The Voice - REDI Enterprises with Dalton and Robin

Join VAD as we speak to REDI Enterprises about the great work and resources they offer the southern part of Alberta.

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Teresa Makarewich VAD

Welcome to the voice of Albertans with Disabilities podcast for October 2023. I'm Teresa Makarewich, your host and VADs program and service manager. Thanks for joining us today. Voice of Albertans with disabilities gratefully acknowledges that what we call Alberta is the traditional and ancestral territories and gathering place for diverse indigenous peoples whose histories, languages and cultures continue to influence our vibrant community. We make this acknowledgement as an act of reconciliation and gratitude to the many First Nations Metis settlement and the six regions of the Metis nations of Alberta and Inuit who have lived and cared for these lands for generations. 

In today's podcast, I'll be talking with Dalton Ehry and Robin Keenan from REDI. REDI believes in community where everyone belongs through a variety of programs, services, support and advocacy. They are able to foster an environment where individuals have respect, opportunity and responsibility. That has been talking with our Members to learn about the resources that are available to the disability community and I thank REDI Enterprises for coming to the podcast to discuss the resources this organization provides together. We hold the power. Please welcome Dalton and Robin. Can you both take a moment to introduce yourselves?

Robin Keenan, REDI

Hi, I'm Robin Keenan. I'm one of the job developers with REDI Enterprises, so I work to carve out and help create inclusive opportunities for employment and volunteerism in our community.

Dalton Ehry, REDI

Yeah. Hi. My name is Dalton Ehry. I'm the fund developer here at REDI Enterprises. And the adoptive sort of social media and outgoing media kind of person. We've been here for About eight months and Robin and I have been working on some projects and doing podcasts and videos and all Kinds of stuff  So really excited to be here today.

Teresa Makarewich VAD

Wonderful, So I have a few questions about REDI enterprises to gather information for our listeners. We're going to start with who is REDI as an organization?

Robin Keenan, REDI

So one of the cool things that I get to do with REDI is talk about our history and where we come from and help to work with Dalton and our team as we're moving forward into our vision. So it's kind of a loaded question. So who is REDI, so REDI is  In the short a an organization that provides 360 degree supports for individuals with intellectual disabilities . We also have a brain injury learning Services division, which helps individuals with traumatic brain injury. They actually span through the entire southern region of the province  So they do all kinds of cognitive and physical rehabilitation with individuals. We also have a bottle depot that we operate as a for profit Vision so helping to create a cleaner space  A cleaner neighborhoods for everyone And contribute to recycling that way, which helps to fund our disability services. So we do a whole lot of different things to be honest with you, the core piece of it when it comes to ready now, you gonna have to probably cut me off because I could talk about our company forever, Teresa, I really, really love REDI. So one of the core things about REDI that I think is really cool  Is that we've always operated from this position of possibility. So whoever walks through the door, whoever we connect with, everybody has a place and is our responsibility to help people find that place that fits for them and meet people where they're at to create meaningful engaging lives for everybody that we encounter. So I think that's that's REDI To me, that's where we we kind of land.

Teresa Makarewich VAD

Just to touch on that, you said you worked with people with developmental disabilities?

Robin Keenan, REDI

Yes, OK, yeah. So, but we actually have a we have a breadth of of Different contracts. So we work with through brain relearning services. We work with individuals with traumatic brain injury. We have a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder team that works with individuals with FASD that's funded a little bit differently. So if someone doesn't qualify for PDD  supports that  We still have an Ave  to  Help them with. And then we have our core programming, That helps with community access, employment, living housing supports.

Teresa Makarewich VAD

Oh, wonderful. OK. Some history about your organization.

