Donna Bent has just driven home with two decades of her career in boxes in the back of her car.
The Sea to Sky Community Services director of service delivery is retiring, after 20 years.
The Chief caught up with Bent Thursday, at the end of her last day at work, for a chat about her career — including recently launching a new group home — a changing Squamish, and what is next.
What follows is an edited version of that conversation.
Q: How does it feel for this to be your last day?
A: I am a little teary. It is mixed emotions. So excited for retirement, but gosh, it is also my heart. The work was so important and amazing.
Q: Let's go back. Can you tell me what your job was like in 2000, when you started, and what Squamish was like then?
A: We moved from Kitimat. We moved down here for my husband to take a job with the school district. At that point, the mill had just closed down, and it was still such a mill town. It was going through that transition. It was quiet and felt like a sleepy little place and we were really attracted to that.
I started at Sea to Sky Community Services working in both mental health supports and community living, which is the support group for folks with developmental delays.
I worked in both Iris Place [a group home with mental health supports in downtown Squamish that closed in 2010] and Newport House.
I did some family support work and outreach. I worked a lot in community living — life skills support, teaching independent living, and employment coaching.
Then, I worked my way into leadership and management, making that transition from front-line work to management.
Q: What originally attracted you to the front-line work you were doing?
A: That has always been where my heart is. Just service — service to community — understanding that we are all the same and that we need each other. It is really what always stood out for me. In some way, we need each other. So, wanting to do that front-line work was really important. It was essential for me.
Q: Can you tell me about your most recent accomplishment — Harmony House — the new group home to support adults with developmental disabilities?
A: Harmony House has been a dream of mine for a number of years.
These are family homes, and we are guests in their home. Our staff assists residents in having that level of independence.
It opened in October.
We have two people who have moved in already and two more who are moving in within the next couple of weeks.
There used to be Woodlands Institution in the Lower Mainland. When it closed, they went to various community organizations and asked if they would be able to open up homes and invite people into neighbourhoods. Squamish was one community that was approached. We took four men from Woodlands and started Newport House. Those four individuals managed to live 20 or 25 years there. Each passed away there, living out their lives and having friends around them and the community becoming their family. These men were given up at birth and didn't have family and so the community members became their family. As each man passed away, we devoted to having that home house people from Squamish and the Sea to Sky Corridor. So, we were able to then bring people into that home who had grown up in Squamish. Now we have individuals who can stay in their own community.
But we only had one residential group home and people in the corridor were having to leave the community. So, it has always been a dream to open up a second group home.
We are a not-for-profit, so we didn't have the money to invest in it. We had to wait until it was the right time with partners who could give that funding.
This past year, we reached out to funders and were able to make that happen. We are just so incredibly grateful to the funders who helped partner. Sea to Sky Community Services is organizing and running the house alongside the funders.
We also had an anonymous donor whose donation allowed us to buy a second wheel-chair accessible vehicle for the house.
I just want to emphasize how important it is to have these community partners.
Q: So Newport House is still up and running?
A: Yes, and it will be run at full capacity, but one of those beds will be considered a respite bed, for families serving up and down the corridor. Families need a break and it is very seldom that you get a break when there is an adult child with developmental delays. This provides an opportunity where they can come that is warm and lovely. I am really thrilled to be able to provide that respite bed. We are so fortunate to protect these homes for families in the corridor.
Q: What else do you reflect on now as you leave your job?
A: If you know me as a person you know that I really value relationships and service. I really want this community to know and understand who much we need each other. As this community is growing,
I see people posting that we are losing our sense of community and that makes me so sad. I want to emphasize that we still need each other. Relationships are so essential. Sea to Sky Community Services can only do the work that they do in partnership with the community. We need each other.
Q: What is next for you?
A: I am going to take it easy. I have elderly parents in Alberta I need to focus on and we've got another grandbaby due in the new year. I am taking it slow and looking forward to baby snuggles with grandbaby number five. I am looking forward to that.
To learn more about Sea to Sky Community Services or to donate to the cause, go here.
