Success Story Lutherwood, Waterloo
“We recently went through a process of updating/refreshing our strategic plan, which was approximately five years old. As part of this process we developed three working groups – historical reference group (focused on core activities/defining moments in organization’s history and factors that impacted directions), trends (what are the trends in our current environment and anticipated future trends that will impact our services) and reviewing the vision, mission and values. The working groups included representatives from front-line, management and Board. Following the development of the draft, reps from these groups visited all of the staff teams, shared their ideas, the draft plan and solicited feedback. This feedback went back to the working groups to incorporate. Through involving all key stakeholders from the start and building a plan which incorporated their ideas, we were able to develop a strategic plan which staff, management and Board have not only adopted but embraced, with a full understanding of the context in which we operate.”
Success Story Partners to Employment, Stratford
“We host a 2 day Annual Visioning Retreat for the Board members at “a very nice” location (which we get at not for profit rates). We choose a topic that we want to focus on for the next year and the Board sets goals around the topic (the staff then develop and implement strategies to achieve the goals, which are reported back to the Board). The Board members have a chance to get to know one another better (developing trusting relationships). We have very long term committed Board members with the ability to dream. Our agency was started 12 years ago with a 16,000 budget and now has a $750,000 budget.”
Success Story Goodwill Industries, London
“Over its sixty plus years (over 100 as a Goodwill movement and an early social enterprise), this Goodwill has continued to recruit Board members from a broad cross section of the community balancing business expertise with community perspective… seeking individuals who can assist moving the organization forward whether to move to accomplish strategic directions or to assist when a particular challenge is before us. The organization has a strong foundation and identity in the used goods collection and recycling business which in turn generates direct employment and training opportunities as well revenue for community services to meet expressed needs or to launch/test new Mission focused ventures.”
Success Story Business Education Council of Niagara
“The higher the profile and community leverage the Board has, the more the credibility of the organization is enhanced. The Business Education Council of Niagara recruits the highest level executives possible from business and education. The Board consists of the two Directors of Education, Vice Presidents from the College and University, and ten senior business executives and entrepreneurs. We also look for Board Members who are also Board members of other major institutions and community organizations in the community. This enables more productive partnerships since they carry the BEC message to other organizations and theirs to us. Having this level of representation makes it much easier to recruit new members.”
Success Story Ontario Association of Youth Employment Centres (OAYEC)
“Revenue diversification is an explicit element of our strategic plan. The plan does not specify how we will achieve this. Rather, that is left up to staff to do the operational and business planning and come up with recommendations. This has allowed us to pursue and prioritize different revenue streams without confining us to a single project or specific WAY of generating that funding.”
Success Story Employment and Education Centre, Brockville
“Because folks out of work often have financial problems, we initiated a credit-counselling program. We are able to do debt management plans (we negotiate a payment plan with all creditors…most times eliminating interest owed and we manage the payment for the client), assist with bankruptcy if required, and do general credit-counselling awareness workshops. The creditor makes a percentage of repayment a donation to our agency.”
Success Story YMCA Employment Services, Sudbury
“A few years ago it was identified that a group of low income senior citizens wanted to stay in their homes as long as possible but could not afford the basic maintenance of their yard in the summer and snow shoveling in winter. Working with the manager of employment programs for the municipality we implemented a Community Helpers Program. The municipality paid for a crew foreman and the expenses for the program. Ontario Works participants volunteered through the Community Placement Program to help the seniors. It was a win-win situation for all involved.”
Success Story Pathways Skill Development and Placement Centre, London
“We have created three unique training programs in the following areas: Light Industrial, Property Maintenance and Construction Technologies. Each of these programs were developed in conjunction with employers to ensure that the curriculum met the demands of the industry. Each program combines theory with hands-on practical experience. The programs have been highly successful with more than 85% of graduates finding and maintaining employment.”
