4S - Wednesday, February $0, 198% - North Shore News sisters adored or fi i ESoe buen ace THE PHYSICALLY handi- capped have another home to call their-own locally thanks to ongoing efforts by the North Shore Association for the Physically Handi- capped (NSAPH). By MICHAEL BECKER News Reporter The association opened Shone Road House, its eighth group resi- dence, Feb. 4. What began in 1976 with a group of families who didn’t want to see. their scverely-handicapped children leave the community for placement in institutional settings is today a community-wide association providing a network of group residences, support pro- grams and advocacy for the needs and rights of the handicapped. “The amount of growth from 1981 to now has been extraor- dinary and tremendous,”’ said Leroy Mickelson, NSAPH public relations and marketing director. Mickelson credits an aggressive board and an assertive executive director, Jeff Ehlert, for the association’s string of successes. “The trick is to go out and do it rather than wait for somebody else,’’ he said. NEEDS MET The first residence project, Quinton Place, opened in 1978 for severely multi-handicapped children. The latest, Shone Road, meets the needs of former Quinton Place residents who have outgrown the facility and require more care time than that available at the association’s six other in- dependent-living adult group resi- dences scattered: throughout the community. Work your heart on Feb. 14 CELEBRATE VALENTINE'S Day by bringing your loved ones to the free Heart-to-Heart Workout at West Vancouver Recreation Centre. The event, which takes place Sunday, Feb. 14 from 9 to 10:15 a.m., is for sweethearts, family and friends to exercise to favorite love songs in an energetic fitness class led by six different instruc- tors, : Juice will be supplied afterwards by SuperValu, and participants have a chance to win a prize. Among those drawn will be sports bags from Super Star Athletics, Belgian chocolates from Bernard Callebaut, and the grand prize of a dinner for two at the Keg Boat- house. West Vancovuer Recreation Centre is located at Marine Drive and 2Ist Street. For further infor- mation call 926-3266. MEWS photo Mike Wakefield THE NORTH Shore Association for the Physically Handicapped (NSAPH) recently opened Shone Road House, its eighth local group residence for the handicapped. Home residents, North Vancouver-Burnaby MP Chuck Cook, B.C. Housing Management Commission chairman Mary Kerr and NSAPH president Elizabeth Kok were on hand at the official opening Feb. 4. The various facilities provide a specially-designed home integrated with the community supporting four or five residents each. The residences also provide live-in ac- commodation for caregivers, “The benefits are obvious. Peo- ple have more independent lifestyles. They are individuals and are not treated like a unit. It is the ideal way of providing housing," Mickelson said. John Neumann, NSAPH direc- tor of project development, adult services coordinator and West 23rd Street group residence tenant since 1983, shepherded the Shone Road House project through to comple- tion. Neumann became a quadraplegic when he broke his neck in a motor vehicle accident in 1973. “We fought for the house for two years 10 get the government to TRADE IN vadlabor f her ae Fashions ee All regular priced wigs $45.00 off* OFFER EXPIRES FEBRUARY 28, 1988 7nd Lok Studios ‘eG agree to it. It only took 90 days for jt to go up,"’ said Neumann. Had the facility not gone through, Neumann said the probable hous- ing option facing the grown children of Quinton Place would have been an institutional setting such as Pearson Hospital in Van- couver. Neumann said the group resi- dences have for the most part been well accepted into the various North Shore neighborhoods. BACKED DOWN But he said, ‘We had only one problem, and that was in West Vancouver. One of the neighbors near Gordon House thought her children would be affected by screams emanating from the house — and this lady was a social worker. We had to go to council on it. Once she met everybody in- volved, she backed down.” The B.C. Housing Management Commission (BCHMC) provides one-third and the federal Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. pro- vides two-thirds of the capital cost of cach housing project. Every bed, including the live-in caregiver's, is funded at a max- imum of $42,000. Operating costs of the dependent and independent handicapped- adult residences are funded by the BCHMC. The Ministry of Health Service To The Handicapped pro- gram pays for staffing costs. Handicapped residents pay a max- imum 30 per cent of theic income toward rent. The successful opening of Shone Road House will be duplicated later this year when Nancy Greene Way House, another group resi- dence for severely handicapped adults, is scheduled to open in the summer,