Community Living British Columbia (CLBC) North Okanagan Shuswap Community Council recognized the Coast Hillcrest Hotel and honoured them with an award for being an Inclusive Employer.
There are 13 councils throughout BC. Revelstoke is represented by Andree Rioux of Community Connections. This is a new initiative awarding companies recognition for employing people with disabilities.
“This is a exciting program that recognizes employers who hire those with disabilities. A lot of the times, the position is volunteer, but in this case The Coast hired him (Chuck) and pays him a steady wage.”
Manager of the local Coast, Norm Langois was presented the award along side Cliff DeRosier who was a major resource for Chuck Ferguson who is an employee at the Hillcrest.
Shannon Moorhead from Revelstoke Adult Development Services (ADS) has been working on building this program and drawing recognition for the companies that support it as well as the individuals (Like Chuck) who are apart of the program.
“The movement in supports which adults with diverseAbilities (doesn’t it sound so much better than disability?) is that they can, want and will work and contribute just as “mainstream” people do. They take great pride in their abilities to give back and be a part of societal normality, which most individuals we support have not been able to encounter throughout the entirety of their lives.”
Their employment movement is based on services which enables individuals to work towards obtaining and maintaining independent employment. When Moorhead started the position within CCRS she found individuals jobs; matching skills, desired opportunity and abilities to equal opportunity to equal opportunity employers and provided on-going support to the individual.
Moorhead would attend the shift with the individual to ensure their work was completed in a thorough and timely manner. With that said, she will then step back and allow independence, and assist when it is needed by creating tools such as a task list, or picture strip which enables the individual to complete their shift successfully.
“When I first began working with Chuck, he was slated to have ongoing support. Through forward thinking and building capacity for new service participants we were able to successfully fade out of his job and volunteer placements. This was done gradually, and if you know Chuck, he is a very busy fella who wears many hats in his world of work.”
Chuck currently works at the Coast Hillcrest Hotel, Begbie Inspections, Revelstoke Property Services and does private yard work for one of the most amazing ladies in Revelstoke. He also volunteers at the Revelstoke Visual Art Center alongside his friend and mentor and also helps out at the Revelstoke Auxiliary Thrift Store. Most of his shifts range from 1-2 hours each week, he takes great pride in all of his work.