Success Story NCDS Career Works, Fort Frances
“NCDS Career Works developed the Aboriginal Youth in Construction Skilled Trades program targeting ten First Nation Communities. NCDS is actively marketing to local First Nation communities through forums to encourage first Nation youth to become involved in Skilled Trades (particularly in the area of construction which has been identified by the Aboriginal Human Resource Development Strategy as a preferred area by aboriginal people). Construction trades are employment areas that provide more opportunities for youth to stay and work in their own communities. This program development initiative is multifunctional. It will increase our own intake numbers, improve our Skilled Trades workshop numbers and outcomes, while addressing a known shortfall in the labour market. It will also allow NCDS Career Works to better partner with First Nations and become part of the solution to some of the problems that exist for young aboriginals”.
Success Story Preparatory Training Programs of Toronto
“Preparatory Training Programs of Toronto (PTP) has become a leader in literacy and employment programming. Over the course of fifteen years it has developed a wide range of resource materials including assessment tools and learner handbooks for enhancing workplace literacy that continue to provide a solid income stream for the agency. Further, PTP has developed a niche for itself within the employment services market: positioning itself as an agency with special expertise in helping people with literacy needs find work. PTP developed a successful model of working with employers and has enjoyed steady rises in funding as funders recognized their unique contribution to the range of employment services available in Toronto.”
Success Story Goodwill Industries, London
“Serving over 5800 individuals in South Central Ontario in registered services, with a close to 200-person workforce including 30% with employment barriers or challenges, we continue to review and revise existing services in response to changing needs and the marketplace while pursuing new directions. We operate eight retail stores, two Career Centres and a temporary staffing service, have several partnership programs at other locations and have a budget of $7 million. This Goodwill regularly engages in Strategic Planning and has strong program, sales and budget monitoring capabilities. At times, our employment and training activities have helped to support our retail arm and vice versa over our history allowing for this resilience and longevity.”
Success Story Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU), London
“Our agency developed its first social enterprise at a time when it was winding down its involvement in a large job placement program and handing delivery of that program to a local partner. The agency recognized that it was losing direct access to local businesses and losing control over how its clients were gaining access to the labour market. The challenge facing the agency was to develop a service for business that would allow its clientele to participate directly and gain employment through some of the networking with business customers. The organization created a recycling service targeted to small business and implemented primarily by youth. Through working in the business, the clients gain a hands-on work experience at industry standards and develop networking, sales and other “soft skills”. The program has leveraged increased awareness and support for the agency through the business customers and new partners as well as increasing earned revenues for the agency.”
Success Story Business Education Council of Niagara
“Innovation must become part of the culture of the organization. For example a BEC staff member came up with our slogan “Innovation is Our Motivation”. We recently formalized our pursuit of innovation by forming an R&D Committee consisting of a volunteer staff member from all program areas and one manager. The committee encourages submission of new program ideas from staff and has developed criteria that they apply to see if the concept is worth pursuing. The submission has to be researched by the staff member or members before submission. If the committee considers the idea feasible they then help the staff member to put together a short proposal to go to the Executive Director. If it is still appears to be feasible the staff member, the program manager and resource staff (usually finance) are asked to put together a full business plan.”
Success Story Niagara West Employment & Learning Resource Centres, Beamsville
We have had a very successful consortium of agencies that deliver programs for the mature worker working together since before 2000. We have formed a sub-committee of the local training board, have held a conference and planning another, have produced materials together and regularly collaborate on issues etc. We also consult on funding barriers, problems, etc.”
Success Story Job Skills, Keswick
“Job Skills had been funded to deliver a Youth Entrepreneurship program in southern York Region but did not have an office location in that area at the time. An agreement was made with COSTI (Markham) to utilize their space, resource area for participants, training room and some program support services. The program ran in the evenings when COSTI did not utilize the training space and costs for the services and space were pre-determined. Billing was set up between the two organizations on a pre-agreed schedule. Job Skills benefited by being able to offer a program in an area where they were not currently providing service. COSTI benefited by hosting a program in their space that they did not deliver but complemented many of their own services. The clients benefited by being able to access service locally without traveling long distances and also by being able to access COSTI’s other services for their other needs. The funder benefited by being able to provide funding to Job Skills who had a successful history of running the program in another area and not having to find another delivery agent without a track record (the funding decision to offer the program in the South was made in a very short period of time). This assured wide-access of service for clients in a large region with no gap in service.”
