Our free Big Ideas newsletter is for Boards of Directors, management personnel, other non profit employees and any one else with an interest in the non profit sector.
VDO: Haliburton’s Volunteer Dental Clinic
The story of another important non-profit service provider in Haliburton, a community that seems to specialize in them.
Northern Ontario Travel: Then and Now
Tom ruminates on the differences between travelling today and when his grandfather went to northern Ontario to build and run a sawmill.
How to Start Your Own Volunteer Dental Clinic
Want your own volunteer dental clinic? VDO tells you how.
Do Your Board Meetings Need to be Open?
Municipal councils have transparency rules, non-profits not so much.
Three Strikes And You’re Still Up
Some human service organizations believe patience is a virtue. Here’s the story of one, in this Blast from the Past.
The Story
Do you remember your last toothache?
Well, I remember mine. One side of my face blew up and I knew I was in trouble. More than a little, too, because it was Saturday. My dentist’s office advertised that it opened on Saturdays. But when I rang it up, I got the “your call is important to us, please leave a message” response. Undeterred, and more than a little desperate, I drove there anyway. “Whew!”, the lights were on and I was seen. Not that they solved the problem, but they diagnosed it, prescribed an antibiotic and agreed to call a specialist on the Monday for an appointment (because any tooth problem I have always seems to be special LOL).
Not that the pain vanished either, not for a few days anyway. Which is the point of my story. Tooth pain isn’t like other pain. It is painful pain… very painful pain. And it gets worse at night. At night it is painful painful pain, making sleep an impossible challenge.
Which brings me to the kicker.
The Skinny
What if you got a toothache but couldn’t afford to go to a dentist? You would continue to suffer. Which, in turn, brings me to a good-news non-profit story that I want to share, from one of my favourite towns, one I have written about before, a town with heart: Haliburton. Following in the footsteps of Canoe FM Community Radio, the 4C’s Food Bank and Lilly Ann Thrift Shop, Haliburton, and in fact the whole county, also has the Volunteer Dental Outreach Program (VDO).
On its website, dentist Bill Kerr explains why VDO was created: "The cost of even basic dental care is beyond the reach of an alarming number of Haliburton County residents who continue to suffer physically, socially, psychologically and economically because of this. Lisa Stoughton and I decided that we would volunteer our services to help the financially disadvantaged by providing free dental services to those with nowhere else to turn.”
A worthy idea, but one that had to be actualized. Dr. Bill goes on to explain: “When word of this spread, a wonderful group of community members rallied around to grow this concept into a free-standing dental clinic where dental professionals could come and treat patients by volunteering their time and skills." Typical Haliburton: see a need and fill it with a non-profit.
The BIG IDEA
“See a need and fill it”. That’s what non-profits are all about. If you think a free dental clinic would benefit your community, see the Tom Bits section below for information on the pamphlet “How to Start a Rural, Not-For-Profit Dental Outreach Clinic” published by VDO.
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Northern Ontario Travel: Then And Now
In the early 1900s, when my grandfather travelled from Beachburg in the Ottawa Valley to Haileybury in northern Ontario, to build a sawmill business with his brother, he rode the train as far as he could, then reached his destination by horse and wagon. A family man, his first task was to build “a shack”, so the family could join him. This is the same scenario that played out over many decades by people looking for a way to make a living in post-Confederation Canada.
When I went to northern Ontario recently for work, I drove, eight hours from Oshawa, past Haileybury and further north and west to Timmins, a mining town for more than a century. No train, no wagon. Travelling in comfort with snacks to help while away the hours. No need to build a shack because there was a Holiday Inn Express at the end of the road ready to accommodate me.
My client on this occasion was Keewaytinok Native Legal Services, located in Moosonee on James Bay. It serves the local community, Moose Factory and coastal communities including Attawapiskat, Kashechewan, Fort Albany and Peawanuck. Like my grandfather to Haileybury, the staff and Board members of KNLS travelled to Timmins by train, but with a difference. They were able to bring their vehicles with them. Off-loading at the southern terminus of the Polar Bear Express in Cochrane, they then drove the rest of the way to Timmins in the comfort of their pickups and SUVs. And they, like me, then got to enjoy the “unshack-like” hospitality of Holiday Inn.
How times have changed. Let’s give credit to our ancestors, who dealt with many challenges to give us the lifestyle we enjoy today.
The Story
The Volunteer Dental Outreach Program developed a brochure titled “How to Start a Rural, Not-For-Profit Dental Outreach Clinic” and is more than willing to share. Most compelling are the two letters contained in the introduction:
“Good Day Sir,
I am writing in hopes you may help my husband.
He has just turned 35, and his teeth are so bad they are falling apart. He is in constant pain and suffers from infection and is now to the point he has to mush his food before he can eat it.
We have been to the hospital several times, because he is in severe pain and serious infection to the point he was almost septic, the hospital says it is cosmetic and they can’t help. There is not a tooth in his head that isn’t rotten. We do not have a plan. He serves as a local firefighter, and he has a hard time wearing his air mask most times as it hurts his jaw. I can’t afford to have them all pulled, but that is the point he is at and needs dentures.
