Team Awards
Recognizing outstanding employees and volunteers across our organization
The Beacon of Light Awards are an annual recognition program that highlights achievements, performance and commitment to the community and those we serve.
Beacon of Character – Stacy Cameron
The Beacon of Character Award recognizes and rewards team members who actively and consistently demonstrate our team values of respect, trust, communication and teamwork.
“Stacy is constantly offering her support, and provides ideas and insights that have made our processes easier, more user friendly, and more efficient while ensuring they are still meeting all our needs. She is innovative and creative, and holds the best interests of the organization to heart.”
Beacon of Excellence – Jacky Tam
The Beacon of Excellence Award recognizes and rewards team members who have gone above and beyond their job description to support the mission of CMHA.
“Jacky amplifies CMHA’s core values and beliefs! Everyone Jacky encounters is met with inclusivity, respect, kindness and a genuine wanting to listen to the needs and then the wrap around support in the most helpful way. The way Jacky encourages people through teaching as opposed to criticizing is so uplifting and he does it 365 days of the year!”
Beacon of Inclusion – Nisha Damani
The Beacon of Inclusion Award recognizes team members who lead by example and take action to facilitate diversity, equity and inclusion policies and practices at CMHA.
“Nisha is a very active member of our Flexible Support team who goes above and beyond in creating social events for our team such as organizing lunches, reminding birthdays, bringing cultural events to light and educating where required. Nisha is an active member of our Urdu Affinity Group and organized a successful Eid event for CMHA staff recently.”
Beacon of Innovation – Mimi Wang
The Beacon of Innovation Award recognizes team members who introduce new ideas, services or practices to improve the quality of service, financial management, human resource management, administration, safety or overall functioning of CMHA.
“Mimi always approaches things with a solution-focused eye and is a “connector” to all roles within our Ontario Structured Psychotherapy Program. Not only does she carry out her responsibilities with diligence but she does so with an eye to innovating processes along the way wherever possible and streamlining them. She has been pivotal to the growth of our team.”
Beacon of Mentorship – Karen Leung
The Beacon of Mentorship Award recognizes and rewards team members who foster a culture of innovation, character, excellence and inclusion within their teams and CMHA.
“Karen goes above and beyond to ensure that her staff are well supported and provides a lot of mentorship to cultivate the next generation of CMHA leaders. Karen cares deeply about her staff’s personal lives, career development trajectories and overall goals and strives to find opportunities to help cultivate those strengths.”
Volunteer Beacon of Light – Joanna Ross
The Volunteer Beacon of Light Award recognizes volunteers who have made an exceptional contribution to helping CMHA achieve our vision of Mental Health for All.
“Joanna continually demonstrates CMHA’s team values of respect, trust, communication and teamwork. And, what truly stands out is her willingness to help out with whatever is needed.”
Team Beacon of Light – Assertive Community Treatment Team – South Simcoe
The Team Beacon of Light Award recognizes the achievements of an entire team who implemented an innovative program or project that generated exceptional results for CMHA, our clients and/or the communities we serve.
Assertive Community Treatment Team – South Simcoe (ACTT-SS) has worked with laser focus over the past year to address wait-list and wait times. ACTT-SS serves clients with diverse and high-risk needs with multiple complexities. They come up with creative solutions to create access to care instead of turning individuals with high-risk behaviours away from services.
“ACTT-SS is a small team but the work they do speaks volumes. They support and inspire other CMHA colleagues, teams, partners and our community by training other nursing staff from other programs, participating in community and CMHA events, and supervising students. ACTT-SS exemplifies our team values by working together as a team and in close collaboration with other CMHA teams, having strong communication and foster a healthy and welcoming work environment.”
Community Beacon of Light – Vince’s Market
The Community Beacon of Light Award recognizes and rewards businesses who support CMHA York Region and South Simcoe who exemplify the spirit of respect, inclusion and mental health for all.
Vince’s Market selected CMHA and our Mobile Youth Walk-In Clinic (MOBYSS) as the recipient of their 2022 Community Product Initiative. All year long, 15 per cent of sales from select products go towards supporting youth mental health in our community.
Their generosity and community spirit doesn’t end there. Vince’s Market actively promoted and participated in Mental Health in Motion, our annual fundraising event for youth mental health, and as a result, their corporate team was one of our top team fundraisers and Giancarlo Trimarchi, president of Vince’s Market was honoured as one of our top individual fundraisers.
Partner in Care Beacon of Light – Welcome Centre Immigrant Services
The Partner in Care Beacon of Light Award recognizes the achievements of our outstanding partner agencies in providing service integration and excellent standards of client care in our community.
The Welcome Centres in York Region – with locations in Markham North, Markham South, Vaughan, Richmond Hill & Newmarket – have solidified their dedication to serving Newcomers in York Region. They are often the main and first access point to services in York region for many Immigrants in the area.
The Welcome Centres provide comprehensive settlement services and help all newcomers, including refugees, access resources such as language training, skills evaluation, and citizenship awareness. This plays a vital role in helping newcomers build social networks.
Through the pandemic, Welcome Centres partnered with CMHA to launch the Newcomers’ Health & Wellbeing Program, funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. This program ensures a holistic approach in caring for newcomers’ mental & physical health, which often takes a backseat to more pressing settlement and family needs.