Robin Keenan, REDI

I think our history is the coolest Piece so one of the great things so REDI was established following the polio epidemic. So there was these two incredible women, Miss Ada Williams and Bess Clark that put out an ad in the newspaper self-help opportunity and pardon the language. But this was over 70 years ago. So at the time The article read Self Help opportunity of the handicap  Please call. So these seven little words started in the newspaper and then we grew to be a $15 million nonprofit service in the entire Southern region of the province. But what was really needed to vote in the beginning was that not only was it a time when individuals with disabilities weren't seen as being people of value, women were just starting to get their voice. So the fact that these two populations came together to create something incredible, it really inspires me to be honest. So the vision was that individuals  Were essentially entrepreneurs standing on their own, working as part of a collective, A collaboration to create items for sale. So there was, like, public stenographer, there was seamstress. There was about 15 people that were working at home and about 12 people that were working as part of this Workshop type situation. Creating all of these things to bring to market So we were the broker to help that happen  But everybody operated as an independent business within that relationship. So that was that was kind of the foundation that was back in 1952. They started and the workshop actually opened in 1955. Then in this whole piece kind of traveled, it's crazy, right? Like it's  So and it  Was then at the time the newspaper had released  That it was The first of its kind in the country. Which was really amazing. So there was no funding, it was all from these two incredible women starting this piece up to to create REDI. So it it was actually known as the rehab in the beginning, which later changed into rehabilitation and employment for developing independence as we know it is REDI. So all of this stuff   Starts happening and it became really, really functional. It worked. It worked so well that they had went from this tiny little basement at the Empress Theatre building here. So when this tiny little basement operation to where we are now  At 860 Allowance Ave  in Medicine Hat, so they had a 10,000 square foot building that they actually broke ground. So this is crazy to me too. So Ruth Sissons was this amazing woman and she helped to get them funding together to build our new building. So she only had $35,000. They needed $200,000 and this was back in like 1972. So they needed all of this money to start to do the building, and she said that's OK. We'll find it. So with $35,000, they broke ground on our REDI building. And she raised the rest of the money in the year after that. So then we ended up having to add on some more square footage. And in 1987, we kind of finished the renovations on everything. And that's where we still are today. So we had a closed workshop in that space, which we closed in the year 2000 and which was really great about that was, that so we had all this equipment that we sold it all so that we could create a volunteer center. So we were the first volunteer center in medicine had as well. So it was neat that the now the community was coming to ready to seek individuals of value, so that whole piece of creating value and showing that everybody has a place in the our community, everyone can participate, everyone can work. Has really been a thread through everything, so everybody moved to community based employment and to this day we're still one of the largest volunteer forces in the community. We only do true volunteerism so we don't do work experiences, things of that nature. If someone is paid to do the job, then if you're working with REDI. You have to Pay that person to do the job as well. It's really it's really evolved quite a ways. Like I said, you're going to have to cut me  Off because I love talking about work. One other thing that I think is really important to mention here is that our brain injury relearning services programming actually started from a housing movement, so there was no accessible housing in Medicine Hat. So brain injury relearning services there was this, this funding that started to become available. And when it came available, they were able to go into places like Michner and Bring out they brought out 12 people. I believe the number is 10 or 12. It's one of the  Two my memory  Is a little fuzzy on that  One. So they brought these people out of Mitchner into accessible housing and Medicine Hat that our team help our brain injury team helped to create. And allow people for the first time to have. Healthy, sustainable, independent homes outside of that institution setting. So people begin to really feel that family peace and we have, we still have a few individuals in our services that came from that original intake. But I just think what an amazing gift to give to the community and to the community that we serve to be able to help everyone have a rich, reliable home life because I Think we all Deserve that  So from that housing piece, now, there's tons of accessible housing in medicine hat. Lots of it is operated through our community. Housing already has our own buildings, other service organizations here have their own buildings, but there is this Community Housing base that if you require accessible housing, you have access to that here. And that all came from brain injury relearning services. So I think that's pretty At that point, it was.Called hip. I think it's pretty amazing thing to contribute to our community as a whole.

Teresa Makarewich VAD

Yeah, that sounds like it's pretty amazing.

