In December, the Personnel Committee met with staff members to present an overview of the proposed Health and Safety Policy. The Ontario Health and Safety Act mandates that organizations that employ at least six people must have health and safety policies, as well as workplace violence and harassment policies. One of the requirements of the policy is to appoint a Health and Safety representative to regularly conduct risk assessments and to ensure that safe practices and equipment are in place. Knowing that our zone coordinators are already very busy, we somewhat apologetically asked for a staff member to volunteer for this position.
To our surprise and delight, we didn’t have to wait long. Heidi St. Jean eagerly volunteered for this position. She also quickly agreed to participate in a training opportunity that was scheduled for a few days later.
Heidi has already been hard at work to identify areas and practices within our building that compromise safety. She is working closely with the Building and Personnel Committees to implement practices and procedures that are required by the Health and Safety Act and that will ensure that we have emergency procedures, supplies, and signage in place.
One of the challenges of putting policies into place is to ensure that they are communicated, implemented, and actively followed. It’s unusual to see a policy move from paper to practice before it’s even fully adopted! Heidi’s enthusiasm and commitment to safety at Hope Fellowship is a hopeful sign that this policy simply won’t be filed in a drawer. More importantly, it’s a hopeful sign that our building will be a safe place for all who enter its doors.
- Joanne
To our surprise and delight, we didn’t have to wait long. Heidi St. Jean eagerly volunteered for this position. She also quickly agreed to participate in a training opportunity that was scheduled for a few days later.
Heidi has already been hard at work to identify areas and practices within our building that compromise safety. She is working closely with the Building and Personnel Committees to implement practices and procedures that are required by the Health and Safety Act and that will ensure that we have emergency procedures, supplies, and signage in place.
One of the challenges of putting policies into place is to ensure that they are communicated, implemented, and actively followed. It’s unusual to see a policy move from paper to practice before it’s even fully adopted! Heidi’s enthusiasm and commitment to safety at Hope Fellowship is a hopeful sign that this policy simply won’t be filed in a drawer. More importantly, it’s a hopeful sign that our building will be a safe place for all who enter its doors.
- Joanne
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