Accountability

For 40 years, New Leaf has been growing and evolving to ensure that our community’s adults with developmental disabilities can also grow and evolve. This fierce determination to serve and support has required excellence in governance and leadership, effective operations and programming, and the highest standards of accountability.

That tradition of innovation and efficiency is evident in the strategic goals and initiatives that drive our operations and outlined in our Strategic Plan.

Strategic Goals and Initiatives

Building Our Organization and People

Continuously improve structures, practices, programs, and service delivery to meet the evolving needs of people who live, work, and interact with New Leaf.

  • Enhance the governance environment surrounding New Leaf in order to maintain compliance and alignment with leading practice.
  • Work towards a flexible and sustainable organizational structure and service delivery environment that aligns with best practices.
  • Enhance retention and recruitment efforts to build a reliable workforce, and enable current staff to grow, develop and evolve in New Leaf.

Connecting, Learning and Evolving

Ensure that all New Leaf people work together to evolve our practices as we learn and grow as an organization.

  • Leverage New Leaf’s natural assets to build relationships, and potentially diversify revenue generation streams for New Leaf, with the aim of increasing own-source revenue sustainably and responsibly.
  • Develop a strategy and approach to advocate and network with partners, decisionmakers and influencers to tell New Leaf’s story proactively and in our own voice.

Growing and Diversifying our Offerings

Create and grow new service offerings and revenue sources to strengthen New Leaf’s long-term sustainability.

  • Identify, develop, and implement updated policies, training, and risk management structures to enable a safe and welcoming environment for staff and people supported.
  • Welcome and introduce stakeholders, partners and the community back to New Leaf in a safe, healthy, and compliant way that improves the quality of life of people supported.
See the complete Strategic Plan

Executive Team

Colleen Ashmore-Miehm

Colleen Ashmore-Miehm

Executive Director

905-478-1418

Email Colleen

Vladka Dobesova

Director of Human Resources

905-478-1418

Email Vladka

Vladka Dobesova
Margaret Patrowicz

Margaret Patrowicz

Director of Finance

905-478-1418

Email Margaret

Kerri Tomlinson

Director of Services

905-478-1418

Email Kerri

Kerri Tomlinson

Board of Directors

Directors

Douglas Anderson, Interim President

Vacant, 2nd Vice President

Dan Blanchard, Secretary

Michael Szul, Treasurer

Board Members

  • Sandra Baldwin
  • Aubrey Basceo
  • Elizabeth Ferguson
  • Trudy Lalonde
  • Denis LaRose
  • Tracie Lindblad
  • James Lockyer
  • Debra Moskovitz
  • Stephen White

Executive Director

  • Colleen Ashmore-Miehm

Annual Reports & Financials

2024-2025 Report

2024-25 Financial Statements
Annual Reports from previous years

Read President’s Message from Charles C. Dyer

President's Report
2024-2025

As I am sure we will all agree, recent years have been difficult years for New Leaf. When the Covid-19 pandemic was in full swing, the impact on New Leaf individuals and staff was considerable, and not something we will want to see repeated. While there has developed the perception that Covid-19 is over, this is certainly not the case, and we have continued to have outbreaks over the past year. Fortunately New Leaf has become quite experienced with these outbreaks and in each case has been able to bring them under control by adhering to now established procedures.

Continued dedication and diligence by New Leaf staff and management have ensured that the quality of life for supported individuals has been maintained. We are most appreciative of the extraordinary efforts of so many of our New Leaf staff and management for their strong efforts to handle this difficult situation.

Some of the difficulties of these last years have renewed awareness of the importance of carefully following all policy and procedures in all areas, particularly where it involves the safety of individuals and staff. Review of policy and procedures will continue to be an ongoing process to ensure that evolution of the environment at New Leaf.

With the support from our Executive Director, Colleen, and her staff and from the Board, much upgrading and redesign of functions at New Leaf is under consideration or in progress, with information systems being just an example. Owing to changes in the Ontario act under which New Leaf exists, the Board has had to complete the ONCA process to ensure that our bylaws comply with most up-to-date requirements.

Owing to the resignation of Board members in the previous year, the Board moved to bring new members to the Board. This year we have appointed two new Board members: Stephen White and Sandra Baldwin. We welcome Sandra and Stephen to the Board and look forward to their participation on the Board for many years.

Resident enjoying a ride on an adapted cycle on a beautiful sunny day.

The next years will continue to present considerable difficulties, with some considerable threats facing us, including legal liabilities to be resolved, and inadequate funding by our Ministry in view of rising costs making it difficult to avoid a deficit budget.

So from the Board of Directors, I want our staff and management to know just how much we admire the job you have done, and continue to do, in these difficult times.

Following a considerable number of years as President of New Leaf, I have resigned from that position, passing the position over to the able hands of Vice President, Douglas Anderson. Douglas has considerable experience on the Board, and I am grateful to him for agreeing to take over.

I wish to express my appreciation for all the support I have had from all levels of New Leaf, and I am sure that Douglas will continue with the support of all of New Leaf.

Charles C. Dyer
President

Read Executive Director’s Message from Colleen Ashmore-Miehm

Executive Director's Report
2023-2024

I am pleased to share the 2024-2025 Annual Report for New Leaf: Living and Learning Together Inc. Our highlights in this report reflect the heart of our mission, and we are committed to continuous growth and improvement.

I’m proud to share how we have continued to adapt and, where possible, deepen our impact. Faced with an increasingly strained budget—and finishing the year in a deficit position, we’ve remained steadfast in our mission and values to meet the evolving needs of the individuals we serve and continue to be guided by our strategic goals.

In partnership with other providers in Ontario, this year we called on the provincial government to provide an immediate 5% increase of critical stabilization funding for agency operating budgets and a commitment to annualized increases. This campaign resulted in a one-time increase of just over 3% and although we are grateful for this, we will continue to work with the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, and sector partners to seriously advocate for financial stability in the sector.

In this coming year we look forward to continued improvement in providing quality support to help individuals identify and achieve their own goals, maintain employee engagement, continue to improve our processes and work towards growing and diversifying our services.

Thank you to the Supported Living and Community Participation Supports teams. Your commitment and passion in your work does make a difference in individuals and families’ lives.

Lovely young woman dressed in pink

Thank you to the Administration team. Your work is not always “seen”, and your efforts help all of us do better and do more. Thank you for your continued support to New Leaf and its employees.

Thank you to the Leadership team – Directors, Managers and Supervisors. Your guidance and support has been invaluable to the success of teams and fosters a positive environment.

Thank you to the Board of Directors. Your continued commitment to New Leaf provides the guidance and support needed to push us forward.

Thank you to individuals supported, families and loved ones. We are so grateful to be a part of your lives and we will continue to do our best to help you live your best life.

As we enter our 42nd year, I look forward to our continued successes living and learning together.

Colleen Ashmore-Miehm
Executive Director