Community Inclusions Ltd., Tignish, Alberton, and O’Leary
Jobs: Bakers, Café Attendants, Residential Group Home Community Support Workers, and Employment Workers.
Community Inclusions Ltd. provides employment, residential, recreational, and day services to adults with intellectual challenges in western PEI.
Maple House Bakery & Café is a great success story for Community Inclusions. “Our bakery products fly off the shelf as soon as they are made, and we can’t keep up,” says Kevin Porter.
“We need more staff, and we are looking at hiring a Baker for the early mornings to prepare for the busy day ahead.
“A big part of the bakery’s success is the café, which offers a variety of home-made soups, sandwiches, subs, various breakfast offerings, and other items made from scratch,” says Kevin.
They are open seven days a week all year. “Since we had a busy summer last year, we want to make sure we have enough café attendants.”
There is also a need for Residential Group Home & Community Support Workers for their Residential Day Services. “We are looking to add to the casual list.
“Being on the list can often lead to other opportunities in the organization. We are growing, and in the past year we have added a new supported living home, which added four permanent staff to the organization. There are plans to add another home in the future.”
For more information, contact Kevin Porter at 902-726-3144.
Visit www.communityinclusions.com or search Maple House Bakery & Café and Community Inclusions on Facebook.
Tignish, Alberton, and O’Leary (June 2018)
Jobs:
Bakers, Café Attendants, and Residential Group Home and Community Support Workers.
Community Inclusions Ltd. provides employment, residential, recreational, and training services to adults with intellectual challenges in western PEI.
Maple House Bakery & Café is a great success story for Community Inclusions. “Our bakery products fly off the shelf as soon as they are made, and we can’t keep up,” says Kevin Porter. “We need more staff, and we are looking at hiring a Baker for the early mornings to prepare for the busy day ahead.
“A big part of the bakery’s success is the addition of the café component, which offers a variety of home-made soups, sandwiches, subs, various breakfast offerings, and other items made from scratch,” says Kevin.
They are open seven days a week all year. “Since we had a busy summer last year, we want to make sure we have enough café attendants.”
There is also a need in their Residential-Day Services for Residential Group Home & Community Support Workers. “We are looking to add to the casual list. This can often lead to other opportunities in the organization.”
For more information, contact Kevin Porter at 902-726-3144. Visit www.communityinclusions.com or search Maple House Bakery & Café and Community Inclusions on Facebook.
Community Inclusions Ltd. provides employment, residential, recreational, and training services to adults with intellectual challenges in western PEI.
Some clients work for local businesses supported through the organization’s Employment Unit, while others attend Vocational Services at the Maple House Centre, which also houses the Maple House Bakery and Café in O’Leary, and the Tignish Training Centre.
They operate residences in Tignish, Alberton, and O’Leary. They also coordinate various community-based residential placements throughout the region.
“Community Inclusions was first established in 1998 as the result of the amalgamation of various services in the region, some of which have been offered since the 1970s,” says Kevin Porter, Executive Director.
“It is the result of many hours of work by more people than I can possibly mention. We plan to continue to have a great presence in the communities by keeping clients as our focus. The staff we hire are a big part of that focus.
“We have a volunteer board of directors that meets at least 10 times per year. This board is instrumental as we move forward as a team towards our goals and values.”
Maple House Bakery and Café, run by Community Inclusions, is located at 76 Ellis Avenue in O’Leary. It is part of the Maple House Centre. It has taken on many improvements since moving to the former O’Leary Liquor Store location. The building has a bright dining area and offers breakfast all day plus a daily menu. The display of freshly baked goods will tempt you to buy something to take home. The building is wheel-chair accessible and has plenty of parking.
“Some clients of Community Inclusions get excellent training at the bakery and café site,” says Kevin. “One of the projects is making and packaging desserts for a company that distributes the product to many locations on PEI.”
About the staff
A staff of 40 people is employed in various capacities with the organization. “Our staff comes to us with training, experience in their field, and the willingness to work as a team member,” says Kevin. “We have full-time, part-time, and relief casual staff.
“The main training we seek for our Day and Residential Services staff is still the Human Services program. We have hired graduates from the Holland College Human Services and also from the Residential Care Worker programs for a number of positions.
“We also look at other related training and work experience.
“For our bakery and café, we look for individuals with experience and training in the food sector who are also competent working with adults with intellectual disabilities.”
Employment options
There are various career options in Administration, Employment Unit, Residential Services, and Day Program Services. Day services staff work with clients in various capacities such as cleaning, housekeeping, baking, gardening, and dishwashing.
Residential staff are more focused on daily living skills and goals that tenants work towards improving. In some cases, this could mean helping tenants obtain the skills they need to transition to living in the community independently.
Employment services staff work with persons with the long-term goal of finding employment, be it part-time or full-time. They also develop pre-employment and life skill strategies as part of the work that is done.
Hiring needs
From time to time, the organization hires in all the mentioned capacities.
For residential and day services, the process is internal at first, as that portion of the staff is unionized. If not filled, it goes out to non-permanent staff and the general public if needed.
“Over the last seven years, we have added five new staff positions and filled several vacancies within existing positions.” For the bakery and café, in the past year the organization has added three new full-time positions.
They also have a list of casual workers which is updated quite frequently because of people moving into full-time positions or changing jobs. This list is for both residential and day services and the bakery and café service.
Wages and benefits
“We strive to be competitive and fair with wages in every sector we employ people,” says Kevin. “We are a non-profit organization, but we believe in providing for staff the best we possibly can.”
After working six months, a full-time worker receives benefits such as sick time, appointment and bereavement time, and up to three weeks of vacation to start.
For more information, contact Kevin Porter at 902-726-3144. Visit www.communityinclusions.com or search Community Inclusions Ltd. on Facebook.
Day and Residential services funded through the Department of Family and Human Services. The Employment Unit is funded through the Canada/PEI Labour Market Development Agreement.
April 2017 Issue
Page 7
by Rose Bernard