Archive for category: Stories

Hi, I’m Alexa! I am a support worker for individuals who experience intellectual disabilities. I have been at COR for about 5 years now and first learned about it through a friend after hearing about how much he enjoyed his work at COR! I am currently a part-time support since I am in school at the moment! I have completed my Bachelor of Arts in psychology and sociology, and currently in my third year of a bachelor’s in social work! I am very interested in pursuing a Masters in social work with a focus on counseling so I can become a counselor for people with disabilities one day! Another aspect of COR I am a part of is being the creative encourager! I also teach a dance class during the spring and summer! I have been teaching my dance class for a couple of years now and I really enjoy getting to meet and teach different individuals! Often times I end up learning new dance moves from the people who come to the class which is always a blast!

My proudest moment at COR was when I supported an individual during a difficult evening, and just my presence and the relationship I had built with them leading up to that moment allowed the individual to be very vulnerable and honest with me about their feelings. I felt proud that they felt comfortable enough with me to open up, and also that they were able to express how they felt in a healthy way which is something we had been working on for a long time. My relationship with that individual has only continued to grow since then and even though I am no longer on their team, I still see them as much as possible and I consider them a true lifelong friend. My advice for prospective COR candidates is to go in with an open mind and learn as much as you can! COR offers so many incredible training courses that help make us not only better supports, but better people too. I’ve found myself using lots of what I learned in training and through support in my daily life.

Fun facts about me!
-My favourite quote is “failure means you tried”. Trying new things and getting creative is one of my favorite things to do as a support and a creative encourager. Even if things don’t go as planned, I know I tried which is always better than doing nothing. We can always learn from failure, but we can’t learn from doing nothing.
-In my free time I enjoy going to the gym, kickboxing, and spending time with friends and family. I am truly blessed to have so many incredible people in my life and I love being able to spend as much time with them as possible.
-A fun fact about me is that I love adventures and anything that gets my adrenaline pumping! I have been skydiving twice now, and my next big adventure will hopefully be swimming with sharks!

Hi. I’m Dillon! I began as a support on the adult side of COR in 2018. Approximately six months after starting, I was approached to join a new team on the youth side. I jumped at the opportunity and within that team, went from support to Key Support to Team Leader. I spent a little over a year as a Team Leader before taking a three-month parental leave. When I returned from leave in June 2022, I stepped into my current role which is a Youth Experience Advisor. My main role is capacity building within the youth teams. I work directly with supports to help build competence and confidence both as individual supports and as a collective team. I work with everyone from new hires to Team Leaders to accomplish this goal. I have also recently become a trainer for multiple pieces of training and workshops. I became a certified ASIST trainer in the fall of 2022. I also created an FASD workshop with the goal of filling what I perceived as an organizational knowledge gap. I’ve begun facilitating both and will be quite busy with them in 2023! Unlike most people in COR, I was not referred by a friend or family member. I wanted an organizational switch while still staying in the same field of work and happened upon COR in my search!

It has long been a goal of mine to become a training facilitator. In the fall of 2021, I was offered the opportunity to enroll in an online university certificate class centered around FASD. I did so with the goal of creating an FASD workshop to be disseminated within the organization. With the class and my parental leave completed, I was then able to create the workshop from the ground up. While I’ve only facilitated it a couple of times, I’ve received very positive feedback thus far and look forward to sharing my knowledge further in 2023. Additionally, I was also given the opportunity to become a certified ASIST trainer. Again, I’ve only facilitated ASIST a couple of times at this point but I look forward to continuing on a journey toward a goal I’ve had for several years!

COR is not a traditional job, nor is it a traditional organization. The organizational culture is unlike anything I’ve experienced elsewhere. While we expect a lot from all of our support, hard work is always rewarded. Positions and promotions are merit-based and you can be assured that going “above and beyond” will be recognized in tangible ways.

 

Fun Facts about me!

My favourite book is the Black Company series by Glen Cook.

I’m the father of a 15-month-old girl so my free time is spent guiding and watching a human being form before my eyes. Her being hilariously entertaining at all times is just an added bonus for me!

Hi! I’m Kristyn, the Literacy Facilitator for Inclusion Regina/Creative Options Regina. I began my journey at COR as an undergraduate student at the University of Regina. Jim Temple came to one of my classes to talk to us about COR and the philosophy of Gentle Teaching, and before the class ended, I had already sent in my application. A few weeks later, I was hired as a Support Worker. As 2023 approaches, it will mark my 8th year with the organization! WOW, time flies, and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of the COR family still.

I was a Support Worker for several years and eventually transitioned into the role of Team Leader. During this time, I also began facilitating Tell It Like It Is – a sexual health and wellness initiative that COR offered. I became passionate about supporting the sexuality of people living with disabilities, and this led me to pursue a Master’s degree at the University of Regina. Shortly after becoming a graduate student, I started my role as Literacy Facilitator! My role involves the development and facilitation of Inclusion Regina’s literacy initiatives. People with disabilities and those within their support networks deserve access to comprehensive, accurate information on sexual health, financial literacy, technology use, reading, and much more. The opportunity to connect with the people we serve and those in the community is the best part of my role!

