Message from the President: Moving boldly forward, together

People living with cerebral palsy are tenacious. This I know for sure. When they fall, they get back up, and try and try again, until they succeed. They do not let obstacles stand in their way, and they do not allow others to tell them what they can and cannot do. They move forward with courage and a sense of humour to soften the blows of failure along the way. It is only fair that the Board of the Cerebral Palsy Association of BC try to emulate this enviable courage and determination in steering the Association forward on behalf of its members.

While obstacles and struggles abound in funding and providing much needed supports and services to people living with cerebral palsy across the province, we remain committed to doing our very best to do so. Earlier this month, at our strategic planning meeting, the volunteer members of the Board of the Cerebral Palsy Association spent an evening together planning how best to guide our efforts over the coming years. We reviewed and re-committed to our mission statement to raise awareness of CP in the community, to assist those living with CP to reach their maximum potential, and to work to see those living with CP realize their place as equals within a diverse society.

We devised a number of initiatives to increase our membership, expanding our community to include more people with cerebral palsy, and their families, from across the province, and to do so as early in their lives as possible. There is strength in numbers.

We committed to an ambitious fundraising campaign through a variety of means. Funding is critical to the Association as it gives us the ability to provide the much-needed services and supports to our members.

We also recognized the importance of asking for help. We are very fortunate to have an Advisory Committee comprised of people living with cerebral palsy, parents of children with cerebral palsy, physicians and therapists, all of whom have a tremendous amount of knowledge and ideas to share. We will continue to try to tap into their collective wisdom to guide us.

Some of these new initiatives will be successful, while others will fail to achieve the desired outcomes. We cannot promise every strategy will succeed, but we can promise that if at first we do not succeed, we will try and try again, until we do. That much we owe to our members.