WINDSOR-ESSEX COMPASSIONATE COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

Transcription

1 WINDSOR-ESSEX COMPASSIONATE COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING This Memorandum of Understanding ( MOU ) dated the 1st day of November, BETWEEN: WHEREAS: The Windsor-Essex Compassionate Community Coalition (hereinafter the WECCC ) -and- Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, Windsor Essex Central Council ( SSVP ) 1. SSVP answers the call of the needy, providing home visitation to shut-ins and the sick and delivery of goods, food and furniture. SSVP has been a vital part of Canadian life since Through personal contact and visits with our clients, the Society tries to provide assistance to those in need. Vincentians strive to address the root causes of poverty and injustice. Catholic in character, it is open to all who wish to live their faith by serving the poor with love and hope. Vincentians Are Called... to alleviate suffering and its causes, serving everyone, regardless of race, creed, gender, opinion or age. Poverty doesn't always or necessarily involve being in need of material goods. We are all poor in one way or another. The Society relies on its members to generously give of their time, talent and treasure. 2. SSVP shares the vision of WECCC to positively impact human development (quality of life, equity, well being) in the places people live. We acknowledge that service to others and the community makes each of us happier, healthier and stronger. We believe that by working collectively as a community, we broaden our ability to continuously learn and innovate, and can accelerate our progress in addressing some of the fundamental social challenges our community faces. 3. Faith communities are recognized as an important partner in the WECCC movement. As a faith community partner, SSVP is agreeing to champion the Windsor-Essex Compassion Page 1 of 8

2 Care Community and work together with other partners to raise happiness, improve quality of life, and reduce inequities for citizens in this county. 4. The initial target populations for the WECCC community pilots are the elderly and people with long-term disabilities, focusing especially on those at high risk of isolation. We recognize that collective community action is needed to ensure all people in these populations and their care partners get the life-long care that is most important to them and can access and benefit from available community support. Members and families served by SSVP are part of the WECCC target population. 5. The Project Management Office (PMO), hosted by Hospice of Windsor and Essex County, has been funded by the Erie St Clair LHIN to provide backbone operational support for the WECCC movement. It is acknowledged by all parties that this is a voluntary partnership agreement, not a legal contractual agreement. Term. This Agreement becomes effective on November 1, 2016 and will remain in effect until SSVP terminates their involvement. Partnership: SSVP agrees that its name can be identified as a partner on the WECCC website, social media sites, and in written material, along with its logo. Transparency. SSVP agrees that the action commitments we have pledged in support of WECCC will be fully transparent to other community partners. It is understood that the action commitments of all community partners will eventually be consolidated within an umbrella community-wide partnership agreement and posted on the community s website in the form of a pledge tracker. Revisions. This partnership agreement is intended to be an evergreen document until it is formally terminated. SSVP can make whatever additions, revisions, or deletions to their action commitments at any time, for whatever reason. SSVP will include the date the agreement was revised, and will forward a copy of the revised agreement to the PMO. Termination. SSVP may withdraw from this Agreement at any time, for any reason. Action Commitments: SSVP pledges to advance the following action commitments in support of WECCC: 1. Compassionate Care: In winter 2016/17, we will share the following announcement with our clients and their families in our Leamington location, through a manner of our choosing: Page 2 of 8

