The SSCOPE

SSCOPE Cleans Up Notre Dame Ave.

SSCOPE partnered with West End Biz during the week of April 6-9 to pick up litter and sweep sidewalks on Notre Dame Ave in the West End. The project is an opportunity to give additional work to SSCOPE's members during a lull in activity prior to the lawn season and help show that SSCOPE and its members care about the community. The event has resulted in favorable media publicity including a CBC TV story.

SSCOPE April 24th Winnipeg Jam Night Festival Fundraiser

SSCOPE's April 24th Winnipeg Jam Night Festival Fundraiser is set to go and tickets are now on sale. This is from our promotional email: I encourage you to forward this notice and attached poster to your contact list and friends and assist us this way. Poster is also online at http://www.sscope.org/april24poster.pdf If you can assist SSCOPE with the donation of prizes and silent auction please contact Bob at 987-6302 to arrange for pickup. Thank you in advance for your help. Great night for blues, roots, and classic rock music, socializing, dancing! Silent Auction, Draws, Food and Beverages. Fully licenced. Great venue. Bring your friends and make a night of it. Where: 1463 Pembina Highway, The Purple Sage, parking in rear. When: Friday, April 24th, doors open at 8:00 pm. Tickets: $12.00 in advance at SSCOPE, 987-63000, $13.00 in advance at Into The Music: 245 McDermot $15.00 at the door. Who: 4 Bands (see poster) More to come. Openings for more great musicians. Call Kumaran at 250-6400 if you are want to book yourself, your band, or someone you know.

SSCOPE now accepting new customers for lawn maintenance in 2009

SSCOPE is expanding its lawn services in 2009 to provide more employment for our members and increase our revenues to become more self sufficient in the future. As a result we have opportunities for new customers for spring cleanups, fall cleanups and our weekly lawn maintenance work. Discounts are available for customers who utilize all three services. Call our office at 987-6300 to get a rate quote. SSCOPE supports mental health and recovery for our members through employment programs for its members.

SSCOPE in the News-December

SSCOPE in the news re mindless theft and vandalism that cost the organization about $3000 in lost equipment, repairs and extra staff time. We implemented special fundraising to help defray the impact on our programs. If you can assist us with equipment or a money donation please contact the Executive Director at 987-6302

Moving and Deliveries Truck Back on the Road

SSCOPE's nearly new Ford LCF 550 3 ton moving and deliveries was in for some unexpected service work recently. It's back in full operation as of this morning, January 22 and ready for existing and new work. Just call us at 987-6300 or email SSCOPE wants to express our sincere thanks to Craig Rogers, the general manager of Parkside Ford in Winnipeg and Sheldon Gort, the service manager, for their generous assistance and help to get the truck back on the road and benefitting SSCOPE.

New Board Members at SSCOPE

SSCOPE welcomes new board members, Erne Tashe, a retired Winnipeg business educator, and Philip Giles, sales executive, to our Board of Directors. We continue to welcome interest from members of the community who want to assist SSCOPE's mission through leadership and service on our Board of Directors. Contact the Executive Director at ed_sscope@mts.net via email for more details.

Assiniboine Credit Union donation received

SSCOPE is pleased to announce we have received a significant donation from the Assiniboine Credit Union on December 29th. A very welcome post Christmas present. The Assiniboine Credit Union will become the major sponsor of SSCOPE's January 2009 Christmas tree pickup fundraising program and our SSCOPE Cleans Up...Winnipeg ongoing campaign. The Assiniboine Credit Union joins the WRHA, Manitoba Community Services Council, Winnipeg Foundation and the Thomas Sill Foundation as major funders and donors of SSCOPE's mission to support mental illness and related recovery in Winnipeg through gainful employment.

SSCOPE in the News: December 18th Story in CanStar News Weeklies

Here's the link to the December 18th story by Trevor Suffield in the CanStar Weeklies in Winnipeg, headlined, "SSCOPE Set Sights On Helping Those With Mental Illness" View Story at Canstar website The text of the article is below in the event the link becomes inactive in the future. "SSCOPE sets sights on helping those with mental illness By Trevor Suffield Dec. 18, 2008 Five years ago, all of Kumaran’s possessions were in a pawnshop, he had no car or phone and was homeless. Having just been accepted into Manitoba Housing, he heard about Self-Starting Creative Opportunities for People in Employment. SSCOPE, located at 1000 Notre Dame Ave., is a non-profit organization that assists in the rehabilitation of individuals requiring mental health services by providing them with casual employment. Kumaran, who requested that his last name not be used, spent 20 years touring the country as a musician. The rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle eventually caught up to him and began to affect his mental health. “Gradually, over the years the toll of making very minor, small amounts of money with huge amounts of energy output just took its toll,” said Kumaran, who was a member of Winnipeg-based reggae band Inna Riddim. “I’m sort of a success story in terms of I came here as a client of the mental health industry, just off the street. After four years of just working myself up, I’m actually a salaried employee now,” added Kumaran, who is now a support worker with SSCOPE. “SSCOPE actually was the perfect job for me and it brought me right out of the dumps.” SSCOPE offers a variety of services to clients including snow removal, housecleaning and moving. It recently added a Christmas tree delivery and removal service. The tree removal service wasn’t offered until this year because the agency didn’t have enough staff. “We feel that Christmas is a great time to be thinking of others. It’s obviously when the heart and wallets are open a little bit more,” said Bob Rempel, executive director of SSCOPE. SSCOPE workers will remove the trees after Christmas and deliver them to one of the City of Winnipeg’s recycling locations or to the Festival du Voyageur, for a donation. The non-profit organization was established in 1991 with the aim of helping individuals with mental illness get back into the workforce. Although SSCOPE workers are recovering from depression and anxiety, they are still capable of being productive, Rempel said. “It’s a pretty good workforce and they’re capable of doing almost anything,” he said, adding that a support worker joins workers on every job and individuals are free to choose when they want to work. SSCOPE currently employs about 50 workers at any given time. Rempel hopes to see that number double in the next couple of years. Workers are paid minimum wage, which Rempel said is a reasonable return for their time. The agency currently has an annual budget of nearly $200,000, with the majority of funding coming from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. “We certainly appreciate the help we get from the WRHA but we want to be at least 50% self-funded,” Rempel said. Kumaran says one of the biggest challenges for the agency is meeting the needs of both workers and customers. “We try to be sensitive to both sides,” he said. “People are calling us knowing who we are, and on the other end people might be calling us because we have the best rate in town.” Kumaran has begun playing music again and is proud of having been able to turn his life around. “For myself, this has brought me economic stability. It’s brought me structure, form and now I feel like I’m a member of society,” he said. For more information on SSCOPE’s tree delivery and removal service, call 987-6300, or visit www.sscope.org."

New Board of Directors Member

SSCOPE welcomes Alvin Murdock to our 2008-2009 Board of Directors. Alvin, 30, is a student at the Asper School of Business, and of aboriginal background. He has considerable experience working in community development projects in his hometown of Norway House. SSCOPE also has two other openings on its Board to fill over the next few months. Here is a link to the Volunteer Manitoba site where the SSCOPE Board position is posted.

SSCOPE Supporting Christmas Tree Recycling

SSCOPE and our Worker-Members will be proudly supporting the use of real Christmas Trees again this season by offering our Christmas Tree Recycling service. SSCOPE will pick up your tree at your residence and ensure it gets recycled at the various City of Winnipeg locations. This program benefits the environment and assists SSCOPE in fundraising to assist our mental illness recovery services. To book your Christmas tree pickup now for January, call 987-6300 or email us at sscope@mts.net