with them recently. and having a bigger understanding of their injury and what life still has in store for them. So empowering them, providing them the hope to keep going and living a wonderful life.

Awesome, thank you. I'm asking everybody what they think about IDPD Day today.

Oh, well, I think it's a very important day for sure. I think that we're happy to be part of it and see so many other organizations contributing to helping those with disabilities. So I think it's a great day to recognize that there's lots of needs for those with disabilities and there's lots of resources for them out there too. And I think it's great to recognize the day.

Perfect, and tell me about your booth.

Yeah, so we're representing Cornerstone Counselling today and we're a non-profit mental health agency in West Edmonton and we just newly opened our Southside location in the Covenant Wellness Centre. Pretty close by. Super close by. And so we offer low fee counselling based on household income. So all you need to do is bring proof of income and then we set your fee on a sliding scale. So we have a great team of 27 counsellors and psychologists who focus on a variety of things and yeah. And we also have workshops for, if you prefer to learn in group environments. Perfect. Thanks ladies.

What do you think of IDPD day-to-day?

Do I feel, or what do you think about it? I feel connected, and so I already talked to Marge, and knowing about her programs, it's always good to connect with others, and yeah, in terms of her professional level and personal level as well. Yeah, I like that.

Perfect. And tell me about your guys' table.

Our tables has a lot of information here. So we have our partnership, one for Hello Seniors, then the other big one is social prescribing. So we are like a collaborative of different non-profit organizations providing support to seniors over 65 years old. Perfect. Yeah. So the Hello Senior programs are community-based and social prescribing programs get referred to health professionals. Doctors, nurses, OT, registered social workers, they all get can make that referrals for seniors to access similar support. So our support includes filling out the forms for seniors, OAS, GIS, and something like what you do. But they are not experts. And our connect seniors to housing resources. That's another challenge in the program. seniors in a lower socioeconomic status and condition, they need that support. And also mental health, maybe financial difficulties, and we help seniors navigate the system. And for both of our programs, we have a worker speak different languages from different cultures, then support the seniors in that language they speak. And for social subscribing program, they have a collaboration with, we used to call them external partners, but now they are part of a partnership. And then to deliver the transportation services, for instance, like operated by Drive Happily, or Amazon news out there, like deliver hot and frozen meals to seniors, or everybody, like even... for students, let's say they need support this month or a few months, they can deliver that. And they used to operate going home program for those people who are discharged from the hospitals. Now they lost that funding, but they still can provide meals to the seniors or everybody, but they're charging fees, right, but lower because they are also non-profit organization. Alzheimer's Society, you know, they support those people who has Alzheimer's, diagnosis of dementia, answer some questions, family, friends, or neighbors themselves, like the people who have Alzheimer's, answer all that question, provide that support, and Caregiver Alberta too. So for our pregnancy, we think her senior program, I can give you several examples like Assist Community Services Center. There are two workers between Mandarin and Cantonese providing support to the Chinese community. or all the seniors who need a social work support. Bantero, them, and they support seniors in indigenous community and also in the mainstream community too. Multicultural house broker, they support immigrants and refugees and refugee claims from war zones, or a lot of trauma and displacement, for instance. Yeah, so for that community. And through family services, they provide support to everybody. They have their conference teams, outside outreach support, but they provide a lot of seniors or whoever on the side. Sage, you know them, Sharma is around this area, then they speak Hindi, Punjabi, and early. Okay, yeah, so this is our partners and everybody can access the whole senior program. So it's community-based. Seniors can do self-referrals, and health professionals can make referrals, neighbors and landlords, and everybody can feed that.

Perfect.

Okay, thank you.

I'm asking everybody what they think of IDPD Day today.

I think it's very, very important for awareness and just for everyone to come together because there's a lot of resources and a lot of people working, actually, towards similar goals and just to find out what's out there and to share so that we can be more effective.

Perfect.

So thank you for inviting us.

And tell us about your table.