Robin Keenan, REDI

Oh, the other thing. The other thing is our depot. So see Dalton's laughing at me because he knows once I get talking about this, I just can't stop. But our our Depot  So super neat that we have this bottle depot so our bottle Depot is the was the first one in the Southern region of the province as well. So recycling was really really new. They just turned and believe we're headed into 45 years for the bottle depot. In that neighborhood, I think it Was 45 years. So people could, people started it became this huge thing There used to be people lined up around the block to bring their bag because it was It was new, was exciting. We finally can do something with these recyclables. So as the depot gained popularity and that started to grow, what they found was wait times were really long and they said, well, how can we help our community with this peace and to help ourselves. So we started a campaign called what are you waiting for and what are you waiting for means that it's a passive bottle drive For other nonprofits in the community. So a person can come to our depot  Drop their bottle bottles in a little bin and donate to the to community at hand so we support other local nonprofits to the tune of over 1/4 of $1,000,000 so far has been contributed to other local nonprofits. Focusing mainly on creating food accessibility for children and supporting individuals with disabilities or programming that supports individuals with disabilities like adoptive support, things of that nature. So we get the benefit of selling the raw goods, but the community gets a benefit And that collaboration  Piece has been really, really, really positive, so.

Teresa Makarewich VAD

That's right On. I was going to ask how you help people in the Community, but you kind of touched on that already. Is there anything else that you do in the community that I would  Want, to know about?

Robin Keenan, REDI

I think one of the  Biggest things for community is our Community disability support services, so  When we talk about how  To access different services, it's kind of a landmine for anyone. I mean, if we've if you've ever tried to get through to different organizations or sometimes even just to get through on the right line, if you're trying to pay your taxes or something, it's it's crazy, right? So we have this really amazing program, community disability, support services CSS which is 1 amazing woman that you can contact her and Wynonna will help you get connected to the right place. And I think that that's a really big piece that we offered to the community at large is. That she can help people apply for subsidies. She can help people get their AISH applications or their disability tax credit applications filled out. She can help people get connect that if they don't have PDD supports,  she can help them connect to the right person, so you only have to knock on one door. And she walks with people through everything. I think that's a really big piece that we offer to the Community, and that's to the community at large, because even if you don't qualify for supports at ready, she can help connect people to different like housing supports if they need it or food sustainability. I think that's a really amazing. Program that helps people connect that way.

Teresa Makarewich VAD

What are some of the projects that REDI is done in the community?

Dalton Ehry, REDI

Everyone can Robin kind of brought it up a  Little bit earlier, she's  Talking about how everyone can participate, everyone can be a part of the community and everyone can just make a bigger impact on the people around them. Everyone can is kind of a project that Robin and I started a couple of months ago to to highlight that and to highlight what we do here. She's mentioned the bottle depot as well. The Bottle Depot is a huge part of what REDI does here, but it kind of overshadows all the other good work that we do because the general population, when they think of ready, they think ohh that's the model they pull but they don't think about the disability services, the brain, the mental health services, the brain injury services. So what we wanted to do, Is kind of bring our core organization into the forefront for the rest. Of the community. And that's what That everyone can partnership is we go to our community partners like the library, like the YMCA, like the Community Dairy Queen. And we interview them, talk to Them about how ready impacts their organization and how a partnership with us benefits. Them and how the positivity that, that that we bring to their organization funnels through into their employees and works and profits and everything. So right now we're we're in this phase of of trying to have these partners connect with us. And really kind of connect their own businesses to what REDI is doing because we want to, we want the general population to know What we're doing, we don't like the Bottle depot is is one piece of it that is is fantastic, but we really want the people in our community to understand that we're not just a bottle depot, but we're something bigger than that and we're trying to make Medicine Hat a better place.