3 "Your outcomes and your experiences matter to this community. Saint Vincent de Paul is partnering with the Windsor-Essex Compassion Care Community to build a more compassionate community. We want to make sure that all our clients and their families have the help and support they need to live well. Our organization has committed to measure ourselves in terms of how we work together to improve the quality of your life and your experience of care. We encourage you and your family members to complete our new quality of life baseline survey so we can measure our progress together." We will make compassionate care and partnership with WECCC an integral part of our visitation program. Specifically, we will work with the PMO to train our visitation program volunteers how to help our clients fill out their baseline surveys, and will support those clients who go on to participate in the coaching program through our volunteers. In late winter 2017, we will engage our clients in our Windsor offices through the same process and will support them to complete their baseline surveys. We will seek families and youth who are connected to us who are interested in being trained as compassionate care coaches for our agency clients, so we fully embed this model of care within the mission and fellowship of our organization, and make it part of the experience we offer all our vulnerable clients. For any compassion care coach volunteers we recruit, we will work with the hospice Sharing Our Journey program to coordinate training, technology, access and data collection. 2. Compassionate Neighbourhoods: We agree to sponsor a neighbourhood exchange group for our agency (using a communitywide technology tool called HourWorld). We will encourage our members, along with their families and friends, to participate to make the talents, skills, requests for help and informal offers of practical, emotional, and social help amongst our members and families more visible to each other. We will recruit our own member coordinator/facilitator to lead our group exchange. Once we identify our coordinator, we will receive Hourworld training from the PMO. 3. Outreach: We agree to work with the community in persistently reaching out to people who wish to regain a spiritual connection with their community and themselves. 4. Leadership: We agree to participate in Citizens Table meetings, and to begin recruiting other community partners who should be involved. As citizens seeking to make a difference to this community, we will co-design new actions and projects to improve shared outcomes by at least 5 to 10% year over year. 5. Building Awareness: We will participate in a video and key informant interview regarding our participation in WECCC. We will display information about our partnership with WECCC on our website and will Page 3 of 8

4 include WECCC information in our newsletters and social media messages. We will help to collect our stories and build a compelling case regarding community impact. We will coordinate any media releases, as well as social media and web content about our partnership with WECCC with PMO Communications. We endorse the processes outlined in Schedule B to this Agreement as core responsibilities of businesses, programs and services in this community, and will encourage others we know to participate. 6. Supporting Compassion: We will rally our members to support the Compassion Care Community GIVE65 event in summer/fall 2017, recognizing that Home Instead Foundation will match the funds we raise. Funds raised through this event will support mobilization in neighbourhoods and compassionate intentional communities, which will benefit people who are isolated and build stronger neighbourhoods. IN WITNESS whereof the parties have executed this MOU as of the date first set forth above. ENDORSED BY: Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, Windsor Essex Central Council Per: Name: WITNESSED BY: Windsor-Essex Compassion Community Coalition Per: Name: Title: Page 4 of 8

5 Schedule A : SSVP Key Facts SSVP serves clients, all of whom are part of the populations being targeted through WECCC. Service catchment area: Windsor Essex. Current Locations: 354 Chilver Windsor ON 3718 King Windsor, ON 263 Dalhousie Amherstburg ON 44 Talbot St. North Essex ON 3 King St. Harrow ON 26 Talbot St. W. Leamington ON Hours generally: Monday to Saturday, 9 to 530; North Essex and Leamington are also open Friday evenings until 8 pm Schedule B : Embedding Enabling Processes within Core Business All WECCC partners will consider adoption of the following enabling processes: 1. ACT WITH COMPASSION AND PERSONALIZE CARE This means we agree to: ü Help people find their purpose and meaning. We will work to find a way for every youth and older person we work with (including those who need care) to be mentors, teachers, connectors and a life force for others so they experience purpose beyond themselves, bring music, connection with nature, and relationships across generations into people s lives, and strengthen the social fabric of our community. We will take the time to ask people about their strengths and passions and whether they would like to share or teach back their skills to others, and help them figure out a way to do this. ü Help people understand how to achieve their highest quality of life possible. We will try to have authentic conversations with people and their care partners to help them to take charge of their own quality of life. This includes building an understanding about: What is your understanding of your circumstances? What are your fears and what are your hopes? What are the trade-offs you are willing to make and not willing to make? And what is the course of action that best serves this understanding? We will use the information we glean from people and care partners to help organize the services we provide so they are most meaningful to them. ü Encourage people to ask for meaningful help. 80% of the time, help comes from a specific request. The most important step each of us can take to prompt a culture of caring and giving in this community is by asking for the help we really need. We will encourage people Page 5 of 8

