As we reflect on 2017-18, the importance of strong values emerges as the defining theme of our year. We looked at our vision, our mission, and our values and focused on key fundamentals to ensure we remain person centred, accountable and inclusive. This provided an opportunity for examination and consideration of where we can make improvements in our performance and service delivery, so that we continuously improve upon how we support people in the community. This year we introduced new and exciting programs and services, focused on training and development, opened a new building to improve programming, housing, and our staff work environment, reviewed current programs and opportunities to expand, increased funding opportunities, strengthened and built new partnerships, and welcomed new people to our John Howard family.

We will continue to focus on ways to improve our organization, to concentrate on our programs and service delivery, and then measure the results of our efforts. We welcome feedback, innovation and new ideas, and look forward to opportunities for growth and development. Our decisions to enter into new projects will be based on consumer needs, identified gaps, current and new opportunities, and our ability to engage in new collaborative partnerships.

Thank you to all our dedicated and compassionate staff teams for your commitment and strength to walk alongside people everyday. Most of all thank you to all the people that inspire me everyday with your personal stories and your committed effort to want change even when obstacles are thrown at you. Our work is driven by keeping you at the centre it, and we are excited to explore new opportunities and continuously improve our services. There are so many new and exciting things that are happening in the coming year, we look forward to sharing them with everyone really soon. Till next year!!!

Jen Hirsch,
Executive Director of Programs & Client Services

 

 

“For me, as for so many runners, there really are no finish lines. Runs end; running doesn’t.” — Dean Karnazes

Wow – it’s been another year of learning and growing together and reflecting back on the last year, I draw inspiration from the way our staff do the work to support our clients (and each other!). Every day, every shift, being a demonstration of this dedicated and patient support for courageous choices our clients make to take on challenges in their lives.

This past year, we focused on the continued building of our Regional Support team – the members of our team who provide our finance, HR, payroll, property management and maintenance services for the organization as a whole. We’ve continued to find ways to improve our support processes and systems, such as financial reporting, recruitment and property maintenance. These all make a marked difference in how we’ve been able to make decisions and support our programs.

Having achieved a major milestone in the completion and opening of our Fraser Street building, we began focusing on developing a longer-term plan for maintaining, leveraging and growing our real estate portfolio to increase the impact we have in line with our mission, vision and values.

We also continued to improve our annual budgeting process to align much more closely with our strategic priorities. For both the development of the annual budget and the real estate plan, we’ve increased the level of teamwork across the areas within JHSLM to ensure that client and program priorities feature prominently in our decision-making.

Last year also saw new initiatives that demonstrated how teamwork within JHSLM and collaboration with new partners can lead to new opportunities. Two examples which I’d like to highlight are:

We reached some significant milestones last year. But there is no finish line with our work – and I look forward to the journey we’ll be undertaking together in the coming year!

David Lee,

Executive Director of Organization Development