Community Connections announced a major change to its leadership team, opting to appoint an executive leadership team instead of a single executive director.
The organization announced last week that the team of Gorette Imm, Kelly Bateman, Patti Larson and Diana Gadbois will lead the organization going forward.
The move follows the departure of executive director Craig Brown earlier this year.
The decisions to adopt a shared leadership model was made to allow the organization to grow its support staff, said Community Connections in a news release.
"At Community Connections we have a deep belief and practice in supporting people to be experts in their own lives. This extends to our staff as well," the news release states. "We have a fantastic team from the Executive level throughout the entire organization. We are going to reflect that belief in the implementation of a shared leadership model at the executive level. We will make shared strategic decisions together and bring our individual expertise to continue to support the day to day work of the organization."
The executive duties have been divided amongst the four appointees. Imm will head up family services. She has been with Community Connections for almost eight years and has recently been the director of family services as well as a Registered Clinical Counsellor.
Bateman is in charge of community living services for adults. Batement has been with the society since 1987 and has managed the community inclusion, customized employment, and residential services for adults with developmental disabilities programs for 25 years.
Larson will lead the community outreach and development team. She has run the food bank since it's founding 15 years ago, and also runs the organization's health and security program.
Gadbois will be in charge of finance and administration. She has worked for community connections since 2010 as director of finance & administration.