It was back in 2016 and 2017 when the AVENS Board at that time produced a strategic framework that was to bring AVENS to new levels of care and service offerings.
“Action without vision is only passing time, vision without action is merely day dreaming, but vision with action can change the world” - Nelson Mandela
However, like all strategic frameworks, its shelf life usually lasts 3-5 years for most organizations, AVENS is no different.
It came apparent that our care landscape was significantly changing all around us and AVENS had to take a new look at our Vision, Mission and our Strategic Priorities.
Starting last summer, in conjunction with the Management Team, our AVENS Board undertook a new governance approach and at the same time looked at AVENS strategic focus for the next 3 - 5 years.
This exercise proved valuable and set the stage for what was to become the new revised Vision, Mission and five strategic priority pillars.
It was very clear from the onset of this exercise that AVENS was seeing the Long Term Care landscape change significantly. Point in question, with the Stanton Legacy Project underway and opening over 100 new long term care beds, for the first time in our history, AVENS would have direct competition within our City limits.
Although, there was much debate and discussions around the potential of AVENS acting as the operator for the new Legacy design, it was soon realized that the complexity of running this model under the AVENS umbrella was cost prohibitive.
Thus, AVENS will continue to maintain and grow our long term care offering within the existing campus footprint.
Subsequently, with the Pavilion construction in reach, the AVENS Board sees a new future in the affordable housing market, making AVENS by attrition, a market leader in our capital city when it comes to the continuum of seniors housing options and solutions.
Finally, there is no doubt you have heard me speak time and time again that support services and aging-in-place services for our seniors are the future evolution of offerings for AVENS. The Board supports this new opportunity for AVENS to pursue and to become the center of excellence for these new and exciting offerings.
It is important to note that our new 2020 Strategic Priority Pillars will be the benchmark to what our Management Team will be working towards. This will be supported with robust objectives, proper guidelines and timely roll out initiatives.
Finally, it will be imperative that we monitor and measure our progress in achieving and carrying out our revised mission, therefore, we have also developed many tools, dashboard indicators and key performance indicators that will help keep us on the path.
Another point to note, that during this entire strategic exercise, AVENS core values did not change. All parties to this exercise felt very strongly that AVENS foundation is strongly rooted in our core values and there was no need to alter this foundation.
The Board, our Management Team and my office see a very bright future for AVENS and we hope you see the same.
By working together and by each one of us doing our part, we can reach new heights and do incredible things for our seniors in the years to come.
Please join me and your colleagues, let’s change the world!
If you have any spare change at home, chances are you have toonie in your possession that has the Nunavut’s 20th anniversary commemorative drummer with a qulliq (oil lamp) on it.
This toonie was designed to light the way forward when Nunavut was created.
I bet you didn’t know that the artist that inspired this design lives at AVENS? Honestly, Germaine Arnaktauyok of Avens Court is the Inuk artist that inspired this royal mint design.
In fact, Germaine has been covered a couple of times for her coin design and other works, most recently in the 2019 Up here edition.
So why is Germaine back in the news? Well, interestingly enough this Inuk artist is now the proud recipient of the Governor General’s award in visual and media arts given by the Canada Council for the Arts.
AVENS couldn’t be any happier for Germaine!
Recently featured in a CBC article and in News North, she describes her being “surprised” and “taken back” by the news of winning.
For over 60 years she has been drawing, in fact, the council did state in the CBC article that, “Arnaktauyok’s rich and beautifully coloured drawings depict a kaleidoscope of her heritage, ranging from astronomy to mythology to philosophy of forgotten times”
We are very proud for Germaine and her lifetime of work and achievement in the arts.
It is hard to believe that we have been living with Covid for almost one year.
Our AVENS Team has been on the front line of this pandemic, making personal sacrifices, so that our residents and our fellow colleagues can live in safety.
Our AVENS Board and our AVENS Management Team have recognized these efforts along this difficult journey and throughout this pandemic have sponsored many “thank you” events in support through lunch sponsored activities.
Most recently, on February 26th, 2021, we celebrated once again and gave thanks to our front-line staff with a “Flattening the stomach curve Pizza lockdown”.
We were pleased to see so many come and go throughout the event and thank those who stopped by to enjoy a “little slice” of thanks.
Keep up the great work, the checkered flag is around the corner, together we are stronger!
