On Monday January 22, 2024 our project signed a partnership agreement with The Good Companions, Ottawa, a non-profit multi-service seniors’ centre, providing opportunities for older adults to participate in social, recreational, educational and volunteer activities and benefit from social and health services. The Good Companions are partnering with Killick Coast North Seniors Co-operative on accessing and running their Seniors’ Centre Without Walls (SCWW), a phone-based group sessions program in the Killick Coast North region.
To support Killick Coast North Seniors Co-operative in accessing and running this program in our region, The Good Companions have also awarded us with a Micro-grant of $ 4,000 for 2024. In addition, the partnership supports Killick Coast North Seniors Co-operative with their onboarding and training program for our program coordinator and facilitator.
Mid-January we received confirmation from the NL Federation of Co-operatives (NLFC) that our project “Killick Coast North Seniors Co-operative – ‘Aging Well At Home’ has been selected as one of the five co-operative incubator pilot projects (https://nlfc.coop/start-a-co-op/co-op-incubator/). Yay! . This was only possible through a dedicated effort of a committed project team, through the endorsement of various community, municipal, and provincial organizations, and through the connection with and support of the Village-to-Village Network (https://www.vtvnetwork.org).
From February through to July 2024, NLFC will guide us through and support us in mastering the process of creating and incorporating the co-operative. Further, a seed funding amount of $ 5,000 will be awarded to the project upon completion of the program. The project team will meet next week to discuss next steps and to move the project forward.
On March 1, 2023 I have retired from the University of New Brunswick. At the same time, we relocated to our new home in Pouch Cove, NL. Currently, we are settling in and while my writing projects continue, my focus is on reorganizing and reenergizing. Stay tuned for future updates!
Just in time for the Thanksgiving season, on September 24, I published Practicing Gratitude together with Mary Stewart. Mary is Professor Emerita of the Department of Art at Florida State University, an artist, and a former artist in residence at UNB’s Faculty of Education (Atlantic Centre for Creativity). In this edited book, available in various formats on Amazon.ca, twenty-three essays by fifteen Canadian and American authors explore the implications of treasured objects, the power of empathy and the ways in which difficult family dynamics can lead to transformative insights. Thirty-seven photographs punctuate the design and create a lively dialog with the text. A section on writing encourages anyone to begin practicing gratitude and eleven mouth-watering recipes at the end of the book celebrate the joy of cooking–and eating!
Contributing Canadian authors are (all from NB, mostly WFNB members):
“Our values will help arrive at a future that’s probably preferable to one that we arrive at if we do nothing. If you do nothing, if you just keep your eyes on the road as you go or look into the rearview mirror, then somebody else will create the maps and the world you drive in, and you have to live with the world that others create for you. If you want to stay active, you have to co-create the world that you are driving in”. For the whole interview, follow the link to my conversation with Tyler Mongan in his Future Intelligent Leadership podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/579214/9033962
I am happy and proud to announce the publication of my edited book. The labour of 40 years of professional and academic passion went into this. In my own chapters, I combined my take on Values-Oriented Leadership and Futures-Oriented Leadership. In addition, 20 international scholars and practitioners from near and far have collaborated and contributed to this volume.
From New Brunswick, we have my former doctoral student (Christian Couturier) and my “new” dean at Renaissance College (Carol Nemeroff), and from the furthest, my beloved colleague (Elissa Farrow) joined us from down under. Thanks to all and to Cambridge Scholars Publishing for helping to make this happen!
See the publisher’s press release here (including further details, table of contents, etc.).
. This was only possible through a dedicated effort of a committed project team, through the endorsement of various community, municipal, and provincial organizations, and through the connection with and support of the Village-to-Village Network 