Robin Keenan, REDI

Yeah, that we're trying to and in the place that really it is a community where everyone belongs, you know if and we can all participate and highlight those pieces Of us, we talked a little bit about what are you waiting for? That's another community project that's been really big and connecting people to the passive bottle drive, so extra funding, our tag group, our tag group is really incredible. So our group of they're called the Advocates group.

Dalton Ehry, REDI

Action Group.

Robin Keenan, REDI

To help her tag Action Group sorry, the Action Group, that's right. So to to help promote advocacy So the individuals that are part of tag help create, do things like the citizens walkabout. So that's a social action piece that happens. We they go around and advocate through political avenues, so they speak in all different, all different places. It's really an amazing group of individuals that are supported by just a couple of staff persons to make sure that everyone has a voice so that they're heard.

Dalton Ehry, REDI

You mentioned the citizens walkabout, which was just a couple weeks ago, I believe. Yeah, just one month ago. And that's in partnership with the southern Alberta Individualized planning organize.

So like tag, our our advocacy group partnered with Lethbridge's advocacy group and one in Tabor, I believe as well to basically have the citizens Walkabout, which was just to bring awareness to persons with disabilities. So we had probably about 200 people come down to a park, down in medicine hat we had the mayor  Show up our MLA show up. We had a couple of the tag members as well  Spoke of spoke to their experience about being a person with disabilities in medicine hat. And then, yeah, walked down the Main Street of Medicine Hat, celebrated cheer. Did all that kind of stuff. It was a it was a really cool event to, to plan. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be there, but Robin was able to get a lot of really cool videos and photos. And everyone looked like they had a fantastic time. And it's an annual event. And all across southern Alberta that  We want to Bring more awareness. You and and make sure. People are seeing in our community.

Teresa Makarewich VAD

Just you guys mention southern Alberta, do you have counterpart to you that is northern Alberta at all? OK.

Robin Keenan, REDI

So but ready operates, operates in person offices out of we have in person offices in Brooks and Medicine Hat. And we have a small office out of Lethbridge just for brain injury relearning services. So our brain injury relearning Services program operates all the way from South of Calgary to the crowsnest pass to the US border to Saskatchewan. So people can access even rural services for cognitive rehabilitation.

Teresa Makarewich VAD

Perfect. please share your thoughts on how REDI contributes to the disability community to help better people's lives.

Dalton Ehry, REDI

It's that awareness piece and the and the the collective connectivity piece where REDI is not just like A11 size fits all organization, it's really focused on the individual and that's the main thing that we like to do when we when we have a new intake is is really kind of get to know the person who's going to be doing. Our services and what they. And how we can benefit them and if we can't benefit them, what can we do to make their lives more successful, easier and who in our community can do that for them? I think that's a big piece for me, like being new and and and learning about this organization and even disabilities in general. It's it's it's  Some very become  Very apparent to me that it's not just Just A 1 size fits all thing like you need that connectivity in those community members and everyone kind of chipping in. So I think that's that's a big piece for me if that is important that what REDI does is just  To not being that one stop shop being able  To being able to just do do anything  For everyone and really just have that focus on that individual. Yeah, that's that's how I think about It at least.

Teresa Makarewich VAD

Thanks. Any other thoughts?

Robin Keenan, REDI

I was just going to say that well  I think something. Is really incredible about what we do and I'm sure there's lots of organizations that do this, but is that we have this 360 degree support model. So we have our REDI Lives Division to help with housing and helping people maintain independent  Housing as best they can. We have our connects division that is like a bridge to the Community to help support people living at home And how can they make help them to create those  Those connections and community. Have the works division that will help support people and employment and volunteerism, education and training  But the important piece of it is that we meet people where they're at, so we don't we don't go ohh. This is what they need. It's like, OK well, what, what do you want? So an individual is the expert like we're all experts in our own lives. And that's how we work with the individuals that we are able to serve. Is that OK? So this is what is important in your life. How can we make  How can we  Help you reach those dreams. How can we help you  Create this peace in your life that you really want to be. So I really love that everything is possibility focused for people. So I think that's that's pretty, pretty cool about what happens in our offices.