Success Story Lutherwood, Waterloo
“Our organization has invested heavily in partnerships as a method of building capacity. As an example, we have formed a partnership of the local College and another non-profit to provide services to companies closing or downsizing. Rather than competing with each other for contracts, that each of us would not have the capacity to serve individually, we have developed a collaborative approach that has shared our resources, profiled our services and created a win-win.”
In another example, we combined our knowledge of self-employment with another local agency that focuses on the needs of New Canadians. Combining our technical knowledge with the organization’s knowledge of their client group, we developed a successful program model to support New Canadians in running a small business. While each could have developed the program separately, our individual knowledge bases would not have allowed for the range of programming. Combining our areas of expertise resulted in a very successful program and multiple partnerships that have emerged from this relationship.”
Success Story Brockville and Area YMCA
“A few years ago we became the leader in this community in introducing and implementing Developmental Assets for our children and youth. As a result, we became the lead agency in securing federal funding for three consecutive years in order for our counties of Leeds and Grenville to form the coalition that is presently charged with this responsibility. This coalition has grown to accommodate over 40 agencies and individuals from the community.”
Success Story YES Employment Services, Thunder Bay
“Understanding your community needs present and future is a critical piece to successful capacity building for organizations and community. In Thunder Bay we know that while our general youth population is declining we can project that the number of aboriginal youth coming into Thunder Bay from surrounding reserves continues to increase and will continue to shape the way we deliver service in the north. To this end, we provided a project with aboriginal communities hiring aboriginal youth to design a website of aboriginal services and launch it to the community (www.aerc-thunderbay.org).”
Success Story Business Education Council of Niagara
“BEC is currently managing a multi-million dollar project to develop a Niagara portal (http://www.yourniagara.ca) and get municipal services on-line. This partnership includes 12 municipalities, two school boards, as well as the college and the university in Niagara. Community capacity building requires a very special and complex partnership to be effective, it is for this reason that there is often a need for a neutral entity to manage the project for the partners who are attempting to build community capacity. We offered to provide this service, and it has worked well for the project and us.”
Success Story Business Education Council of Niagara
“We have 44 staff. Our income comes from a combination of project delivery, fee for service, brokering programs and administrating multi-partner programs. For example, we manage the Early Years program, which in Niagara involves 20 partners. We’re responsible for promotion, marketing, administration and meeting objectives. We were asked to broker and administer the program because we’re neutral. No one wanted the government to do this (businesses think government is fully paid for so won’t donate). The books are all computerized, we have monthly reports, there’s staff input and manager input so it’s transparent. We have one meeting per year to present finances. We are also ISO registered. If anyone is over budget by 20% they come to the ED, otherwise financial matters are handled between the finance manager and program managers.”
Success Story Business Education Council of Niagara
“BEC was the first organization of our kind in North America to receive ISO 9000-2001 registration. We were featured in ISO magazine out of Geneva Switzerland and in Quality magazine out of Chicago. We have a formal process to monitor continuous quality management and a process management system to constantly ensure all facets of our project management system is consistent and up-to-date.
All projects have measurable objectives and financial objectives set at the beginning of the project and have the BEC evaluation system used for all of them. Managers report monthly on actual vs. target project objectives and target budgets. If any are not on target without a realistic reason an action plan is devised to bring it back on track. All managers have an opportunity to have input since all programs are presented to the management team.
The Board of Directors receive a report on targets vs. project objectives and target vs. financial objective with an explanation and an action plan where needed. The evaluation of program services is done for all programs offered by BEC during the project or at the end. Programs where the evaluations have any negatives (even if the evaluations are overwhelmingly positive) those have to be evaluated and action plans designed where required.”
Success Story JobsNOW Employment Resource Centre and Assistance Services, Kenora
“The JobsNOW Employment Assistance program in Kenora was a result of the collaboration of four separate organizations that had offered separate employment assistance services for several years. Along with the talented staff, came very different service delivery processes and documentation procedures that had all worked very well in their time. The amalgamation of these services however, required a full reassessment of statistics gathering and reporting procedures, forms, etc.
