Sherry Baker

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

Mentors Team Leader, and also covering CRNs in the North with the lead being taken by Kathy Doerksen.

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 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.

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.

Okanagan Region - This position is currently vacant.

April Struthers

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

Covering CRNs on the Sunshine Coast, Sea-to-Sky, and Vancouver Island.

April is a consultant and trainer who works in BC and the United Kingdom for large and small clients in all sectors. She has lived for 25 years in a small rural community, and the last 13 years has worked for several months each year internationally.

Past work has involved being a College staff/ faculty, co-ordinator and project manager; and an alternative school teacher. She is a contract family counsellor for the Ministry for Children and Families with a small private counselling practise. Volunteer assignments have included being a Board Member for a Transition House and Community Service organizations.

Consulting practise is in management development, organizational development, and community development-all three at once in some of the larger projects. Recent projects include an early Intervention childcare review, working with a ballet (teamwork and communications); co-ordinating development of and training for members 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 Stress Management Training for teachers.

April has been involved with the Adult Guardianship Project at the Public Guardian and Trustee of BC since 1997, and is coordinator of the Sunshine Coast Community Response Network. She has helped write protocols, led workshops in Recognising and Dealing With Abuse, and has written a handbook on that topic.

April’s specialties are developing teamwork and collaborative skills, building community capacity, developing high performance work and agency relationships, and helping groups and agencies learn from their projects and experiences. People report working with April to be fun, productive and inspirational, April follows principles of cross cultural good practise, (has worked with many First Nations peoples); is committed to diversity and equality; and service user involvement. 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.