Since 2017, Marybeth has served as a Director on the Community Living Thunder Bay board where she has also sat on the Nominations, Finance and Strategic Planning Committees. She is currently participating in a formal strategic planning process addressing CLTB’s Housing Strategy.
Marybeth has worked her entire career with people with intellectual disabilities in various capacities. Early on, she worked and volunteered in 6 different group homes throughout the province and has spent the last 30+ years in respite services. Her longstanding career at Westway, a respite agency, started when my then boyfriend, now husband and hosted children, teens, and adults with intellectual disabilities in her home to provide their caregivers with a much-needed break for an evening or a weekend at a time. She provided thousands of hours of respite as a Host Family and received the 25 Year Ontario Service Award. These relationships have continued to this day.
One very deep and significant involvement was with a young man with a range of special needs whom she maintained close contact with for over 30 years until he passed away from a flesh-eating disease while in Long Term Care. This part of my story leads to why she is interested in serving on the CLO Board.
She would like to see our sector support people with the option to ‘age in place’. Her other passion is reaching out to Indigenous adults with intellectual disabilities. In her current position, she serves children with special needs in over 49 Indigenous communities throughout the province. For the past 4 years, she has also served on two regional networks, Mamou-Sukindoonanoon Regional Network, and the Steering Committee for Nokiiwin Disabilities Services.
In recent years, our sector has been faced with a serious human resource shortage which is greatly impacting so many of the individuals and their families connected to CLO. Having been involved on the Executive Provincial Respite Network for over a decade, has given her the opportunity to work on recruitment and training province wide.
