About Community Magazine
Find out more about the publishers and contributors of Community Magazine.
Cultivating Perserverance
“The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer.” – Will Rogers
Long-Term Care Is a Short-Term Solution
There’s an urgent need for accessible housing and trained disability care, as young individuals with SCI face life in ill-suited long-term care
You can do hard things
Overcoming Grief, Change, and Adversity. Read more about Greg’s story…
Breaking the Mould
Resilience and creativity in adapting to life with a disability
Get Me Through the Door
People with disabilities often find themselves facing closed doors. Some of them are physical doors that keep them from participating in what is on the other side. Other times they are metaphorical ones that keep them from being part of the community. In either case, the only way to the other side is through.
Unbroken Spirits: Stories of Triumph & Transformation
A film can entertain, inform, and bring the viewers on a journey. They can also inspire. There is no shortage of people who inspire within the disability community.
Choosing Happiness
David Holmes will tell you he is a lucky man. Many people would disagree with him, but they don’t possess the resilience, understanding and hope that he has.
Upside Down
You are going about your daily life when it is changed forever in the blink of an eye. You suddenly find yourself in an alien body with your whole life being turned upside down and without any idea what the future will hold.
Meet Wendy Cooper-Parkinson
Wendy Cooper-Parkinson’s journey in the art world began in the eighties when her kids were still young.
Pedalling Possibilities
Sometimes the journey is the goal. We caught up with Kevin Mills as he was Pedalling Possibilities and pursuing his nationwide bike tour.
From One Generation to the Next
Karen Vigmond continues the legacy of philanthropy and commitment at SCIO.
The Healing Power of Art
Finding new ways to enjoy things she did before her injury, like expressing her creativity through art, has been a salve for the soul.
On the Journey Together
Sharon Russell understands firsthand that navigating an SCI in the family can be an overwhelming journey that simply can’t be faced alone. A year ago, her husband Bill sustained an SCI.
Looking Back to Look Forward
People with lived experience are the best source of information about day-to-day living and can also talk about the emotions associated with sustaining a spinal cord injury. That is the basis of our Peer Program.
Navigating SCI as a Family
“We don’t talk often enough about the impact that an SCI has on the family’s mental health as a whole…”
Filling the Toolbox
When you are struggling with poor mental health, there are many different tools you can use to help you.
Finding the Light on Dark Days
When you are passionate about helping others overcome challenges and barriers, and you work for an organization that is dedicated to the same, it is more than a job, it is a vocation.
Scooting Through Life
Access to the right equipment after sustaining a spinal cord injury can ease the challenges in daily living, Frank Walker understands this well from personal experience.
Adaptation: How Jake Thomas Combined his Love of Sport and Filmmaking
Jake Thomas is a passionate filmmaker from Ontario, breaking boundaries in action sports.
Through the Desert to the Water
Saleh spent most of his years between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where accessibility was less than ideal and at times non-existent.
Volunteer Spotlight
I give my time because…
Drew Cumpson: Taking Advocacy to the Next Level
Meet Drew Cumpson, a passionate disability advocate who’s taking his efforts to the next level by running in the upcoming provincial election as the NDP candidate for Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston.
Meet Taylor Lindsay-Noel
Taylor is a bold, 28-Year-Old Entrepreneur and Tea Lover with a Passion for Pioneering Change
Meet Julie
Julie Sawchuk is an accessibility strategist, educator, speaker, best-selling author and SCIO Board member.
Plan Your Legacy
Planning our life’s legacy is both a responsibility and an incredible privilege – it allows us to decide how we will be remembered when we are gone.
Dedication
Dr. Mary Ann McColl and her late husband, Kirby Rowe are familiar names to many in our community.
Rolling Through Barriers: Inclusive Workplaces
This fall, as part of Spinal Cord Injury Ontario’s Rolling Through Barriers campaign, we hosted a virtual panel to tackle some of the challenges and opportunities that exist when it comes to finding meaningful and sustainable work forpeople with disabilities.
Keeping Goals in Sight – Summer 2021
Our Board of Directors are a dedicated and diverse group of individuals that give their time and expertise to our organization and our community. We continue to profile this generous group of individuals. This edition we connect with Dana Francoz and Omar Ha-Redeye.
Rolling Through Barriers Champions
Pandemics betray our ideas around equality. They shine a light on the deep deficiencies and chronic ruptures that exist in society, often impacting the most vulnerable and marginalized in our communities. They urge us – demand of us – to collectively imagine a better world.
A Path to All
A woman sits at her window looking out at the neighbourhood. She sees her neighbour across the street coming home from shopping. It used to be that she would have joined her friend on that shopping trip and then finished the outing off with a coffee and sweet treat at her friend’s home. That doesn’t happen anymore.