September 14
About the Award Maria de Boer had been the Executive Director of Extend-A-Family Waterloo Region (EAFWR) for nearly 35 years. She retired in October 2017. Maria worked hard to put inclusion and belonging first at EAFWR. She encouraged people to be curious and thoughtful. Maria asked questions like, “Who makes inclusion happen?” and “How do […]
Read morePosted by Extend-A-Family Waterloo Region, in Adult, Blog, Children, Community, News, Press & Releases, Youth
August 25
Meet Matt! Matt has been part of the FamilyHome Program for a number of years. He is now looking for a new and safer place to live to meet his mobility needs. That’s where you come in. Check out the flyer below for more information on what we’re looking for. If this sounds like you, […]
Read morePosted by Extend-A-Family Waterloo Region, in Adult, Blog, Community
July 7
The 2020-21 Annual Report is filled with stories from our office staff, Direct Support People, people we serve and families and is a snapshot of what we’ve been up to over the past year. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this year’s report! Click here to read our Annual Report and excerpts from stories. […]
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June 11
By: WALES Group Facilitators Like many of us, in March 2020, Christy had a well-established routine that included many of the activities she loved. She lived on her own, attended community exercise classes, volunteered at a local thrift store, and gathered regularly with friends visiting various local cafes. When COVID appeared in our lives and […]
Read morePosted by Extend-A-Family Waterloo Region, in Story
June 11
By: Terral McBay, on behalf of the FamilyHome/SIL Team In a year where we have been confined to our homes facing multiple lockdowns, we find we are challenged by the banner hashtag of being #BetterTogetherWR. Yes, this is still a statement we live by, but after a year of not being able to have time […]
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June 11
By: Kim Bickford, Direct Support Person I have realized that my son Riley is a procrastinator. He graduates Grade 12 in June and still needed 20 volunteer hours. The heat was on and with COVID-19, it was challenging to figure out how to get those 20 hours while trying to social distance to keep safe. […]
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June 11
Paulina and Brenda first met in September of 2019. Paulina was looking for something meaningful to do with her spare time, and Brenda was in search of a support worker that was caring and understanding of her needs and goals. Paulina heard of Extend-A-Family Waterloo Region (EAFWR) through a colleague and Brenda heard of about […]
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June 11
By: Katie Hagedorn, FamilyHome/SIL/LHIN Support Coordinator The Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) program at Extend-A-Family Waterloo Region (EAFWR) has long been affectionately known as ‘the little program that could.’ It has chugged along for years supporting a handful of people. This has worked well. This year though, it has begun to change. We always knew […]
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June 11
By: Kim Sproul, Community Development Manager Community Development (CD) took a huge hit in 2020-21, for the obvious reason of COVID-19 causing the abrupt halt of all things in-person and community-orientated, as well as the completion of two grants. The completion of these grants meant that our team dwindled to myself as the only full-time […]
Read morePosted by Extend-A-Family Waterloo Region, in Story
June 11
By: Becky Klokoff, Community Engagement & Donor Specialist If you had told me in 2002 that I would still be working for Extend-A-Family Waterloo Region(EAFWR) in 2021, I would not be surprised one bit. Shortly after I began working for EAFWR, I knew this place was something special. Being surrounded by a group of like-minded, […]
Read morePosted by Extend-A-Family Waterloo Region, in Story