If there is anywhere he could go for help... It’s been 10 years since I have seen him smile, and the tears roll down his face as our daughter asks why his teeth are black.”
A volunteer dentist was able to restore this man’s teeth and two months later the woman wrote...
“ I can’t thank you enough. I can’t believe how beautiful his teeth are. I didn’t think I’d be so emotional through this process but seeing him yesterday we both broke down and cried.
It has taken 10 years for me to see him smile and not hold back. Our daughter was amazed and kept wanting him to show his teeth. "WOW!!" she said. "Daddy you have white teeth just like mine.”…
"What makes you different than any dentist we have dealt with is you treated us like people and understand we didn’t want to get into this position, but never made us feel ashamed for asking for help when I didn’t know who else to turn to... you actually care to make a difference. I am truly blessed that you answered my letter.
Thank you.”
The Skinny
If you think a volunteer dental clinic would be a good idea, VDO advises that key considerations include:
· Having a Licensed Dentist to champion the project.
· Recognizing that establishing a volunteer dental clinic is the same as creating a Professional Clinic.
· Incorporating and obtaining charitable status to provide credibility and a governance
structure for the organization.
· Community support, knowledge of volunteer management and having marketing expertise on board are critical.
· Services need to include an educational component on how to care for your teeth.
The BIG IDEA
If you want the satisfaction of helping your fellow citizens who need dental work but can’t afford it, contact VDO for the above information and more. You will be contributing to the health and welfare of your community.
The Story
Long-time BIG IDEAS reader David Katzman points us to a news item involving three municipal councillors, members of a committee who visited a local shelter, then later that day voted on a motion of the committee to approve funding to upgrade its facilities.
For reasons not explained, the issue of the visit to the shelter was forwarded to the municipality’s ombudsman, who ruled that “the gathering of three members of the committee was enough to constitute quorum and to be considered a meeting of the committee as defined by the Municipal Act. Those rules require that all meetings happen in the open, with advance notice to the public, and minutes taken to record votes. The rules are designed to ensure city politicians don't make decisions behind closed doors.” Hence those three councillors’ actions were in violation of the Act.
Unlike municipal meetings, non-profit meetings do not have to be open, although the Not-for-Profit Corporations Act requires advance notice and minutes do need to be taken. But it is silent on the issue of openness. Some non-profits are committed to transparency, so they welcome observers, but this is at their discretion. The same applies to sharing meeting minutes. Whether your Board’s meetings are open or closed is up to you.
The Story
He is reported to have introduced himself to passers-by simply as Joseph. He was engaging and personable, whiling away the hours sitting outside a local convenience store. He asked for nothing in return, even though one glance was enough to see he was in need.
Much has been communicated recently about former National Hockey League number one draft pick Joe Murphy, his fall from grace and his being located by Toronto media, in Kenora, Ontario, homeless.
If you were experiencing homelessness and looking for a place to land, Kenora might seem like an unusual choice. It is a small community, about 15,000 citizens in total. It is remote. Winnipeg and Thunder Bay are hours away by car. It is cccccccold in winter and winter consumes a big part of the calendar. Plus, you would have competition. Formal estimates suggest over two hundred people are without housing in Kenora. Informal estimates are four times as high.
The Skinny
Yet, ironically, Kenora could be just the place, at least if what I learned last week while helping the Kenora Association for Community Living plan for its future, is an indicator. Its core constituency is children and adults who have a developmental disability, but KACL goes well beyond that. It has considerable expertise that includes serving people who have mental health issues, including addiction. KACL’s services are often provided in collaboration with the local branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association and community addiction services.
As with all KACL’s services, this capacity stems from a strong value base, one that was established thirty years ago by now-retired Executive Director Jim Retson:
1. Respect of an individual requires recognition of his or her humanity before his or her handicap.
2. Everyone is deserving of respect as an individual.
3. All persons have the right to participate in all aspects of living, learning, working and playing in the community.
4. The manner and context within which support service is offered should affirm normal patterns of living, learning, working and playing in the community including normal needs, processes, relationships and rhythms of life. “Recognize their humanity before their handicap”. “Everyone is deserving of respect”.
One of the most telling aspects of how KACL provides services is its willingness to live its values, to continue to support people who fall back into their old ways. Debbie Everley, KACL’s CEO, uses not a hockey but a baseball analogy, to explain: If you are challenged by things like addiction and you just struck out, you can stay at the plate until something better happens. At KACL, patience is a practiced virtue.
Everyone hopes for the best for Joseph. Media reports suggest he is no longer living in the woods and has a roof over his head. It will be a nice story if he ends up switching to a more civilized sport, if he gets his time at in the batter’s box and keeps taking his cuts until he swats one out of the park. Hockey being what it is in Canada, there is no doubt we will hear if he does.
An even better story would be if organizations like KACL had the capacity to work their magic on the large populations of people experiencing homelessness in their communities. For Kenora that would mean at least 250 more people living, learning, working and playing.
The BIG Idea
My BIG Idea for this week is to go back to your values and determine whether your organization really operates in conjunction with them. Do your values actually make a difference? Remember that having organizational values is important, but you must live them. And be warned, sometimes that takes courage.
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