Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success

SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success- Case analysis.

In fall 2014 Gillian Lynne-Davies had just seen the 2013/14 Spinal Cord Injury Ontario (SCI Ontario) annual report finalized after a busy, but worthwhile few months. The not-for-profit organization she worked for, SCI Ontario, headquartered in Toronto, was part of a federation of organizations that served over one mil-lion people. Notable achievements from the past year included responding to 4,700 requests for information and working with the Ontario government to get $8 million infused into community-based attendant services.

In 2012, the organization, a leader in client service and community reintegration, had adopted a bold three-year strategic plan it called “Good to the Core.” (The plan was later extended to 2017.) SCI Ontario aimed to be an exemplar of not-for-profit management and to take a leadership role regarding people living with spinal cord injuries in the province.

Communications and reporting were vital elements of the strategy, which Lynne-Davies, as senior manager of marketing and communications, was tasked with delivering. Reporting helped SCI Ontario monitor its progress and let stakeholders gain a greater under-standing of the organization and, through this, an enhanced commitment to it.

Change was on the horizon: Bill Adair, the chief executive officer (CEO), had announced his decision to retire and Lynne-Davies would have to work to ensure the transition was seamless. Given the need to implement the strategy while managing the transition, she saw two major goals in the coming months:

● To further develop an internal reporting system to complement the external reporting system. A dashboard would allow the new CEO to see how SCI Ontario was performing against the strategic plan, financial targets and operational objectives.

● To refine SCI Ontario’s communications strategy to help achieve and critically measure its success in becoming the provincial expert on living with spinal cord injury. This would fulfill the organization’s leadership role and its mandate to be the “most reliable voice, advocate and leading expert on living with spinal cord injury in Ontario.”

Achieving these goals would make a huge contribution to SCI Ontario and its important mission.

The History of Spinal Cord Injury Ontario

World War II saw an influx of veterans with spinal cord injuries. These otherwise healthy veterans were scattered around hospitals where the medical staff expected little of them. In 1945, two veterans, John Counsell and Ken Langford, determined to help those living with the injuries engage more fully with the community. With the backing of prominent philanthropists, they established the Canadian Paraplegic Association. Its initial focus was on people with

affected motor function in their lower extremities, hence the use of the term paraplegic in its name. At the time, this represented the vast majority of the spinal cord injuries community as any injury severe enough to cause quadriplegia—affecting function of the legs, arms and torso—would have been fatal. Since then, advances in medical research, knowledge and support had significantly improved the prospects of those with spinal cord injuries. Thus, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the community included a far greater range of experiences and injuries. In November 2012, to demonstrate commitment to all those with spinal cord injuries, the organization was renamed Spinal Cord Injury Ontario (SCI Ontario).

Spinal Cord Injury Ontario – Our Mission

Spinal Cord Injury Ontario assists persons with spinal cord injuries and other physical disabilities to achieve independence, self-reliance, and full com-munity participation.

Every year, there were close to 600 people who sustained new spinal cord injuries in Ontario alone, and approximately 33,000 Ontarians lived with a spinal cord injury. The economic costs were estimated at a massive $2.67 billion in Canada as a whole. Even more important than the financial cost was the human cost. A spinal cord injury was a traumatic event significantly impacting those experiencing the injury as well as friends, family, employers, and the wider community. Such injuries could happen to anyone; indeed, the two age groups most at risk were those over 70 and those in the 20 to 29 age range. The top two causes of spinal cord injuries were accidental falls and motor crashes, every-day events that accounted for approximately 43 per cent of cases. Those experiencing a spinal cord injury were roughly twice as likely to be male than female.

 Despite the stress caused by spinal cord injuries, it must be understood that people were often able to positively adjust to life afterwards, given time and the right support. On average, it took a person two to three years to gain independence, typically after critical care, rehabilitation, and transition to community living.

Experiencing a spinal cord injury was a life-changing event as Chris, who received support from SCI Ontario, said, “It’s like you’ve been given a new body. You relearn everything from scratch.” The peer support that SCI Ontario provided to those who had experienced an injury could be invaluable in helping rehabilitation.

As Christine, a disability educator, remarked, “A disability doesn’t need to be an inability. We just have to be more creative about how we do things.” SCI Ontario was there to help people achieve their goals. As Lubna said, “Sometimes just a little support gets you where you want to be.”

The Organization of SCI Ontario

SCI Ontario was incorporated under the Canadian Not-For-Profit Corporations Act as a corporation without share capital. It was a registered charity under the Income Tax Act (Canada), which meant that it did not pay taxes and was able to issue receipts for tax deduction of donations made to it.

SCI Ontario provided the following programs:

● Attendant Services (AS) in the greater Toronto area.

● Regional Services (RS) to assist clients transitioning from acute care through rehabilitation into the community.

● Employment Services (ES) to help people with disabilities in the Greater Toronto Area.

● Peer Support (PS) to provide one to-one matches with trained volunteers.

● Public Policy Program to bring awareness and education to elected officials and to work with members on advocacy initiatives that aim to create an inclusive province.

● Research and partnership: financial support of fellowships and partners.

● Communications: disseminating information and raising awareness.

● Networks and Alliance to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities in Ontario.

● Informational Services for people with disabilities.

● Knowledge Enterprise, the learning centre for SCI Ontario.

● Member Services.

● Advocacy.

SCI Ontario employed close to 170 full-and part-time staff of whom 30 per cent identified as having a disability. The organization maintained 17 branches across the province from Thunder Bay to Ottawa, with the provincial headquarters in Toronto. Further details of the organization, its mission and values are contained in Exhibit 1.

In addition to its day-to-day operations, SCI Ontario controlled the Ontario Paraplegic Foundation. This foundation, which was established in 2000, received bequests and other donations from supporters. All the resources of the foundation must ultimately be used for the benefit of SCI Ontario programs or research sup-ported by SCI Ontario. The accounts for the Ontario Paraplegic Foundation are shown in Exhibit 2.