Rouge Valley Health System
News Release
March 11, 2009 - The Community Advisory Group has recently completed its introduction and orientation to Rouge Valley Health System (RVHS) and will begin bringing its advice to the hospital’s Board of Directors.
The Community Advisory Group is comprised of 11 members, who reflect the views and concerns of the diverse communities that make up the Rouge Valley area of west Durham and east Toronto. Like the RVHS Board of Directors, members of the advisory group are volunteers who bring their skills, experience and community knowledge to the board in its decision-making process.
“The advisory group helps ensure that the hospital obtains views from a cross-section of community members. The Community Advisory Group helps us extend the hospital’s communications network into the community to open a dialogue and encourage greater community engagement,” says Janet Ecker, chair of the RVHS Board of Directors.
The primary purpose of the Community Advisory Group is to ensure that RVHS is made aware of the needs and viewpoints of the community. In particular, the advisory group is mandated to:
* Bring forward community views on health care needs and issues;
* Help communicate to Rouge Valley's diverse communities;
* Provide advice and feedback on current issues that Rouge Valley faces; and
* Help in encouraging health care decision-makers to support local health care needs.
Information on the terms of reference for this new group is available on the hospital’s website, at http://www.rougevalley.ca/communitymatters .
- Introducing our Community Advisory Group members -
Community Members
Steve Campbell
It is important to Steve Campbell to be an active and contributing member within his Ajax community. That’s why he has become so involved through his volunteer roles in the following organizations: the Ajax Environmental Advisory Committee (Chair); Ajax Pickering Board of Trade Membership Committee; and a board director of Judo Ontario. An independent financial planner with Campbell Financial Advisors, Mr. Campbell also spends time as a sensei for the Iron Will Judo Institute. Campbell describes himself as a good listener who looks for solutions and opportunities that will help to improve and add value to an organization.
Patricia Clark
Patricia Clark has made a career of being involved in her community. She has spent 30 years as a politician and volunteer in the community. Clark was a past board member of the Ajax Pickering Hospital Board; a past Town of Ajax councillor and Durham Region councillor before she retired in 1991. Since 1976, she and her family have made use of Rouge Valley Health System (Ajax site), and is a long-time supporter of the hospital. Currently, she works as a real estate agent in the Pickering-Ajax community and volunteers as the gala chair of the Ajax Battle of River Plate Reunion. Clark believes a role with the RVHS Community Advisory Group is an opportunity to be a part of a movement geared towards making our hospital better for patients and employees.
Randy Filinski
Randy Filinski is a Pickering resident and former Scarborough resident who has a keen interest in health care and how it affects local residents of the community, especially seniors. He is actively involved in a number of community groups including; Community Care Durham and Central East; Durham Cancer Organization; Central East Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) Seamless Care for Seniors Steering Committee; Central East LHIN Communications Committee and Aging at Home. After spending 25 years at IBM as a marketing and sales executive, Filinski took a two-year sabbatical to explore volunteer opportunities in the health care sector. He spent that time volunteering on several boards and local advisory committees. Now retired, he hopes to use his project management, marketing, and integration skills for the betterment of health care in the community.
Liben Gebremikael
Liben Gebremikael has more than 15 years of experience working in the social and primary health care sector as a front line outreach worker, social work and community developer. He is now the executive director of TAIBU Community Health Centre, a recently established organization in Scarborough’s Malvern neighbourhood. The mandate of TAIBU is to provide primary health care services to the diverse community of Malvern with a complementary mandate to develop and deliver specialized programs and services to the Black community. Its priority population includes children, youth and seniors. Gebremikael is himself a Malvern resident, who has a particular interest in cross-cultural work and addressing the issues of diversity and health disparities in the community. He looks for opportunities to get involved in engaging the community in making informed decisions about their health issues.
Phyllis G. Hill
Recently retired educator, Phyllis G. Hill, has been contributing to the community for the last 37 years as a teacher, principal and school superintendent. For the majority of her career, she worked with many diverse groups, building partnerships and cultivating growth. Her experiences in the education sector have given her an extensive background and set of skills for working with others, problem-solving and providing leadership. In addition to the commitment to community, she has also been actively involved in several community organizations and agencies, such as the Flemingdon Interagency and Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office, and is currently a member of the Curran Hall Community Association. In her retirement, she looks forward to being able to continue contributing to Scarborough, where she has lived for 20 years.
Hajara Kutty
For more than eight years Hajara Kutty has been a teacher with the Toronto District School Board. She is also an active member of the Islamic Institute of Toronto and has lived in Scarborough for more than 20 years. However, it is her experience as coordinator for Postpartum Support International (Greater Toronto Area) and as a mental health patient advocate that she believes will enable her to make the greatest difference in her community. Through her knowledge and understanding of the needs of women who have just given birth and their families and of the issues facing highly stigmatized and marginalized groups, Kutty would like to help address typically neglected and under-serviced areas of health care in the community.
