The Real Diva in the office celebrates her 40th!

Happy birthday Afrooz! We just couldn't let the day pass without some sort of surprise. :) It's always nice to have your cake and eat it too.

All the best to you on this very special occasion.

We here at the office are very grateful for all of your hard work and your support for all of the staff.

On behalf of everyone here at FAME, the families and the board of directors.....happy 40th birthday!

big hugs, the E.D.

My surprise BD in office

I'd just came back from a one week training holding on behalf of Ministry of Health and Long-Term care and I noticed I was disconnected from the server. Nothing worked on my station, not even the Internet. As I have a little knowledge about computers, I was testing everything to reconnect myself, from testing all the cabling to giving different IP addresses to my computer. But nothing worked. Being frustrated by not functioning and the freezing weather in our office; yesterday we had another cold alert in Toronto and our office amazingly adjusts its temperature to outside; I was thinking to myself "what else should I have to challenge today?" After having my lunch and stepping out for a short time, I've found the office door locked and not being able to go inside the office. As we have recently added another room to our office in Etobicoke building, I went to the other room to see who locked the door and why. What do you think I found there? Our staff with a little chocolate cake and a bouquet of flowers for my 40th birthday. Thank you everyone for making my day and reminding me how great you are.

Tell us your Story!

Just a quick note....we are busy here at FAME working with film editor, Andrew Brown of Digi-Realm (he's the wonderful volunteer who helped us put together our divas clip), on developing a 4 minute reel on who FAME is and how we work with families. It's an important project for us because it will enable us to reach out to the community and show them first hand who we are what what we do and what a difference we make for families all across the GTA.

It is our goal to "premiere" our film clip at the upcoming spring event "simply divas" on Sunday, May 31st at the Berkeley Church Event Venue. After that the film clip will become a part of outreach materials and tools to educate the public and help us to develop new partnerships and supporters throughout the community.

We need you! We need to hear your voice! We need to hear your story and we are looking for families and individuals to share what role FAME has played in their lives and in the lives of their families. Help us to share with the community this story. It's an important project and what you have to say needs to be heard.

If you are interested in participating in this amazing little project then please contact Michelle Bake, Director of Marketing & Community Development here at the FAME offices at (416) 207-5032 ext. 25 or through her email at michelleb@fameforfamilies.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

It's a new look newsletter....

Just a quick heads up to our family, friends, members, associates....
For the first time ever we've decided to print our newsletter in colour! You'll also notice a bit of an expanded newsletter as well. For the past year we've struggled with different ideas of how to improve this publication and e-zine version of it. The newsletter is a popular item with our families and its important for us to remember that even while the world goes "viral" that many families and friends enjoy getting that newsletter from us in their mailboxes. So keep an eye out, the newsletter is days away from getting tossed into the mailbox. Have a look. Give us your feedback. What you think is important to us. For us, at the end of the day, it is all about our families.

Stay warm this frosty February morning!

Christine the ED

Mississauga Halton LHIN Community Meetings

Hello to All;
I wanted to pass on this invite for families to attend an information session detailing what is happening in the Mental Health and Addictions field here in Mississauga Halton LHIN (Local Health Integration Network). In Ontario there are 14 LHIN's all together and they were developed to better meet the health needs of our communities; they engage in research, planning, funding, and integration of service. In the last year or so Mississauga Halton LHIN has developed a Detailed Planning and Action Team to outline barriers that exist within the system and to begin serious discussion about what changes need to be implemented to deal with some of the larger systematic issues. This report, along with additional valuable information was released earlier this year and can be found on the Mississauga Halton LHIN website: http://www.mississaugahaltonlhin.on.ca/home.aspx.

Having the preliminary work done this task group is now organizing 3 community meetings. This is ‘the’ opportunity for community members to find out valuable information regarding the Mental Health and Addiction field here in Mississauga Halton LHIN and relay important family and consumer messages back to the task groups.

If you have the time I encourage all to step out and find out what is happening in our community and to understand that we have a collective group of talented individuals working on improving the system for consumers and families.**That's right families, your voices are being presented on this committee by a family member**

MILTON: Tuesday, January 13-7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Community Room, Halton Regional Police Station
490 Child’s Drive, Milton

MISSISSAUGA: Wednesday, January 28 -7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Classroom 3-Mississauga Central Library
301 Burhamthorpe Road W.,Mississauga

OAKVILLE: Wednesday, January 21 -6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Dorval Site – 6th fl: Mental Health Outpatient Program Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital 700 Dorval Drive,Oakville

Please RSVP by January 9, 2009 to Mississauga Halton LHIN –
Call: (905) 337-7131, ext 200 or E-mail: mississaugahalton@lhins.on.ca

IF YOU ARE READING THIS AFTER JAN. 9, 09, PLEASE STILL TRY TO RSVP TO THE MEETING.

It really was home sweet homes.....

They came, they laughed, they ate, they built home sweet homes! We've got one more holiday party to serve up (this coming Monday night out in Scarborough) and I have to say that we are on course for setting record attendances at all the parties we have hosted for families this holiday season!

What an amazing turnout! It has really caught us by surprise and what's even more surprising is how our families embraced and absolutely revelled in the building of their own home sweet gingerbread homes. Talk about a blast! I have had nothing but kudos and exaltations of joy and fun from those who were there to enjoy. As Lyndsay noted in the previous blog families ate, they sang, they laughed, they shared and they completely got wrapped up in creating those gingerbread houses. Talk about tons 'o fun!

Stay tuned as we begin to post the pictures (like the one you see here) of the different houses and the families who built them. In the meantime, we've got one more party to prepare for so it's back to the kitchen for me!

Happy sweet holidays!

Christine

"Oh What a Night"

And oh what a night it was!!! On Dec. 3rd Mississauga families and FAME celebrated the 2008 Holiday season with a 'Home Sweet Home' party.

The gingerbread houses were nothing short of a spectacular idea and as the families settle down and started building away the candy and icing was flying. For many families this was their first experience building a gingerbread and they all did a remarkable job. Christine was a busy bee in the kitchen all evening and prepared for us a lovely meal of lasagna, pizza, salad, and meatballs; the families filled there belly's with nothing but the best. As the evening continued Paul and the newly developed FAME choir belted out 13 fantastic holiday jams; there was more then just singing, feet were a moving. A very special thanks goes out to Michelle, Mary, Paul and Christine for making the Mississauga holiday party the place to be. In our thoughts, Frank, Anie, Afrooz and Nicole who could not be with us.

And to the Mississauga families: Many thanks to you for your voices, hearts and warm thoughts. The 2008 celebration is one for the books.

Happy Holidays,Lynds