It was the icing on the cake to wind down the 25th year anniversary for Cochrane Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) staff to see their manager, Susan Flowers, receive an ‘Award of Merit’ Nov. 29.
Jeff Carlson, president of the Family and Community Support Services Association of Alberta (FCSSAA), presented Flowers with the award at the annual FCSSAA conference, held in Edmonton.
The FCSS’ ‘25th Anniversary Committee’ nominated Flowers.
“I’ve always said that FCSS is the axis our community turns on,” said Maureen Wills, committee member, community advocate and former FCSS board member for 12 years.
“Susan is a fantastic leader. She leads by example.”
Flowers said receiving the award was an example of teamwork and a dedicated roster of FCSS staff.
“I felt very lucky to get the award. My team was very generous — I had 10 letters of nomination,” said Flowers.
The nomination letters came from community members such as Lydia Graham, Betty Goodsell and Marg Lepp, as well as former Banff-Cochrane MLA Janis Tarchuk and Alison Gerit of Banff FCSS, among several others.
Flowers said her favourite part of the job is to put together task forces based on community needs, motivate groups to look after these needs and then turning it over to these groups or organizations to become self-sustaining; examples of these task forces include the Affordable Housing Task Force, the Child Care Task Force, the Seniors Task Force and the Youth Engagement Task Force.
Flowers helped develop relationships between FCSS and the United Way to develop a Cochrane Resource Centre and the Parent Link Centre; with the Cochrane Youth Association (the Boys and Girls Club of Cochrane and Area); and with Bow Valley College, among others.
Since her 1995 beginnings with FCSS, Flowers has worked to develop strong community partnerships with Cochrane’s town council and stakeholders throughout the region to influence change in social policy and infrastructure affecting social services.
She has also been instrumental in fundraising and grant applications to garner funds for various FCSS-led community initiatives.
“It’s an amazing feat — Susan has gone after government grants to the tune of 11 million in the last 10 years, and Cochrane has certainly benefited from that,” said FCSS advisory board chair, Linda Derkach.
Derkach also took the lead on nominating Flowers for the award.
Alberta is the only province with FCSS operations. Flowers estimated that 98 per cent of communities throughout the province have FCSS; the funding structure is 80 per cent provincial and 20 per cent municipal, as well as a strong reliance on grants and community partnerships.
