Grads win $15,000 prize for project to improve care for people with disabilities
Posted on Monday, November 27th, 2017
A team of Developmental Services Workers and Algonquin College graduates have won first prize in the Ontario colleges’ William G. Davis Innovation Fund contest.
Their groundbreaking health initiative, DSW Cooperative, topped nine other finalists for the $15,000 prize, which was announced Sunday by Colleges Ontario.
The DSW Cooperative is building a worker-owned cooperative to provide high-quality, person-directed support to community members who have developmental disabilities. It will connect patients and their primary caregivers with developmental support workers, and improve professional development and networking opportunities for workers.
The cash prize puts the DSW Cooperative’s dream one-step closer to reality. “We’re looking to transform the way developmental services are offered across the province,” said Lisa Murray, one of the co-founders of the cooperative. “With the support of Algonquin College, we have proven the idea works in the community and can make a tremendous difference in the lives of families and workers.”
Murray says there are no cooperatives in Ontario that serve the interests of developmental services workers, or the people they support: “By design, the co-operative will give frontline DSW workers the opportunity to drive the direction of the business, and enables these workers to become integral in all major decisions.”
The DSW Cooperative project finished ahead of 82 proposals from colleges across Ontario. In October, 10 semi-finalists were announced for the Innovation Fund – as determined by a panel of experts and through online voting. The top two finalists were judged based on criteria that included the idea’s impact and originality.
“DSW Cooperative is a powerful demonstration of both the commitment our graduates have to improving our communities, and the innovative thinking emerging from the programs in our School of Health and Community Studies,” said Cheryl Jensen, President of Algonquin College.
The William G. Davis Innovation Fund launched in February as part of the celebration of the Ontario colleges’ 50th anniversary. As a tribute to the former premier’s vision in creating Ontario’s college system, the fund encouraged students and alumni across Ontario to submit innovative and creative proposals that competed for cash prizes.
“This project will make a real difference in improving care for people with disabilities,” said Fred Gibbons, the chair of Colleges Ontario and president of Northern College. “It is a meaningful example of how colleges prepare graduates to launch their own ventures and bring imaginative and essential problem-solving ideas to the workplace and community.”
For more information about the William G. Davis Innovation Fund, go to: www.amazing50.ca/innovationfund.
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Chris Lackner, Communications Officer
Algonquin College
Office: 613-727-4723 ext. 2091
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