John McGivney Children’s Centre receives $60,000 Solcz Family Foundation Grant

August 4, 2021

The John McGivney Children’s Centre (JMCC) has received a $60,000 grant from the Solcz Family Foundation to engage the services of a parent with lived experience in the role of Family Engagement Consultant (FEC).

JMCC’s Family Advisory Council and staff generate a number of initiatives aimed at supporting families. The FEC will support the implementation of these initiatives and help to evaluate their success.

“Family-Centred Care is one of our strategic priorities. We heard from our Family Advisory Council that families of children and youth with special needs wanted more opportunities to connect and share,” said Jessica Sartori, JMCC CEO. “With tremendous gratitude to the Solcz Family Foundation, we will be able to provide further engagement opportunities for the over 3,000 children and youth we serve each year, allowing them to connect with and learn from those who have or are experiencing similar situations to them.”

Angela Kelly has joined JMCC as its Family Engagement Consultant where she will provide a unique parent perspective to create opportunities to meaningfully engage and support families.  Adds Sartori:  “Having a parent in this role ensures relatability to other parents and will increase the potential for more honest feedback when identifying gaps in services as well as evaluating current and new program ideas.”

“Our daughter Megan was diagnosed as an infant with spastic quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy and later with mild learning challenges” said Angela. “Since then I’ve dedicated the past 23 years to gaining knowledge to facilitate raising Megan.” Angela has an Honours Degree in Disability Studies from the University of Windsor. She sits on the Accessibility Advisory Committees for the Town of Amherstburg and Community Living Essex County, and volunteers with the Miracle League of Amherstburg as a team coach. She is a member of the JMCC’s Family Advisory Network and volunteers with Megan with the JMCC Family Resource Centre and Toy Lending Library.

Angela’s responsibilities will include organizing events and activities to help families connect with one another, providing support to existing family engagement programs, obtaining input from families on existing services as well as new initiatives, and making recommendations for new programming ideas.

“It is a pleasure and an honour to be a voice and a messenger for families” continues Angela. “It’s exciting and rewarding to collaborate with so many admirable people to provide positive meaningful change that I hope will improve the lives of families. Listening to, learning from, and sharing with people is something I value. It creates a community of connection, validation and support that is so important! I look forward to sharing my experiences and finding creative solutions to help families thrive.” 

“The Solcz Family Foundation is proud to assist the JMCC as they expand their important work in the Windsor-Essex community, helping parents and caregivers of children and youth with special needs to connect and support each other”, said Kyrsten Solcz Executive Director.

“Family engagement is very important to us and we are proud of our efforts in this area so far,” concludes Sartori. “The growth of our family engagement programs will enable us to further our efforts to incorporate the voice of families into all aspects of our service delivery model.”

The Solcz Family Foundation Grant will be awarded over three years.