So I'm with the Office of the Alberta Health Advocates, and we cover the entire province of Alberta. Anything to do with health, health systems, navigation, coaching, if there is any concerns, we can direct people to appropriate complaint mechanisms. And we can also do some work behind the scenes as well. A lot of times informal resolution, all the way up to we can do reviews if there's concerns. If it falls not within those other complaint mechanisms, We also provide supports to individuals under the Mental Health Act. So we work under 2 legislations, the Health Act, which includes the Health Charter, and the Mental Health Act. And that, right, we work with folks who have been detained involuntarily or on community treatment orders in the community and to speak about their rights and processes. And then also in the last year, we have now an Indigenous Patient Safety Investigator and Advocate. And he is, his name is Tony Cardinal, and he's focusing on specifically working with folks about health care system concerns, navigation, resources, all that sort of thing. The same as what we're doing, but with a focus of working with folks who might have experienced or are experiencing racism, discrimination, or concerns around that. So that's in a nutshell. Do you have any questions? You go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
 
 What do you think of IDPD today?

I think it's fantastic. I think it's a great nice unit of organizations that's bringing a lot of information to the community and it also helps us connect with other organizations within our community. So I greatly appreciate it and we're glad to be here for the second year.

Perfect. And tell me about your table.

So I'm from Preferred Client Services. We are a bookkeeping firm on the south side of Edmonton. We help a lot of non-profits with their bookkeeping, including training their staff and how to do their books themselves.

I'm asking everybody what they think of today's IDPD Day, International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Well, it's a great chance to meet everyone and I think it's a great opportunity for people with disabilities to come and see all the resources available and hang out.

Perfect.

Tell me about your booth.

Our booth is a home care booth, QualiCare Home Care, and we provide medical and non-medical care to people in their homes, wherever home is, could be a facility. And we get with the client and the family and we bring the sunshine in and get them to participate in life. That's a lot of And yeah, we become family.

Thanks for asking, what is your opinion of IDPD day today?

I'm thinking it's absolutely fabulous bringing all the people together to be in a place to connect and meet new people and really share the amazing services and products we offer in our community to make things different for people.

Perfect. And tell me about your booth.

Well, we're here today. I'm the vice president of UPSA, and UPSA is a not-for-profit. Oh, it's not video, sorry. I think it's video. That basically strengthens and empowers and enhances people through education. We help youth, we help seniors. We utilize grants to help us do great programs out in our community as well. We actually just did a Last spring we did an amazing program with nine sessions for seniors in St. Albert and it was amazing to see what we brought together to help them understand the services that are out there available because so many people don't know. So that's just one of the many things. We offer a comprehensive bookkeeping course. A lot of people come out of school sometimes and might have the education, or might not have the street smarts of doing it, so we offer that. And we're always evolving and we're basically helping. And it started with Barbara Steckley, who's the owner of Preferred Client Services. And one of her staff just said, look, People come here and they already know how to do QuickBooks, hence the idea of starting a not-for-profit and giving back to the community was started.

So we've been around just a couple of years and I'm very excited to be continuing our services here.

Perfect, thank you. What do you guys think of IDPD Day today?

It is awesome. It's awesome to see all the great booths and all the people and all the good questions they have about the programs that are in the.

Perfect. And tell me about your booth.

So we're part of Goodwill. We're Path to Employment, so we help people with disabilities and barriers find meaningful employment in the community.

Perfect. What do you feel about IDPD Day today?

I think it's pretty great. I have not participated in an event like this, so it's been really great to partake in it. And it's really nice to see so many booths or tables here today. Everyone's coming together for it. Perfect, and tell me about your booth. So at AdaptAbilities, we are opening up our fifth centre next week, and we provide respite support to families, whether they're kiddos, youth, adults, in our various different programs from HIA summer camp to our adult day program. programs running out at the rec center or even our weekend rest night. Perfect.

Thank you.

No problem.

Okay, so I'm asking everybody what do you think of IDPD day today?

Yeah, you Go for it.

I think it's great. It's nice to be in a place that's very structured and tailored for individuals, so that way they can get a little bit of everything, whether you're looking at Primary care network, whether you're looking at us, ReU Paralysis Recovery Center, or Elections Canada, all the spaces just lined up, easy for people to get into and have access.

Perfect, and tell me about your booth.

