In April 2009 we announced the 2008 recipients of our peer-nominated award program for United Way Toronto staff, the M-B Family Spirit Award. This program is made possible by a generous donation from Raksha Bhayana, a member of our Board of Trustees.
There are four awards given annually: Dedication, Innovation and Creativity, Leadership and Team Achievement.
2008 M-B Family Spirit Award Nominations
Dedication
- Joan Shaw
- Lucia Stephenson
- Margaret Connors
- Sharon Kirk
Leadership
- Lisa Watson
- Lorraine Duff
- Susan Schafron
- Susan Vardon
Innovation & Creativity
- Amanuel Melles
- Anne Jamieson
- Kristen Roderick
Team Achievement
- Online Funding System (OFS): Rhomilda Baylon, Caralyn Cipin, Rosario Pascua, Debbie Smith, Janny Wong, Toni Leonard
- Special Gifts Team: Susan Vardon, Steve Lavery, Michelle Smith, Olga Korpalo, Nicole P
2008 M-B Family Spirit Award Recipients
Dedication
The purpose of this award is to recognize and reward those who are committed to the mission and values of the United Way. These individuals demonstrate unwavering loyalty and commitment to the success of a specific project and/or to the ongoing interests of United Way.
Lucia Stephenson, Director Tomorrow Fund was nominated for her overall commitment to her colleagues and our organization. During her 15 years at UWT, she has almost single-handedly raised the profile the Tomorrow Fund and raised millions of dollars in special gifts.
Lucia has loyal and respectful relationships with everyone she encounters. She forges lifelong relationships that, for Lucia, come with a heartfelt responsibility to convey our gratitude at every opportunity. It is because of this practice, and her caring manner, she now enjoys relationships with second and third generations of the same family.
Her nominator summarized, "Lucia will always stay that extra hour for a colleague; she will always go that extra mile for a donor and will always have a deep and genuine concern for her fellow person."
Innovation and Creativity
Introducing new ideas, services or practices that inspire problem solving in new and imaginative ways are what make up the Innovation and Creativity Award. This award recognizes and rewards employees who contribute new and innovative ideas to the organization and who have made a major improvement in operations or services.
Kristen Roderick, Evaluation Coordinator, was nominated for her role in leading United Way Toronto's Community Impact Measurement and Management Capacity Building Project designed in partnership with four United Ways across Canada.
Kristen's initiative went well beyond the expectations of her role on the project. She saw an opportunity to enhance our work on community impact measurement and took it. To do this, Kristen partnered with 16 youth serving member agencies located across the city to build evaluation capacity at the community level. To help the agencies engage the youth they serve, Kristen came up with the idea of training youth in evaluation techniques and then gave them the opportunity to put their learning into action through youth focus groups – youth engaging youth.
Through this approach, the youth involved have gained the confidence that comes with developing new and transferable skills. Participating agencies have benefited through the resulting engaged youth and the ability to transfer the initiative learnings to other program areas.
As Kristen's nominators put it, "Kristen's initiative is a strong demonstration of the creativity and ingenuity that should be recognized with an MB Family Spirit Award"
Leadership
Great leaders embrace the selfless qualities that empower others to do their best and achieve great things. The Leadership Award recognizes and rewards those employees with exemplary leadership capabilities who play an exceptional role in helping others contribute to United Way.
Lorraine Duff, Director, Community Resources, supports the Community Investment Managers as they partner with agencies across the city to strengthen lives of individuals, families and neighbourhoods and address the root causes of our city's shared challenges.
Lorraine is good at motivating and empowering those around her, always encouraging them to think critically and creatively while working to achieve their goals. She builds on the strengths of the staff she works with and freely shares her extensive knowledge of the communities we work with. During campaign, Lorraine is often called upon to speak about her experiences in workplaces across the city.
Lorraine constantly champions United Way Toronto's goals and unites her team as they work with their partners in the community to bring lasting positive change to the people and neighbourhoods of our city.
In the words of her nominators, "Lorraine is incredibly resourceful, she rises to what often seems like insurmountable challenges with a wonderful sense of humour and boundless compassion."
Back row (l-r): Caralyn Cipin, Toni Leonard. Front row (l-r): Rosario Pascua, Debbie Smith, Janny Wong and Rhomilda Baylon.
Team Achievement
Teams are made up of individuals who work together toward a common goal. Collectively, these individuals demonstrate commitment and sacrifice for success through their excellent and consistent performance and professionalism, their exceptional service over a sustained period, their team spirit and their support of colleagues. The Team Achievement Award recognizes and rewards teams who make significant contributions to United Way.
Online Funding System Team: Rhomilda Baylon, Caralyn Cipin, Rosario Pascua, Debbie Smith, Toni Leonard and Janny Wong
The Online Funding System team developed and implemented the new online funding tool that improves the efficiency of agency funding submissions process and the subsequent volunteer review process. Making it more effective and accessible to all involved – partner agencies, volunteers and UWT staff.
This cross-departmental team worked well together with a common sense of purpose under very tight timelines – they consulted with agencies, volunteers and other funders at each step along the way.
To quote their nominators, "Each team member undertook this project without forgoing any of their regular workload. It took a lot of dedication, multi-tasking and mutual support and encouragement to successfully implement this project – of that, the team can be collectively proud."
