Sherry Baker

Phone: 604 513-9758
Email: Sherry.Baker@bccrns.ca

Executive Director

Heather Archer

Phone: 250 377-8181
Email: Heather.Archer@bccrns.ca

Covering CRNs in the Thompson Cariboo Shuswap Health Services Area including 100 Mile House, Williams Lake, Kamloops, Merritt, Salmon Arm and Revelstoke. Heather is serving as interim Mentor for the North in addition to her TCS Mentor duties.

Heather has been active in the social services field for more than 20 years of her work life after starting out in the leisure and recreation sector (which is not altogether a separate sector!). Most recently she served as Executive Director of People In Motion in Kamloops - a non-profit service provider for people with disabilities - for 12 years. In addition she has run a training and consulting business for many years which has brought her into contact with many small communities in the region over the years. She has worked with associations and clubs in particular around developing organizational skills and community capacity.

She first learned about the Adult Guardianship Legislation and CRNs in 1997 and through her work at People In Motion became actively involved in the Kamloops CRN Steering Committee as Chairperson and host agency for the contract. Heather is also a past member of the PGT convened Provincial Abuse, Neglect and Self-Neglect Planning Group, now known as the BC Adult Abuse and Neglect Prevention Collaborative. A CRN mentor since 2003, Heather continues to support her community and region doing other consulting and training contracts as well.

Debb Barg

Email: Debb.Barg@bccrns.ca

Covering the Central and South Okanagan

Debora is a clubhouse coordinator and community educator for Canadian Mental Health Association. She has lived in the rural Okanagan community since 1979. She was recognized as a woman of distinction for community contribution in 2006 by the city of Penticton.

Debora has a diverse background from twice being homemaker of the year to her background in social work, education and alternative health. She has a lengthy history of working for the Okanagan College and facilitating for numerous organizations. Debora was both a Crisis Line Coordinator and sat on the Provincial Board for Crisis Lines making her a perfect match for the Community Response Network. Her volunteer work with a variety of agencies from the food bank to the RCMP Victims Services and Citizens on Patrol also provided exposure to the abuse, neglect and self-neglect that was happening in the community.

Working with the local CRN provided opportunity to work regionally and provincially. Acquiring knowledge about the Adult Guardianship Legislation and CRN's in 2000 and through her work as the Crisis Line Coordinator she became an active participant in the local Penticton CRN. Seeing the effectiveness of this group encouraged her to move to the Provincial board first as secretary and then as co-chair. Taking a few years break from the Provincial board the opportunity arose to apply for the Okanagan mentor position and support the CRN's in the Okanagan which she is very pleased to be a part of.

Debora's strong sense of community and interest in multicultural activities can only be complimented by her desire to have balance in the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of her life. Her belief that no one cares how much you know unless they know how much you care is a motto she lives by to support the work she does.

Jeannie Boyce

Email: Jeannie.Boyce@bccrns.ca

Covering BC’s Northwest, from Houston to Haida Gwaii and up to Atlin and Dease Lake.

Jeannie started her position as Regional Mentor for BCACRN in September 2012.

Her career as a Registered Nurse spans more than 30 years where she has trained andnworked in various settings including medical-surgical nursing, critical care, addictions counselling, residential care and community care, as well as teaching at NW Community College in the Health Care Worker program. Jeannie has a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing and has earned national certifications in Gerontological and Mental Health Nursing.

Much of her career has been dedicated to working with elders in various capacities. During her employment with Community Mental Health and Addictions for Northern Health as the geriatric mental health clinician, Jeannie began to understand adult guardianship issues from several angles. She worked closely with individuals, families, physicians, agency staff and community members, including elders and families in the First Nations villages. Through education, collaboration, detailed planning, community participation and appropriate support, she helped others to envision and create what it takes to keep older adults living well in their homes for as long as possible.

Jeannie has a strong sense of community and believes in the involvement of all sectors of the population in planning for its needs as a society, so that relationships naturally exist and "caring for each other (particularly for the most vulnerable) seems normal".

Kathy Doerksen

Phone: 778 808-1139
Email: Kathy.Doerksen@bccrns.ca

Covering CRNs in the Fraser Valley and the Lower Mainland.

Kathy is the Manager of the Anti-Poverty, Advocacy & Addictions Division at Abbotsford Community Services. She has been actively involved in social justice issues since 1970 when she developed and managed the Abbotsford Community Law Office. It was there that she became aware of abuse issues and was actively involved in Violence against Women and older adult abuse initiatives.

She has worked with BCCEAS on a Seniors and the Law project, developed and managed programs serving children and adults with developmental disabilities, founded a HIV/AIDS-serving organization in Abbotsford and has been involved in many other community development projects.

In 1995, Kathy became involved in the local CRN and served as a member of the PGT convened Provincial Abuse, neglect and Self-Neglect Planning Group.

Kathy delights in her role as a first-time grandmother, walks her dog Wilson, loves to read and is a pretty good cook.

Sandra Goth

Email: Sandra.Goth@bccrns.ca

Covering South Vancouver Island.

Sandra has worked for the last 20 years as a service provider and manager in the non-profit sector in the West Kootenays and on Vancouver Island. She has served provincially on the Boards of the United Community Services Cooperative and the BC/Yukon Society of Transition Houses as well as numerous local Boards of Directors and community-based committees. She is presently a volunteer with the Cowichan Hospice Society.