Yeah, so we are ReU Paralysis Recovery Center. We are a nonprofit based in Northwest Edmonton, right by West Ed Mall, just probably a couple minutes north. With that, our clientele base is youth and adults from ranges one years old, eight months old possibly, all the way to in the 90s. With that, we work on, I guess I'll just go into our tagline. So we reconnect the brain to the body. We retrain the nervous system and we're redefining possibilities within the space. So a lot of our clients have spinal cord issues. CP is a trait that they have as well. And so what we do is we work on reconnecting the brain to the body through physical activity. Some of our modalities go from ABT, activity-based therapy. We have DMI, so We're working on reflex integration that way. We also offer intensives, which our intensive model is very amazing for, especially the ped side of RIU. With intensives, you have about two, at least one hour of work, one to three hours of work a day. With that, you can do it for a couple of weeks. So go at least minimum one week all the way up to two weeks. It can be split, varied up in very different ways, but we have a wide range of modalities. We also have our All Core 360. We are the only company within Western Canada, I believe, that has the All Core 360. That one's a great one. It's a 10-minute core workout. That's the equivalent to 90 minutes of core work. So yeah.

Perfect. What do you guys think of IDPD day today?

I think it's great learning lots and meeting lots of new people and paying a new name on them.

Yeah, a lot of resources out there that a lot of people are not aware of, so having something like this is amazing.

And tell me about your booth.

It's for the Edmonton North Primary Care Network.

We have information on all of our services including foot care, women's health, mental health, nutrition, things like that.

Perfect, thanks guys. Thank you so much. So we're asking everybody what do you think of IVPD Day today?

Well this is my first time here but so far I'm enjoying, you know, seeing all of the booths and being in the nice location that's very festive and happy and I think that it's a great way to spend a day.

And tell me about your booth.

So our booth represents E2 Academy. We are a small school that helps E2 learners, so twice exceptional learners, where they are gifted with both learning disabilities or other disabilities and as well as a gift in another area of learning. So I'm spreading information about helping diverse learners.

Perfect, thank you.

Hey, you're welcome.

And then I'm asking, what does everybody think of IDPD day today?

I appreciate how much visibility there is around it. Our CEO at Centre for Autism Services has been fantastic at sharing days dear to our community, like Indigenous partners and gender diversity. getting that messaging out. I've seen a lot of it on LinkedIn as well, and there are a lot of people out here, so I'm really happy to be part of that.

Perfect, and tell me about your booth.

Okay, so what we have with the Centre for Autism, we have a variety of programs. So it's across the lifespan. So we have an early childhood program, but also an employment program for up to age of 64. So literally, from two and a half to three years old right up until you're 64, you could have some sort of program with our center. We have, like I said, an employment program. We also have a Quest program, which supports individuals that are on PDD funding, just kind of with those life skills like shopping and cooking and things like that. We have a new program, which is still Supported Independent Living, where you would have a worker, I guess you can say, that will come into your home or your apartment and, go to the bank with you, show you those skills, how to ride the bus and things like that. So these programs are all for, you know, just living better lives. Perfect.

Thank you.

Thanks.

And what do you think of IDPD Day today?

Oh, I love this event. I really enjoyed participating last year. I think it's really important that you bring the community together. The venue's great. We have lots of traffic in the mall tonight, and I'm so happy to talk to people about all the programs Election Canada has in place to help people with disabilities vote.

Perfect. And tell me about your boot.

I am at the Elections Canada booth, so I have a number of sample materials to show people some of these programs we have in place. So I have materials in Braille. I have materials in multiple languages. So fun fact, we have our materials in more than 50 different languages, including Indigenous languages, 20 of them. I have large print, and I'm also talking to people about the different accommodations they can request at the polls, how they can get interpreters, including ASL interpreters, and all the ways even you can vote by mail, which sometimes is a less expected, but definitely more accessible way to vote too.

Perfect, thank you. Then tell me about your booth.

Okay, our booth, well that's the big reason for youth, age 30 and younger. So we find youth-like volunteer placements kind of related to areas they're interested in for a career, meaningful, meaningful for them. Yeah, that's kind of our, that's kind of the only program we're advertising. It's just that one. It's like, it's 120 hours. I mean, do them virtually in person or hybrid in any city in Alberta, BC, Ontario, or Nova Scotia. Yeah, it's for you. So that's I think the biggest restriction we have is the age thing.

Perfect. Thank you. Tell me about your.

Okay, our booth, well, that's the big reason it's for youth, aged 30 and younger. So we find youth volunteer placements kind of related to areas they're interested in for a career, just like, yeah, meaningful, like, meaningful for them. Yeah, that's kind of our, that's kind of the only program we're advertising. It's just that one. It's like, it's 120 hours. We do them virtually in person or hybrid in any city in Alberta, BC, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. And that's for you. So that's, I think, the biggest restriction we have is the age thing.

Perfect. Thank you.