We found that clients were often confused with the duplication of questions on the numerous forms and applications necessary for funded interventions. They would often interpret each question differently (thinking that different answers were required), leading to inconsistencies in the application. Together, all staff assessed each form, application process and documentation method, identified duplication and/or redundancy of questions, etc., and revised the client registration and needs assessment forms, Return to Work Action Plans and subsequent program addendums that were applicable to the full range of programs and services offered by the Resource Centre. This has enabled us to more accurately record and report on program activity and applicable targets, and assist in the evaluation of both for future planning and development.”
Success Story Ontario Literacy Coalition, Toronto
“Program/project evaluation has been really useful to our organization. It has helped us to really question what we are doing and why we are doing it, and look at the usefulness of it. There is a need in our field to better understand evaluation (assessment) and not look at it as a negative, but a continuous improvement process. When organizations think of themselves as a learning organization – where mistakes can be made and they will not be penalized for it, then programs can really thrive and improve.”
Success Story Goodwill Industries, London
“Listening to our customers – through our participant, referral source and employer evaluations, observations and our web-based client tracker system – helps us focus on our results, effectiveness and needs while also providing the base for service evolution, board and funder reports. We try to avoid the trap of seeing these functions as serving the system of others but as essential information tools to help us. We also engage in community needs identification processes both with others and as an agency and have had two external reviews in the last five years.”
Success Story John Howard Society, Welland
“Several years ago we reinvented ourselves. Our employment division was known as Youth and Community Employment Services. We hired a marketing agency and they developed us as Job Gym. They completed their services with an entire critical path for us to follow to reintroduce ourselves to the community. They developed and still develop to this day all of our marketing material, logos, giveaways, letterhead, business cards, etc. They keep us current and fresh looking to the public at all times.”
Success Story Job Skills, Keswick
“Several years ago Job Skills hired a marketing consultant to develop a logo and branding strategies for a self-employment program. As part of the process, he also helped us to identify our unique selling proposition, key messages and benefit statements, and developed a marketing strategy designed to increase awareness of the program in the community. The marketing consultant agreed to provide similar services as an in-kind donation as Job Skills was looking to update its own logo to reflect the Agency’s growth and expansion of services.”
Success Story JobsNOW Employment Resource Centre and Assistance Services, Kenora
“Justify! Justify! Justify! This was especially evident in our negotiations with HRSDC Regional Office. (Which for us, way up here in Northwestern Ontario, is still in Toronto!) The remoteness of our community, the sparse population base and geographical factors all play a part in program expenditures that would not be an issue in the more populous areas of our province. The lesson? Be prepared to justify your expenditures and or program procedures with price quotes, relevant local labour market information and/or other supporting documentation to support your claims. Also, in view of these more stringent criteria, it is no longer safe to assume that since an ongoing project was once allowed certain expenditures, or has always followed a certain method or process in the past, that it is still acceptable procedure. Never assume!”
Success Story Job Skills, Keswick
“We wanted to develop practice firms, as they we knew they were quite successful in Quebec. We wanted one in York Region but no one would fund them. We did our research by visiting a few sites that had practice firms, and we then sent a letter to Service Canada explaining why we think there should have a practice firm in York. We didn’t hear back for a year and a half. Then a new manager came on at Service Canada and within a short period of time they wanted a practice firm in York region. Because we had all the evidence, had created the model and were all ready to go we responded. A minister wanted to be involved in the opening of the practice firm, which was good PR for both the minister and the agency. The government also wanted program participants at the launch – so we brought in program participants. It was a very successful launch and it good media coverage. The minister looked good, in positive light; and from that we got money for two more practice firms.”
Success Story Preparatory Training Programs of Toronto
“We were recruiting three new instructors and we wanted instructors who would bring some ‘other’ qualities and skills to the job because of our focus on workforce literacy. The ad read ‘We’re a little bit different – are you?’ Well – we received over 350 applications. Although it was a lengthy process – we ended up hiring a some very talented staff – one in particular who is still working with us today – a Ph.D. candidate who had been a ‘cook’ at daycare for over 10 years.”
