OLDS — Accredited Supports to the Community (ASC) celebrated its 50-year anniversary and held a grand re-opening of its Olds Bottle Depot on Sept. 7.
ASC provides services and support to everyone from intellectually disabled people to seniors and operates the bottle depot out of its head office at 4322 50th Ave.
The organization also has satellite operations serving Airdrie and Strathmore.
A steady stream of people came out there on a very hot day to play games, eat snacks, check out the history of the organization and tour the bottle depot, which was automated this past spring.
Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Nathan Cooper, the speaker of the legislature, also came to check out the event.
Some of the kids played a Bingo game for a door prize, coloured in colouring books or threw darts in an outdoor dart game.
Executive director Dana Wild told the Albertan that ASC was founded in Olds in 1971 and incorporated in 1974 as a not-for-profit charity.
“We started from a group of parents that came together, saying that they wanted services for their children in the community,” Wild said.
She said the founding group got together at Horizon School, but later that school “transitioned out” of the organization, becoming part of Chinook’s Edge School Division.
“We’ve grown,” Wild said. “We started with one or two residential group homes. We now have seven.
“It was just sort of those adult services – or serving those kids in school -- first of all, and then growing that adult program.
Now we are serving families with children zero to 18 with or without disability. We still have our disability services.
“We’re branching out into senior services. That funding’s just been extended for us. It was a one-year project and we know that we’ve got an extension on that for at least another year.
“We’re just able to hear what the needs are in the community and then reach out, get some funding and provide those services for people.”
Wild said today, ASC has about 130 people on staff (about 110 in Olds, the remainder serving Airdrie and Strathmore) who help more than 1,500 families a year.
ASC is one of four or five organizations in town that work with people with developmental disabilities.
Wild was asked if there’s room for all those organizations or if things might be more efficient if they were amalgamated into one organization.
“I’m going to say there absolutely room for all of us,” Wild said. “We all do the same things differently.
“There’s maybe a different flavour, maybe a different model behind what we do, but at the core, all the organizations are looking to serve people with developmental disabilities.
“And interestingly, what I love about this community is we actually come together as those four and five service providers to talk about what are the things that are impacting our community? How can we make our services better collectively?”
She gave an example of how all those organizations can help each other.
“I often talk about how grocery store A is not going to help grocery store B promote themselves, but within this community, we find that all of our organizations work well together and promote each other and at the end of the day, serve people with developmental disabilities,” she said.
“And it offers families choice. Again, there may be some slight differences in philosophies, in mission, vision, principle – those sorts of things – that might speak to one family more than another, and that’s OK.”
Wild has worked for ASC for 22 years.
Initially, Wild was hired as a coordinator in the adult services area. She became ASC’s executive director in April 2020, just after the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“It was a very challenging time to start that role, but here we are today on the other side of it,” she said with a laugh.
Wild conceded that she’s been with ASC for a long time. She was asked why she’s remained with the organization.
“You know, it’s about the difference that the services make in the lives of the people that we support,” Wild said.
“I’m an exceptionally empathetic person, and so to be able to see where people are at and what support they need to be a better version of themselves, that’s what we’re here to do.
“And when I can see those small changes for people in their lives and the difference that our services make, it’s incredible.”
Wild was not the only person in attendance who’s been with ASC for a long time.
Also on hand, manning a table with information on the history of ASC, were president Lianne Manning who’s been with the organization since the 1980s and Carla Brautigam, who is believed to be its longest-serving employee, having worked for ASC for 32 years.
