CELEBRATING 40 YEARS
It started out of a national experimental and demonstration project in 1974 and four decades later, it continues to evolve and change the lives of people in the Lethbridge community.
Southern Alberta Community Living Association (SACLA) supports individuals with disabilities to strive for excellence every day by facilitating inclusive, vibrant communities where people connect, contribute and are valued. This year, SACLA turned 40!
For some individuals with disabilities, this may involve a few hours of support each week to live independently. For others, it involves 24/7 supported community living. For others, a roommate to develop skills to one day, live on their own. No matter the need, SACLA’s work is rooted in providing people with disabilities with the same opportunities and choices, the same ability to share their gifts and talents, and the same sense of belonging that we all enjoy.
In its earliest days, SACLA was instrumental in supporting individuals with disabilities to move out of institutions and into their home communities to live, learn and contribute near their families.
Throughout the years, SACLA has focused its innovations around its mission “Cultivating Relationships, Connecting Communities, Creating Possibilities”. This has involved exploring creative ways to support people to live independently, developing “MyCompass” which strives for humanized planning and case management, and listening to the collective voice of the Lethbridge community to develop services such as “Catalyst”, a social innovation project designed to address the issue of unemployment and underemployment for marginalized groups.
SACLA’s key value centres on keeping the voices of those we serve at the centre of our planning and practices. We do this by focusing our services on the individuals we work for, planning creatively, empowering individuals to share their vision for their life and balancing the need to create systems change with the immediate needs of the people we work for and our community. This is not always easy, however when faced with a challenge in providing meaningful supports, SACLA meets these challenges head on with creativity.
An example of this, is the way SACLA supported people in their homes during COVID. Throughout COVID, while the people we support were sometimes uncertain, often couldn’t go to work, had been physically distanced from the community, their friends, and social gatherings, SACLA was able to respond to the deep social needs of those we work for through virtual dance parties, trivia games, name that tune, competitions and distanced connections.
Throughout its 40 years, SACLA continues to highly value relationships. By working with others, SACLA has built a stronger community of neighbours, leaders and advocates. We believe that real social change comes from collective effort. Without the strong support of the individuals and families SACLA works for, our employees, our Board of Directors and our community as a whole, SACLA would not be the leader in the disability services field that it is today.
The impact and reach of SACLA’s services is in the 1000’s. This not only includes hundreds of individuals with disabilities and their families, but many employees and volunteers who, over the years, have worked incredibly diligently to make a house feel like a home, develop and support dream jobs and meaningful contributions, build friendships, and teach all of us how to build citizenship in our communities. Thank you to all people, past and present who have and continue to build the SACLA family!
At SACLA we look forward to a strong future. For us, this means continuing to support individuals with disabilities in creative and innovative ways, developing community capacity for rich inclusion that realizes all people’s full potential, and adapting our services to meet the vision of individuals and families who will access our services in the future.
One of SACLA’s core values and philosophies is to continue to move the organization forward to support individuals in the best way possible. SACLA has been led under the strong leadership under of Rob Richards (1980 - 1984); Noel McGarry (1984-1997) and Sue Manery (1997-2020). SACLA is excited to welcome and looks forward to continued success in leading the way for many more years with the recent hiring of Trenton Regier as the new CEO.”