Success Story Lutherwood, Waterloo
“Our organization had developed an extensive recruitment and retention strategy based upon input from front-line staff and management. For us this has become a key component of our strategic plan. We recognize that our staff are our greatest asset and have invested heavily in both recruitment and retention strategies. Our strategy includes a variety of components including a competitive salary and benefit package (reviewed annually), a focus on the culture of our organization, peer mentor programs, incentives for staff who refer an employee to us, staff appreciation strategies, exceptional performance awards which recognize demonstration of our core values, individual and team awards for exceptional customer service, active engagement of staff in planning and a variety of strategies all based upon a management philosophy which incorporates the importance of recruiting and maintaining excellent staff.”
Success Story Pathways Skill Development, London
“One of our staff came to Canada less than 6 years ago. In her former country she was a Labour Judge and lawyer, but none of those credentials carried forward to Canada. Shortly after coming as a client to us, she began volunteering as an administrative staff member. She later was hired on staff full time and we began to assist her in moving forward in a new career in social services. After working on this program for three years and taking many internal opportunities to learn and develop professionally she applied to an internal posting for an employment counsellor and was successful. She continues her studies with Pathways’ financial support and has become one of our most valuable employees. This story is multiplied many times over at Pathways with individuals who begin their employment out of social assistance situations, often lacking high levels of confidence due to recent difficult events in their lives.
We are committed to developing our staff in every area through our culture, staff meetings, interactions and professional development funds. We have observed vast amounts of growth in many of our employees personally and professionally as we focus on the whole person, not just the particular role.”
Success Story John Howard Society, Welland
“We have an extremely detailed behaviour based interview process. This has allowed us to recruit the type of people we are looking for. The interview process is the same for all candidates. This was only revamped during the last year and we have found our quality of candidates has gone up with little room for “bad” hires. We have a Director of HR who oversees all the agencies hiring, reference checks and offers of employment. We have low turnover rates for staff – we feel it is in part due to a publicized competitive salary grid, regular supervision and performance reviews, many opportunities for staff to complete Professional Development and attend conferences, including college and university courses. We have excellent leave and paid sick time, and an excellent relationship through the Labour/Management committee to ensure issues are resolved before potential grievances can occur. Staff are always offered the opportunity to job shadow other positions to encourage cross training and create organizational capacity.”
Success Story Business Education Council of Niagara
“BEC is committed to improving the BEC work environment and helping employees manage the multiple commitments of work, personal, community and family life. We offer a Family Responsibility Benefit designed to accommodate these needs. The FRB provides up to 21 hours of paid time off annually for a variety of family related reasons. To ensure continuous delivery of quality programs, every attempt must be made to schedule appointments outside working hours. Time may be taken in hours or days. Approval must be given by the Project Manager. The FRB cannot be attached to a vacation period.”
Success Story YES Employment Services, Thunder Bay
“To promote retention and staff development and success, we developed an internal training program. Staff sign up as sessions are available. As a result of our efforts we received the innovations award from MTCU in 2003 and we shared the training modules with the Job Connect service providers across Ontario via the ministry website. We have minimal staff turnover and our results continue to demonstrate success in achieving our contractual obligations.”
Success Story Preparatory Training Programs of Toronto
“Three years ago, the ED left suddenly, and left the organization with many challenges. The management team took over – and one manager was appointed Acting ED. Other managers moved into more senior positions with more responsibility. Everyone ‘rose to the occasion’ and we had a very successful model – and a streamlined management team. Others were given opportunities to try out new roles as well. Former instructors were given the opportunity – with encouragement – to take on management roles.
In the end, the Board needed to hire a permanent ED. PTP’s Auditor – (who was also very interested in Board Governance) – advised the Board to hire an internal candidate if possible. It was his experience that non–profits that chose to hire externally did not do as well as those who hired someone who had a deeper understanding of the organization and work culture. The Board chose to hire the internal candidate – again – giving opportunities for others in the organization to take on more challenging roles.
