On Thursday, May 17th, 2012,Barbara MacKinnon was awarded the 2012 United Way Ambassador's Award for reaching out to partners in the community and devoting great time and effort to making a difference in Ottawa. As a Community Builder Ambassador, Barbara's name will be officially inscribed on the Wall of Inspiration located at City Hall.

The purpose of this pilot project is to improve the educational outcomes for children between the ages of 7-10  with crown wardship status.It is a provincial initiative which encourages children to actively engage in reading while incorporating their caregivers into the process by building a culture of literacy at home.  Each child identified in this project will receive a personally addressed package in the mail containing a minimum of 5 books each month, for a 6 month period. The age appropriate books are chosen from Scholastic. The packages are personally addressed to elevate a child's feelings of self-worth and importance. This project is being spearheaded by the Highland Shores Children's Aid Society in partnership with a child welfare organization called Practice and Research Together.

Two years after the Adoption Council of Canada and the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa joined forces to create Canada's first Heart Gallery, the organizations are celebrating the success of this travelling photographic exhibit as a way to help find adoptive families for children in foster care. The Ottawa Heart Gallery, which launched on Parliament Hill on April 15, 2010, consists of portraits of local children and youth in care of the Children's Aid Society. Thanks to the talent of photographer Christine Tripp, who donated her time to the project, the Heart Gallery captures the essential personality, dignity and uniqueness of each of the children and youth it features. All of the children and youth participating in the Gallery need and want permanent families and are an integral part of the process.

The Heart Gallery is only one of several recruitment tools that the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa uses concurrently to help find families for the participants. It plays a significant role in ensuring that these children and youth found permanent families. In addition to helping to find homes for specific children and youth, the Heart Gallery is designed to raise awareness about the need for permanency that all children and youth in foster care have.

The Children's Aid Society of Ottawa team that works with families impacted by domestic violence has partnered with Catholic Family Services (CFS) New Direction staff to deliver a group program aimed at fathers who have behaved in abusive and controlling ways with their partners and who have or are at risk of physically or emotionally maltreating their child.  The current pilot of the Caring Dads Program is drawing to a close with only a few weeks remaining to this session.  Our partnership with CFS and the delivery of this program has been successful and  we will begin to prepare for a second run of this program, aimed at helping fathers improve their relationships with their children and end controlling, abusive and neglectful behaviours.The next group is scheduled to begin September 17, 2012.

The Society has just completed its second annual Child Protection Client Satisfaction telephone survey. The questions focus on how the service was experienced by the parent in relation to four dimensions: reliability (i.e., workers' ability to provide service dependably and accurately), responsiveness (i.e., willingness to help and provide prompt service), assurance (i.e., ability to inspire trust and confidence) and empathy (i.e., caring and individualized attention). The survey also includes very basic demographic questions to describe the general profile of the respondents (e.g., gender, income, family type).  Contrary to what some might think, once we are able to reach a former client, he or she is generally amenable to completing the survey and have positive feedback for the Society. 

The Society believes that openness is in the best interest of adopted persons and, therefore, it is recommended to pursue as much openness as is possible taking into consideration the best interests of the child on a case-by-case basis. Openness allows for permanency while at the same time ensuring continuity of relationships, community, and culture. It can include a range of options such as face to face contact, and is determined by the best interest of the child or children.  In order to support this practice, the Society has openness workers who can answer questions about openness and adoption planning for protection workers, lawyers, birth parents/kin and their counsel. In addition, the Society has contracted with a Birth Parent Counselor to provide support to birth parents throughout the openness process, and when appropriate assisting them with the selection of an adoptive family, and mediating a joint understanding of the openness arrangements with the chosen adoptive family. 

Zygmunt Giller, known as Ziggy to the children he works with, has been a Volunteer Driver for the past 4 years.  He is always available to help in any crisis; it doesn't matter if it is to drive 1 or 5 children.  He is extremely kind and patient with the children.  

Bert Elder is celebrating 25 years of volunteering at CAS.  In 2007, Bert started in the Special Friends Program where he was matched with a 10 year-old boy and continues to this day.  Bert is like extended family to this young man and his Mom.  Bert has been coming to the Headstart program on Wednesday afternoons for the past 15 years, that is, when he is not travelling the world.