I am incredibly proud of the growth I have experienced at COR, not just with my career but also with myself! I was in my early 20s when I started at COR, and when I turned 30 this year, I realized I have quite literally watched myself grow up with the organization. My experiences at COR have been invaluable. This past October, I had one of my proudest career moments when I helped to organize a Sexuality & Disability conference that COR, Inclusion Saskatchewan, and Saskatoon Sexual Health hosted in Regina. The conference featured presenters from Saskatchewan and Alberta, a self-advocate panel, and over 100 attendees who came to learn about supporting the sexuality of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The event was a first of its kind in our province, and I am still beaming with pride as I reflect on the day. I am so lucky that I get to work alongside colleagues who I not only admire and learn from but who also support me and my aspirations. I am excited to see where my role at COR takes me in the future!

Fun Facts about me:

I was born and raised in Regina, and although it might not be the warmest or most exciting city, it is home. I have always believed that where you are doesn’t matter; what matters is who you are with. Spending time with the people I love is what makes me the happiest! In my free time, you can find me at our family cabin at Moosomin Lake, up North in Waskesiu, or camping with my partner, Jon. I love to explore new places and am always down for an adventure or road trip. I am obsessed with our pets (Sienna and Luna), and if I am not at the lake, I am likely spending my time telling them how cute they are.

Here are some facts you may (or may not) know about me: I have been vegan for over five years and love to cook, I taught myself how to build outdoor furniture, I hate watching people brush their teeth, I drink too much diet coke, I always forget how to spell the word ‘definitely’, I was once on the same flight as Pamela Anderson, and I hope to one day own a cabin in the mountains!

I hope you learned something new about me! Come and say hi next time you are in the COR Studio!!

Hi, I’m Keir! I’m the People and Culture Advisor! I mainly work within recruitment alongside our Employee Experience Advisor, Casey! In addition, I facilitate payroll for all COR employees alongside Lill! I began my journey with COR working as the Payroll and Benefits Specialist, but quickly moved into what I was really passionate about – people!

I recently celebrated my 2 year anniversary at COR! I’ve been here since late September 2020. Time really flies when you love what you do! I first learned about COR when I was working at PEBA (Public Employees Benefits Agency). I met one of my great friends, JJ Mathieson, who was working full-time at PEBA and supporting overnights at COR. He told me about what he did and that he loved the organization and its culture. From there, I told him to let me know if there were any opportunities to work within COR in a business role! A few months later, he said to me that they were hiring a People and Culture Advisor. I applied for it, didn’t get it, but I was offered a benefits and pension specialist position (very in line with what I was doing at PEBA) and I took it!

My favorite project at COR so far has definitely been Healthy Workplace Month. I spent time over the past year filming different shorts for the COR socials and it was a blast! I’ve realized I’m very camera-shy, but getting out of my comfort zone really stretched me as a person. This year, we’ve decided to garner as many recipes from everyone across the COR family and compile it into a cookbook that everyone can use in their daily life. I’m super stoked to see what recipes come in from who, and try them all out! There are a few major projects at COR that have really strengthened my ability to move through adversity and plan for the future. Before moving to COR, I didn’t have much experience in implementation and planning. I felt very privileged to be able to come into a role that would impact the organization as a whole, as well as to work with incredibly supportive individuals who always had my back through thick and thin!

My advice for prospective COR candidates would be to have an open mind and open heart! Since starting at COR, I’ve really tried to immerse myself in the philosophy of Gentle Teaching and I feel that it’s really impacted how I think, my values, and how I conduct myself on a daily basis. It’s interesting to reflect on prior years and positions I
held in different organizations and see how they compare to COR in terms of culture, philosophy, and structure. I know it sounds cliché, but I really do feel that everyone has my back within COR and that I’m free to take risks and make mistakes without judgment!

Fun Facts about me:
My favorite book is called “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins. It’s an autobiography-style book with some insane stories about persevering through adversity and creating mental toughness within yourself. I think I’ve read it about 3 or 4 times over. I would totally recommend it to anyone who is looking for a brutally honest story about
overcoming obstacles in your life!

I’m a major Dark Knight fan, and I always think back to when he fell down the well in Batman Begins. The quote goes, “Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves back up”.

I think this quote is insanely relatable to my life and I can honestly say I hear this quote in my head from Alfred at least once a day! I’m constantly falling down, but it’s having the strength to stand back up, dust myself off, and keep pushing forward that’s so important!

I once had to do a triathlon because I lost a bet with my partner! We were casually chatting about a video game that I play, and I told her it would be impossible for her to reach a “max level” skill in the game. Sadly, she took on the challenge with the prize being me doing a triathlon with her. I laughed in her face but ended up doing the triathlon a few months later…