Teresa Makarewich VAD

So how does somebody get a hold of REDI enterprises?

Dalton Ehry, REDI

Well, if someone is interested in services, we just do have a general e-mail  It's easy to get a hold of, takeflight@REDI.ca  and then the phone number is 403526475... Sorry 5742. So yeah, if you if you're looking for General Services, that's that's the way to reach out. They're going to be able to connect you to whoever you need to do. If you're interested in participating in our, everyone can initiative  That is going to be me. I'm the contact for that. So D.ehry@REDI.ca. Also, you can find us on all social media platforms, REDI enterprises society and we do have a special hashtag #REDIEveryonecan. So we're all over the Internet if you want to get a hold. Of us, we're very easy to find.

Teresa Makarewich VAD

Is there a phone number for anyone to phone?

Dalton Ehry, REDI

Yeah, 403-526-5742 is going to get you the front desk there and they'll be able to send you off where you where they think you would best fit.

Teresa Makarewich VAD

OK, what is an interesting fact about REDI that everyone should know?

Dalton Ehry, REDI

Robin touched on it a bit at the start there, but just the fact that we've been around for 70 years, I think is is really awesome and and being like a change maker and leader in our industry and Just being the 1st in  Our country for a lot of things I think is awesome like  The bottle depot,The building the, The the like brain Injury Recovery service, I think just being that that leader in our industry, I think it is really, really cool and being the the first, the first kind of to do it is is, is something that's really interesting to me.

Robin Keenan, REDI

That's one of the coolest  Things I really love, the one of the most interesting facts for me is that from where we originated, like 7 little words with 7 words in the newspaper. And at a time when, like, eugenics was still like, that was still happening. It was such a gross time in history and that there was just this core belief from day  That everyone has value. And that is stuck as such a thread through everything that we do. So from 7 words in the newspaper to a $15 million nonprofit, I think is absolutely incredible. Yeah. And that we still tell, essentially, we still have the same message over 70 years later  We still have that same messaging. I think that's really remarkable that everyone has a place in our community. Everyone has value, everyone is worth investing in and that  If we do  Amazing things happen. Amazing things happen and it's not just the people that we serve But the amazing things happen for is that we all get the benefit of that too, because number one, we get to live in that community, we get to live in the community where everyone has a space  But we get the the value of watching somebody achieve all of these incredible things that they've wanted to do that at some point someone told them no. And we get  To be witness to with this piece where they say actually, yes I can. And I think that that's I think that's a thread that's kind of woven through our entire history. And I think that I'm first of all, I know personally I'm very grateful for it. And I think that if you asked a lot of our team, they would be very much on that page too that we're very grateful to be able to do this work and to help  Others achieve those things that someone once told them they couldn't do.

Teresa Makarewich VAD

I agree. Well, thank you for your time and energy today. Dalton and Robin, your support of the community is a value to all. Is there anything else you want to say that today that I haven't asked you?

Robin Keenan, REDI

The other thing I would say is  Ok You'll check out on our website or on our social channels. We're always posting lots of neat things on there. We have some of our history on our stories coming through our social channels or through our website at REDI.ca. So and thank you for giving us a chance to come and talk about some of the things. We do, and hopefully we'll have lots more to share the next time.

Teresa Makarewich VAD

That's awesome. Well, thanks again for joining VADs podcast today. Voice of Albertans with disabilities is across disability, nonprofit organization of and for people with disabilities. We are guided by the principles of accessibility, equity and inclusion. Learn about VAD services on our website at vadsociety.ca or call 780488908. Need For more information. If you have a topic you would like to hear more about in a podcast, please e-mail myself at vad@vadsociety.ca  with topic ideas, speaker suggestions, or your feedback signing off for the day together, we hold the power.