• What is Causeway?
• Mission Statement
• The need
• Operation and funding
• Brief history
• Strategic Plan

What is Causeway?

Causeway Work Centre is a charitable agency that has been assisting people with chronic mental illness and other disabilities for more than 25 years. The Work Centre also assists the homeless and those who are at risk by providing important community services including: Pre-employment and skills development; an Outreach serving persons who are mentally ill and those with a concurrent disorder; various Supported Employment programs; a Wellness program; a Computer Training program; and an entrepreneurial enterprise, Krackers Katering, run by and employing Causeway clients.

A support organization, the Causeway Foundation, was established in 1998 to pursue revenue from private and non-government sources and from the public at large. For more information about the Foundation visit: www.causewayfoundation.org

Causeway is located in the Hintonburg area of Ottawa at 22 O’Meara Street, off of Bayview near the junction of Somerset and Wellington streets.

Causeway Work Centre Mission Statement

Causeway’s mission is to provide a range of employment and educational programs and other supports to persons with mental illness and/or other disabilities, and those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

The need

Many people suffering from a mental illness and/or other disabilities are able to live in the community. But frequently these individuals lead lonely and isolated lives. They need a purpose in life and a reason for living. Helping these individuals find gainful employment not only assists them economically, but also provides them with a sense of worth and self-confidence. Causeway is where they come to find the educational resources and employment programs that will put their interests and skills to use. This is the place where the disadvantaged and persons challenged with mental illness and other disabilities can come to pursue recovery and to regain their lives.

Operation and funding

Causeway is a non-profit agency with a staff of approximately 25 full and part-time employees. A volunteer 14-member Board of Directors governs the Work Centre. Most of the funding comes from the government – federal, provincial and municipal. A support organization, the Causeway Foundation, pursues funding from various private and non-government organizations and the public at large.

Brief history

During the 1960s the Ontario government undertook a major de-institutionalization of the provincial psychiatric hospitals, returning hundreds of severally mentally ill persons to their local communities/families. Unfortunately, there were virtually no community-based programs designed to support these individuals. Many persons with mental illness were discharged from hospital and became severely ill again due to a lack of available supports. They returned to hospital, were stabilized on medication and discharged only to become ill once again. This ongoing, continuous cycle became known as the “revolving door syndrome”.

Causeway was developed as a grassroots organization in the 1970s by a group of parents with mentally ill children, mental health professionals and community leaders. It was designed as a community-based mental health facility to provide supports in the community to persons upon discharge from hospital. In 1976, this facility was incorporated as Causeway Post Psychiatric Work Projects Incorporated. This name was formally changed to Causeway Work Centre in the early 1980's.

To this day, Causeway is the only community-based organization that provides individuals with severe mental health and other disabilities with comprehensive employment and educational programs and related support services.

Causeway Work Centre 2005 Strategic Plan
Executive Summary

The title of the Strategic Plan, It Takes a Village, not only denotes the Village Model of service delivery (which involves a menu of skill-building and supported employment programs and services) adopted by the agency, but also refers more broadly to the need for integrated services to support consumers in meeting their goal of a full and productive life within the community at large.

This strategic plan sets out the programs and services, members and consumers, philosophy, mission and vision of Causeway Work Centre. It examines various environmental factors that have the potential to impact its future directions and goals, and assesses the organization’s strategic capacity to respond to environmental pressures. The plan concludes with a statement of its strategic thrusts for the coming year and an indication of next steps in the strategic planning process.

Environmental factors present both challenges and opportunities in relation to the achievement of Causeway’s vision of providing leadership and excellence in the delivery of services designed to promote meaningful participation and recovery from mental illness and other disabilities. On a positive note, the federal government, through Human Resources Skills and Development Canada, is providing (albeit time-limited and project-based) funding for various new and innovative Causeway programs. The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology is expected to recommend a range of federal actions to address mental illness. On the provincial front, the government has recognized the significance of health promotion and has made a number of improvements in the Ontario Disability Support Program. At the municipal level, the Mayor’s Initiative on Healthy and Productive Workplaces could have positive implications for Causeway clients and programs.

In addition, Causeway’s supported employment and education programs, wellness program and other services position the agency as a unique, value-added part of the spectrum of coordinated mental health and disability-related services across the region. The agency's collaborative approach within the community, and its working relations with partner agencies that serve a similar clientele, reinforce its capacity to support consumers in the pursuit of their recovery goals.

However, various circumstances, most of which are beyond our control, are putting pressure on Causeway’s capacity to fulfill its mission and achieve its vision. These include an unfavourable funding environment characterized by time-limited, project-based support coupled with more detailed reporting requirements, serious labour market challenges (including stigma) facing persons with mental illness and/or other disabilities and the potential threat of privatization/commercialization of employment services.

In the face of such pressures, Causeway has made significant progress in its cultural shift toward enhanced accountability, the development of a learning environment and an integrated approach to service delivery for its clients, rather than a collection of programs and services that operate in isolation. Causeway has placed a greater emphasis on its strategic planning process, developed new and efficient internal structures and adopted a strategic management tool, the Balanced Score Card, in an effort to keep client and organizational needs central to its vision, mission and operations, to track progress against strategic goals and to manage resources more effectively.

In order to move the organization forward, the Board, management team, staff and consumers have agreed on the following strategic thrusts:

• Explore and develop partnerships that will better enable the agency to provide services and programs to meet client needs and improve its “bottom line”.
• Seek new, expanded or improved ways to generate revenue.
• Conduct cost-benefit analyses of existing Causeway programs
• Advocate on behalf of Causeway clients and the agency itself.

It is anticipated that, in the pursuit of these strategic directions, Causeway will become a stronger, more cohesive organization better equipped to meet the needs of the people it serves, more capable of meeting its multi-faceted challenges and better positioned to play a leadership role in order to improve the quality of life of consumers within the community.