People who know me, know well that I have a passion for my community and the people who live in it. As a resident of the County, I am always seeking out ways in which to work with others in order to strengthen the services that are available out in the County so that anyone who lives in Leamington has access to the same services as someone living in Windsor. When I first heard about the WE Value Project I thought it was an opportunity to create a truly client-centred approach to assessing the goals of newcomers as they settle into life in Canada.
It has always bothered me that a person often has to tell their story multiple times as they work their way through most systems of social and community services, often because of the internal processes we as service providers have in place. From a client’s perspective, this repetitive story-telling it frustrating and discouraging.
I am excited to be a part of something that is potentially ground-breaking and certainly innovative. WE Value’s strengths lie in its ability to generate valuable data and in its emphasis on the strengths of clients through the application of an asset-based assessment or ABCD (Asset Based Community Development). By placing the focus on what newcomers bring to our community, we can create more opportunities for them and foster more connections throughout the wider community. WE Value will maximize our collective impact as service providers, help us better serve clients and work together in a way that is truly collaborative and makes the most of our collective resources. Working together as a cohesive and viable network of service providers makes the system stronger and it makes each of us as individual service providers stronger. I believe WE Value will help us to strengthen our alliance as a service network, which can only serve to make Windsor-Essex more welcoming and one of the best Canadian communities in which to live.
Carolyn Warkentin
