Kates Inclusion Adventures

Hello everyone, and Happy Mothers day to all the incredible moms, out there; especially mine!   My mom, sister, aunt, cousin and her little baby boy spent the weekend at what British Columbians  and Albertians  call the “Castle in the Rockies- Banff Springs Hotel!” I know! We are very lucky! For the past couple years before COVID, it had become a tradition for us to stay there for Mother’s Day, and we were so excited to continue it! It is such a special time for all of us to get together, and in such a spectacularly beautiful, historic castle! Always lots of laughs and lots of special memories made together!   I hope your Mothers Day was just as wonderful! Moms are the best! Anyway, I actually wanted to share another new adventure I’ve started recently. I have gotten myself another job!  Yep! Another one! The opportunities just keep coming! When I was younger I used to worry so much about getting a job, and what I would do after highschool. I don’t know w...

Hello everyone, Thank again for listening  to my presentation  for the Inclusive Hiring Chamber event Attached below are evaluation forms for you to fill out to provide me with some feedbaclk of how it felt for you.  When you fill out the form, please return to kginclusionworkshops@gmail.com Thanks so much watching, and for considering accessibility in your workplace!  Remember that...."When people know better, they do better"! Preview attachment Evaluation Form FB.pdf Evaluation Form FB.pdf 45 KB

  Happy Easter everyone! I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend! I am really enjoying the  time with my family. My cousin, who lives in Calgary, was visiting Invermer with her husband and two little boys, so we were enjoying time with them. It is so fun to experience the holidays through the eyes of young children.  In Invermere, they had a town Easter egg that we went to with the kids, and it was fun to watch the  crowd of children race after chocolate. Easter is one sign that spring is on the way. It’s the promise of new beginnings. It says farewell to winter, and hello to spring. Most people, including me, look forward to the warmer temperatures. Other people, also like me, feel a tinge of sadness as they put away their ski gear for the year. Last Sunday was PASS’ last ski day. After a great day on the slopes, all the athletes and volunteers were invited to dinner at a restaurant called “Alto” to celebrate the skier’s accomplishments, as well as the...

Hi everyone, Today, I wanted to advertise an inclusive  children's book about a boy named Nicholas. When Nicholas was eight years old,  he had a scary accident at school, causing him to be in a wheelchair full time and unable to talk because of damage to his brain.  After the accident, the lives of Nicholas and his family were forever changed, as they had to adapt to new challenges; one of them being that some people who had known Nicholas before his accident  sometimes didn’t know how to react to his new living situation. Veronika began to notice this, and it felt strange to her , and she wanted to do something that made people realize that her brother was still the same Nicholas everybody had always known and loved; he just had some new challenges.  Veronika had been volunteering with Special Olympics BC when she heard about the opportunity to participate in a youth engagement  project.  Veronika and her mom were both very excited about the opp...

Hello everyone,  This past Thursday, I was honored to have been invited to present at the annual  Columbia Valley Job Fair and Career Expo.  Theresa Wood, an advisor at The Columbia Valley Chamber of Commerce had invited Tanelle Bolt (the founder of Recreational Adaptive Society) and myself, Inclusion Educator and co-founder of Count Me In, to be speakers on accessibility and inclusion in the workplace. I was excited; not only to be asked to speak, but also that a light was being shed on this important  topic.  Society has started to include and promote a lot of different minority groups in the workforce, which is wonderful, but one of the minority groups that is not thought about is people who have diverse abilities. Employers, like many other people, do not often know what people who have diverse abilities can do in the workplace, or what adaptations can be made to allow them to work.. I was very grateful that people who have diverse abilities   were...

 Hi all my Invermere friends  Here are the answers to my question posted in the the article “Count Me In emphasizes the importance of inclusion” for those who read it, and wanted to test themselves.       Let’s see how you did! The 5 “Excellent Accessibility Features” featured in the photo in the article  of The “Columbia Valley Centre”  are: 1. Accessible doors with an automatic button 2. A flat surface, and a curb cut out to wheel or walk with assistance (mobility device), up onto the sidewalk) 3. A wide “Handicapped Parking Stall” with a standing up visible sign 4. Snow removal has been done to make wheeling and walking around the parking lot manageable  5. Did you notice the word KICHEN on the door of the right side of the Columbia Valley Centre? The lettering is BIG and BOLD.  This makes the word easier for people who are visually impaired to read.  How did you do? Okay, or do  you need to work on your “accessibility literacy...