Each year, REACH undertakes a Quality Improvement process that includes receiving feedback from service participants. During 2012, feedback received from service participants is highlighted below:

What people who have used our services told us:

• Across all programs, participants indicated a good to high level of satisfaction with the services they received.
• People reported feeling respected, supported and listened to by our staff.
• Feedback was consistent in identifying that staff were always ready to listen, were respectful, knowledgeable and professional.
• Individual outcomes were noted with many positive changes reported including learning new problem solving and coping skills.

Over the next year, our plans related to providing the best services possible for people include:

• A service coordination process that ensures when people are involved with more than one REACH service, that all services are working together effectively with the participant as they plan and work toward their goals.
• Individual programs and services reviewing systems and developing strategies to increase the amount, and the type of feedback we receive from service participants to ensure we are able to measure satisfaction with our programs and services most effectively. We are also working agency wide on new ways to measure how our programs and services make a difference and impact people who participate. 
• REACH continues to develop and implement marketing strategies to ensure that people are aware of programs and services available to them.
• Establishing an agency strategy that engages service participants in planning programs and services by providing their ideas and input into their own services and agency wide planning and projects.

REACH wishes to express our sincere appreciation to everyone who provides us with feedback during our quality improvement process. We truly value your input into ensuring we are providing high quality services to our community.

The 31st Annual General Meeting for Haldimand-Norfolk R.E.A.C.H. was held on Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 at the Greens at Renton.

The keynote speaker this year was Gordon Floyd, CEO of Children's Mental Health Ontario.

Click here to read the President's Message to the 2012 Annual General Meeting

Click here for the Executive Director's Report to the 2012 Annual General Meeting

The Evert Kuiper Volunteer Award award was created in 2005 in memory of Evert Kuiper who was a volunteer driver for Haldimand-Norfolk REACH Volunteer Services.

Each year in honour of Evert Kuiper's life, REACH celebrates the contributions of one of our dedicated volunteer drivers. At our 31st AGM held on June 26, 2012 we recognized another one of our incredible volunteer drivers, John Ridout. John donates hours of his time, making a difference in our community by supporting the children, youth and families that we serve.

Thank-you John!

In 1992 the H-N REACH Merit Award was established. Through this annual award, Haldimand-Norfolk REACH recognizes members of our community who have made a significant contribution to children/youth and/or children/youth's services in the Haldimand and Norfolk communities. Nominations for the Award are collected by the Agency staff and the recipients are selected by the Board of Directors.

The Haldimand-Norfolk REACH Merit Award was presented this year at our 31st Annual General Meeting held at The Greens at Renton on June 26, 2012. This year Board of Directors of Haldimand-Norfolk REACH elected to acknowledge the incredible generosity of the following 3 recipients.

Congratulations and thank-you all!

Name It To Change It Community Bullying Prevention Initiative - Youth Advisory Committee
These youth have been our voice when it comes to bullying prevention in our community. They were an inspiration to all youth when it came to having a voice about issues that matter to them. They are award winning youth - recipients in 2011 of both the Norfolk's Difference Maker Award and the Haldimand Community Project of the Year Award. They worked with the Student Support Leadership Initiative to help create youth-friendly posters about Mental Health; they created and facilitated 4 Youth Engagement events across Haldimand and Norfolk serving over 20 schools; they were invited to speak at various events throughout the communities in both counties; they demonstrated ‘Community Togetherness' at the Norfolk County Fair with a flash mob; and they helped create a more youth-friendly website for the Name It 2 Change It Initiative.

The Haldimand ATV Club
For the past he past 4 years, the Haldimand ATV Club has advertised, organized and facilitated a Christmas toy drive with the proceeds going to support our service participants. As well, they held several fundraisers throughout the year, donating those proceeds to assist the day-to-day needs of our service participants. This group works tirelessly each year from October to December and the toy drive has grown tremendously since 2009. The first year the program supported 33 families and in 2011, 76 families benefited from the hard work and generosity of the Haldimand ATV Club members (and from the contributions from the business and community members who support the drive.)

Judy MacIntosh, Special Friend and Volunteer
Judy was recognized for being an outstanding Special Friend and Volunteer. The breadth and depth of kindness and commitment she has demonstrated during her weekly involvement with the young person and family is incredible. The consistency of Judy's supportive connection has been a huge factor in the young person's amazing progress. Through all of their activities, Judy has not only opened up new worlds, but has taught skills and lifelines which will serve this young person always.