6 to ask for specific and practical things they really need help with, including sharing positive stories of 'how to ask for help, and how it can help you'. We will encourage everyone who asks for help to also think about what help they can offer others. ü Connect people and care partners with appropriate education and self-help. This includes helping them find an appropriate peer support network, and arranging for access to useful education and training programs in this community, such as: the new Caregiver College program when it is available, caregiver training currently available through community services, Neighbours Helping Neighbours on-line resources, technology training etc ü Support personalized care. Through multiple channels (self-managed, volunteer, and provider-based), we will support people and care partners to organize their care around the things that are most important to them, and bring together self-help, natural care, formal providers and technology care that is truly encompassing. 2. IDENTIFY AND REACH OUT TO PEOPLE IN DISTRESS This means we agree to: ü Reach out to isolated and vulnerable people who may need extra help, wherever and whenever we see them. In our neighbourhoods and social networks as well as our day to day work lives, we may encounter people who seem vulnerable and appear to require extra help. Frail seniors or those with disabilities may have trouble getting out of the apartment and may not have much contact with the outside world. Someone who doesn t speak English well may have trouble navigating or accessing community supports. People may also be isolated because they are new to the area or have trouble connecting. In each of these situations, being connected to natural support in their neighbourhoods may significantly improve their quality of life and safety, especially for people who are isolated, living alone with physical (mobility) or cognitive limitations, and who are frail. ü Pool community resources for outreach. In non-emergency situations, where we see someone in our neighbourhood and social networks who appears to be in distress or vulnerable and requires more help then we are able to provide, we can call the Distress Centre to alert call centre volunteers to the situation, who will then take steps to ensure an appropriate community outreach response is organized. 3. CONNECT PEOPLE WITH THEIR NEIGHBOURS This means we agree to: ü Help and encourage people and care partners to get connected socially. People are likely to be happier and healthier to the extent they are involved with and interact regularly with neighbours, friends, and people they are connected to through common interests. Social Page 6 of 8

7 isolation may be a problem for people as they age, especially if they live alone, live in poverty, don t speak our official languages, or are a newcomer to this community. ü Identify any programs, groups of care partners, or groups of people who might naturally form their own neighbours network. We regularly interact with individuals who share a common interest and are connected to us. This provides a natural opportunity for each of us to be a catalyst for enabling groups of people to come together as a supportive neighbourhood-based network. ü Encourage community volunteerism. We will identify any students, families or people who might appreciate the opportunity to be of greater service to their community through volunteerism or being neighbourly and help them find an opportunity that is suitable to their time, interests and skills. We will promote shared community volunteerism rather than exclusive agency attachment. ü Ensure people have access to appropriate neighbourhood training and education. Neighbours Helping Neighbours resources will be made available to neighbours and informal volunteers. Care partners and volunteers who wish more in-depth training can be referred to hospice for their volunteer training course or to the St Clair College Caregiver College program (when available). To the extent possible, care partners and volunteers should be offered training and education through a method of their choosing (on-line, inclass, and hands-on participatory learning). 4. SEEK OUT OPPORTUNITIES TO PARTNER, INNOVATE AND IMPROVE This means we agree to: Work within our networks and with peers to regularly reflect on the following questions: What can we do together to: o improve the aging and end of life experience of our citizens; o reduce caregiver distress; o reduce the access gap between population level need and those in care; o reduce the outcome gap between citizens who are marginalized and isolated and others with similar levels of needs; o improve community well-being; and/or o reduce sub-optimal resource use of our citizens that is detrimental to their quality of life and take action on our agreed to strategies. ü Engage the public. We will display information about the compassionate community within our locations (pamphlets, newsletters, and information sheets will be provided). ü Turn knowledge to action. We will take advantage of opportunities to share our involvement, knowledge and outcomes so others can learn and replicate our efforts. Page 7 of 8

8 ü Participate in evaluation. We are breaking new ground with this initiative. As such, it is very important that everyone cooperate fully with the evaluation team. This includes making time to meet with qualitative researchers and participate in interviews, focus groups and surveys. Within existing rules and processes, we will provide data to inform our quantitative evaluation. We will help document our experiences, and outcomes to demonstrate the impact of community action and help other communities learn. Page 8 of 8