Sandra believes strongly in the power of communities to improve the quality of life for their citizens. Her past involvement with Abbeyfield Society in Cowichan and the fact she is nearly 65 herself, has solidified her concerns for older adults.

Sandra has experience in Executive Management, journalism, facilitation, policy and proposal writing, strategic planning and board development. She is the mother of six adult children and 10 grandchildren. Her special interests are writing, painting, reading and hiking.

Barbara J. Kirby

Phone: 604-767-4994
Email: Barb.Kirby@bccrns.ca

Covering Vancouver and Richmond

While spending 15 years navigating the health care system on behalf of her parents, Barbara came face to face with the complexity, richness, gaps and sometimes confusion within our health and service systems, and the resulting impact this has on caregivers and care receivers. This inspired Barbara to leave her successful long-term career as an Investment Advisor in order to share her direct knowledge and skills, and to offer her services as a Senior Advocate and Consultant for those who need help in accessing our systems and resources.

Barbara is recognized as a skilled educator, and provides workshops and seminars to organizations such as community centres, neighbourhood houses and medical clinics to teach those on how to prepare for later life issues She has presented at UBC as a mentor in business and elder care, providing insight on seniors as individuals and families and their needs in later life inside and outside of long term care.

Barbara chaired and co-chaired the family council at Little Mountain Place Care Home for 8 years while caring for her parents and subsequently became vice-president of the Association of Advocates for Care Reform focusing on systemic change and development of family councils in care homes. Prior to that, she was on the board of the Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre of BC for 9 years after volunteering on the phone lines for one year. She has been on the board of South Granville Seniors Centre for 3 years currently as Vice President and she is also on the Executive of the Burnaby Seniors Interagency Society.

In addition to her consulting practice, Barbara recently completed a contract as Program Development Coordinator with the BC Association of Community Response Networks (CRNs). Community stakeholders have embraced the viability of the CRN approach, and Barbara has been contracted to continue to develop these CRNs and serve as a Regional Mentor to the networks in Vancouver and Richmond.

Barbara lives in North Vancouver.

Jane Osborne

Covering the North Shore.

Jane Osborne is a retired businessperson who has discovered the joys of community development and volunteerism. Jane’s business experiences over some 35 years include stints with IBM, UBC Computing Centre and Metro Vancouver, as information technology manager, systems analyst and project manager as well as several years as an independent management consultant specialising in planning, facilitation, organisation development and project management.

Over the past 14 years, Jane has focused her energies on project and volunteer work both provincially and in her North Shore community as a passionate advocate for social justice with:

• North Shore Adults Support Network as their Coordinator and now Regional Mentor for the BC Association of Community Response Networks
• Lionsview Seniors Planning Society as the Team Lead for their age-friendly Seniors Planning Table project

Jane also volunteers for:

• North Vancouver Restorative Justice Society as a Facilitator for the Restorative Responses to Adult Abuse & Neglect Program
• North Shore Volunteers for Seniors as a one-to-one outreach volunteer
• Canadian Mental Health Association as an outreach volunteer, and
• With her local parish church doing outreach and planning

When not volunteering or pursuing community development projects, Jane can be found singing in a harmony choir, organising music coffee houses or pursuing her interest in natural history.

Christine Spinder

Phone: 604 809-5391
Email: Christine.Spinder@bccrns.ca

April Struthers

Phone: 604 885-0651
Email: April.Struthers@bccrns.ca

April is a consultant and trainer in BC, Canada and the United Kingdom for large and small clients in all sectors. She has lived for 25 years in a small rural community, working part of the year internationally.

April has been a College staff/faculty member, alternative school teacher, contract family counsellor for the Ministry for Children and Families and the Sechelt Indian Band. She is a registered clinical counsellor. Her consulting practice is in management, organizational, and community development-all three at once in larger projects. Recent projects include an early Intervention review, working with a ballet (teamwork and communications); facilitating development and training of a Social Planning Council in rural BC, organizational development of a regional hospital social services team, doing a strategic review for a mental health not for profit; and co-ordinating an anti-discrimination 3 year project.

April has been involved with the Adult Guardianship Project at the Public Guardian and Trustee of BC since 1997. She leads workshops in Recognising and Dealing With Abuse, and has written a handbook on adult abuse, as well as contracting to the PGT to facilitate First Nations dialogues, and to write First Nations/health authority protocols for service.

Nationally April has contributed to writing and development in the prevention of adult abuse with Outlook 2007 – National Promising Approaches and national draft strategy for prevention of elder abuse; with development from a BC base with Lindsay Neufeld of an approach supported by the BCACRN (see the BLI paper) and emerging as a intervention tool for NICE-Being Least Intrusive.

People report working with April to be fun, productive and inspirational. April follows principles of cross cultural good practice, (has worked with many First Nations peoples); is committed to diversity, equality; and collaboration. She loves to travel and to hear community stories.

Heather von Ilberg

Phone:250 352-6813
Email: Heather.Vonilberg@bccrns.ca

Covering CRNs in the Kootenay Boundary and East Kootenay.

Heather lives in Nelson and works in the East and West Kootenays. Heather has focused on making communities safer, more accessible places for over thirty years; she has worked primarily with people living with disabilities and those living with HIV/AIDS and/or Hep C. She has always been a strong advocate for people and was appointed and sat on the Provincial Advisory Committee for HIV/AIDS for several years, until its dissolution. Heather has been involved with the Adult Guardianship Project since 1994 and was one of the original CRN Pilot Project coordinators. Heather currently sits on the BC Adult Abuse and Neglect Prevention Collaborative.