At present, the ED and one Senior Manager are involved in an Executive Leadership training course offered by Wellesley Institute. The focus of this training is on transformative learning and building organizational capacity. The program was designed to have two senior people in the organization trained in order to ensure that more than one person gained the knowledge and experience acquired through this training.”
Success Story Lutherwood, Waterloo
“We have developed our own internal system for leadership training and development. On a bi-monthly basis, all staff at a supervisory level and above meet to discuss particular areas of focus related to managing within our organization. We have invested heavily in this training, recognizing that this level of staff directly impact the culture of our organization. Through small group discussions, focused presentations and case studies we have focused on how our management philosophy lives out on a daily basis. This has helped to ensure consistency in management across our large system of more than 300 staff. We believe that our staff and the culture that we are able to create is our greatest asset. This level of staff directly impacts our culture. The investment has directly paid off. For two years in a row we have rated in the top 10 of Best Small to Medium Sized Employers in Canada.”
Success Story Community Literacy of Ontario, Barrie
“Community Literacy of Ontario is a provincial network serving 100 literacy agencies all across Ontario. We have effectively used technology over the past five years to save our organization in its internal operations and to save our members programs time and money in their professional development. Given that CLO is governed by a provincial board of 12 regional directors, it costs our organization a great deal of money to hold face-to-face Board meetings. Our organization is very small and face-to-face meetings were really stretching our budget to the breaking point. We tried conference calls, but had limited success because they aren’t very user-friendly for many people. Based on this, we tried out holding our meetings using live, state-of-the-art online software called “Centra” with voice-over-Internet capability. Now, we hold most board meeting and all committees meetings on Centra. Our Board and staff all love this interactive ways of meeting and it saves us a ton of money.”
Success Story Niagara West Employment & Learning Resource Centres, Beamsville
“We hired two students from the third year in IT from Niagara College as our technical support six years ago. They were summer students but one remained as our “weekend mole”. We could only pay him a small amount but he came in on Saturday’s at any time of the day or night to maintain the computer labs. Subsequently he provided recommendations for purchases and upgrading of the networks etc. He is still with us and persuaded us two years ago to invest in voiceover technology. He and his partner both are at University in IT, have other part time jobs, but still continue to maintain and support our computer-networked labs as part of our staff team.”
Success Story Community Literacy of Ontario, Barrie
“Community Literacy of Ontario has had enormous success using technology to serve our members efficiently and less expensively (for them and us). For example, we have offered live, online, voice-over-Internet training to our members. This allows them to access training right in their offices without the expense and time of traveling to another centre for training. This is especially helpful as many of our members are located in rural and northern and remote areas of the province and travel is a major barrier for them. In addition, CLO has developed and designed a self-directed training website for our members called “Literacy Basics”, which has received rave reviews as it allow them to access free training when and where they need it.
This website can be accessed free of charge at: www.nald.ca/literacybasics.
You can read more about CLO’s success with online training for its members at: www.nald.ca/litweb/province/on/CLO/elearn/elearn.htm.
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Success Story Brockville and Area YMCA
“In our community, our YMCA has a long history. However, its history did not always include its mandate to be ‘open to all, regardless of circumstance’. In 2003, we engaged, for the first time, in Annual Giving campaigns. The purpose of this exercise was to engage the community at large in supporting our work, especially our work with those unable to pay full fees for our services and programs. With a small goal and a staff of one, our YMCA forged ahead and clung strongly to our values and mandate when developing our ‘Case for Support’. We are in our 4th year of Annual Giving Campaigns, and our success has been tremendous, not only in dollars, but in the community’s recognition of their YMCA as a worthy charitable organization. Our goal in 2003 was surpassed by 11%; our goal in our 2006 campaign was surpassed by 50.8%.”
Success Story Ontario Association of Youth Employment Centres (OAYEC)
“We are an Ontario-based charity umbrella group that runs two fee-for-service businesses. Although we had always confined our membership and activities to Ontario in the past, we quickly realized that the market for our services was Canada-wide. The Board considered that our Ontario-focus was not a critical part of our mission, and so very easily provided the leeway to pursue fee-for-service contracts across Canada. In this way clarifying our mission allowed us to overcome a potential barrier to financial vibrancy.”
