SUNDRIDGE – Almaguin Highlands Community Living (AHCL) held its 35th annual general meeting on Oct. 29.

“People don’t understand the size of employer we are,” said executive director Kerry Carnevale, who explained that AHCL employs 56 full and part-time employees down the Hwy. 11 corridor from Callander to Novar including areas like Port Loring and Chisholm.

“As an organization we support a combination of adults and children with developmental disabilities or delays - 126 individuals and their families in the Almaguin area,” said Carnevale.

As part of its services AHCL assists with funding needs, helping families apply for government support.

It provides programs and activities for people as well as operating four 24-hour residence programs including three in Powassan and one in Sundridge.

“We also provide support for people in the community to have the ability to live on their own but need support with daily living, banking, personal care, or shopping, based on a person’s needs,” said Carnevale, adding that a needs assessment is done and they match the support to the need of the individual.

AHCL is under the Ministry of Community and Social Services umbrella with a sidebar running to the Ministry of Child and Youth Services for their family support worker program.

“We try to do as much in the community as we can do,” Carnevale said, explaining that it’s important for people with developmental disabilities to experience different things to understand whether they enjoy them or not. “The goal is complete citizenship for people.”

Their programs include one for transitional aged youth that is designed to prepare youth aged 15 to 19 who may be looking for employment or help deciding what they want to do when they complete school.

“They are person-centered plans,” said Carnevale. “We support them in their plans.”

They also run a Best Buddies program at Almaguin Highlands Secondary School that matches students with those with developmental disabilities. The pairs are supported to get together on a regular basis but Transitions co-ordinator Marilyn Polkinghorne says they are finding that most students are going beyond that and are getting together more often.

“The whole Almaguin area has been wonderful with donations,” said Polkinghorne, who said that they rely strongly on community support. She said recent donations had just come through from the Powassan Legion and the Burk’s Falls Lions Club in support of the program.

Polkinghorne is also responsible for the Bridges Program, where groups of five are taught about personal management, life management and career management.

They also volunteer to go into the South Wind Retirement Home in South River, where the students organize and run a bingo where they serve cookies and tea.

“Both groups benefit. They enjoy each other’s company,” she said. “Students feel like they are really doing something valuable.”

The community focus of the AHCL has clients of the program working doing anything from catering to lawn care and maintenance.

According to Carnevale the catering group provides services both in and outside the building.

“Groups can rent the board room,” he said. “Baking, especially around Christmas and special occasions, is very popular. They also make meals, frozen entrées that people can take home and heat up.”

“It’s important for the people doing the work to get paid,” he said, adding that the money generated goes to the clients of the program.

“The work they do provides training and skills for job readiness,” he said. “It’s a good place to start.”

AHCL also offers a craft program and a wood working program, which Carnevale says often complement each other.

The client will pay for a project but can sell it for more if that is what they choose to do.

Carnevale says they do attend trade shows and will set up booths for their clients to sell their products, adding that they have a vendors permit and hold craft and bake sales.

“One weekend we raised over $1,200 right in the parking lot,” he said.

According to Carnevale, these programs go a long way toward building self-esteem and making their clients feel good about themselves.

“It’s more than monetary gains,” he said.

AHCL has a contract with E.J. Williams Surveying Limited of Huntsville to cut, paint, stamp and bind all the survey stakes.

They also have cleaning contracts with a number of local churches as well as ongoing contracts to provide lawn cutting and maintenance services, including taking care of the lawns at the municipal building in Sundridge.

The clients are not only trained to perform the work, but they learn how to do it safely through health and safety training.

Carnevale says that the East Parry Sound literacy council didn’t start up again this fall, so AHCL has started a literacy program where clients can not only improve their reading and writing skills, but also focus on mathematics and current events.

The hurdle to the literacy problem that they must overcome is a lack of volunteers. No formal teaching is required; anyone who is enthusiastic and enjoys working with people is welcome.

Currently, a doctor’s referral or assessment is needed to become a client of AHCL, although this can be complicated with dual diagnosis, differentiating between a developmental disability and a mental illness.

“Obviously we have people here of varying ages, varying functioning levels. Some have a mild disability and some have an extreme disability and the supports they would need are different,” said Carnevale.

“The ministry is looking at having an application centre acting as a single point of access. People would go in and have the assessment to determine eligibility. It would be so people don’t have to run around trying to figure out how to get support,” he said. “It would be more family-friendly.”

Despite all the programs AHCL offers for individuals with developmental disabilities, Carnevale feels they could do more.

“It’s a long hill to climb. There has been a stigma about people with developmental disabilities, but the times are changing,” he said, adding that in March 2009 the institutions are closing putting a greater focus on community placement.

“People (with developmental disabilities) were segregated, put way back somewhere, segregated from society,” he said. “We are a part of the community. We play a big part in the community.”