Celine McCormack
Celine McCormack is passionate about health/social services and the health needs of the Rouge Valley community, and hopes to use her extensive background in the health field to help serve the needs of this community. McCormack, who is a Whitby resident and has a Bachelor of Social Work (Honours) from Ryerson University, is a hospice palliative care coordinator at Durham Hospice. She has also held a client services coordinator position at Hospice Toronto and the Dorothy Ley Hospice. McCormack has also volunteered with the One World Global Education Program, a group that has facilitated a group of participants taking part in a global awareness program by cross cultural and cross class immersion in Mexico. She enjoys working within the community, and wants to use the insight, feedback and advice from the community to contribute to the Community Advisory Group.
Kathy Sparrow
Just over one year ago, Kathy Sparrow moved to Ajax so that she could be closer to her place of work. She is an occupational therapist at the Ajax satellite office of the Grandview Children’s Centre, where she has worked for the last seven years. Energetic and always willing to share her ideas and opinions, Sparrow has been an active member of several community organizations and committees, including volunteering in Lesotho, Africa as part of Habitat for Humanity. She is currently a member of the International Centre for Disability Research-Trinidad Working Group and a five-pin bowling coach with the Special Olympics. She hopes to offer fresh perspectives and insights.
Linda Crawford (representing the RVHS Foundation Board)
RVHS Foundation Board member Linda Crawford is currently a branch manager at Scotiabank with more than 25 years of banking experience. She works with many personal and professional clients to help make their financial dreams and goals a reality. Born in Barbados, Linda moved to Canada in 1974 and to Ajax in 1991. Linda is an active member of the Foundation Patrons’ Council and has served as the Silent Auction chair for the Foundation’s annual gala. Her other volunteer experiences include high-profile initiatives, such as the Toronto East District Golf Tournament, Tropicana Community Services Gala 2007 and A Taste of the Danforth. Linda strongly believes in giving back to the community in which she works and lives. Linda lives in Ajax with her husband and two sons.
RVHS Board Representatives
Amorell Saunders N'daw (Chair, Community Advisory Group)
Amorell Saunders N’daw has served on the Rouge Valley Health System Board of Directors since 2005. She brings a unique blend of private sector, government and not-for-profit communications and management experience and expertise to her role on the board. She serves as chair of the Community Advisory Group and sits on the Governance and Nominating Committee. Specializing in communications and project planning, organizational development and in crisis and issues management, Amorell is a senior administrator with University of Toronto Scarborough. The trained journalist has also run her own communications consulting practice for almost 20 years. Some of the organizations she has consulted for include: The Hospital for Sick Children, York University's Office of the Ombudsperson, Niagara Health System and the Ontario government. She has lived in the RVHS area since 1989. Amorell lives in Scarborough with her husband and her three sons – all of whom were born at Rouge Valley.
Joan Wideman
Joan Wideman is the vice-president of corporate services for the Pickering-based Lenbrook Group of Companies, a wholesale distribution and global brand management firm of specialty entertainment and communications products with operations in Canada, the USA, the United Kingdom and Singapore. She has always been an active community leader, advocate and volunteer. Joan has been very interested and supportive of the Rouge Valley Health System having experienced direct care for close family members and fellow employees during the past 25 years. She is currently contributing as a volunteer in a number of community associations and projects, including her positions as director with the Ajax Pickering Board of Trade Council (APBOT), co-chair of the APBOT Government Relations committee, co-chair of the Pickering Business Advisory Group, and as a director on the Durham West Art Centre Foundation Board. Joan is the mother of four children, and lives with her husband in Durham.
- Rouge Valley Health System (RVHS) — The best at what we do -
RVHS is an excellent acute care community hospital with many programs, including 24/7/365 emergency, cardiac care and mental health. Rouge Valley consists of several health sites, including two community hospital campuses: Rouge Valley Centenary in east Toronto; and Rouge Valley Ajax and Pickering in west Durham. Together, a team of physicians (224 general practitioners and 325 specialists), 1,000 nurses and many other professionals care for a broad spectrum of health conditions. Working in consultation and partnership with community members, other hospitals, health care organizations, the Central East Local Health Integration Network and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Rouge Valley continues to improve its programs and cater to the needs of the growing communities of east Toronto, Ajax, Pickering and Whitby.
Contact
David Brazeau
Director
Public Affairs and Community Relations
Rouge Valley Health System
(647) 294-8885
dbrazeau@rougevalley.ca
