{"id":20170,"date":"2018-03-21T15:51:23","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T19:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20170"},"modified":"2018-03-21T15:51:23","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T19:51:23","slug":"able-network-embodies-refuse-to-settle-philosophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/able-network-embodies-refuse-to-settle-philosophy\/","title":{"rendered":"ABLE Network embodies \u201crefuse to settle\u201d philosophy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Able Network wants its members to reach their full potential and be the best they can be.
\nIn short, the Aurora-based organization which provides education and opportunities for those living with intellectual challenges, not only refuses to settle for less with their young men and women, but they also refuse to settle for less as an organization.
\nThis philosophy recently caught the eye of the local Pita Pit store as the company embarked on their nation-wide \u201cRefuse to Settle\u201d campaign, which sees Pita Pit franchisees nominate organizations in their community who live by this philosophy every day.
\n\u201cPita Pit Canada is very big on the core values of having each other\u2019s backs and being fanatical about what you do, being fresh all the time,\u201d says Natasha Both, franchisee of the Bayview Avenue restaurant. \u201cWe\u2019re always fresh with our food, but also always fresh with our thinking. I felt Able Network was very much aligned with those core values and that is why I nominated them for the Refuse to Settle campaign.\u201d
\nAs a result, Natasha welcomed two Able Network volunteers to the store last week to formally present a $1,000 cheque, a much-appreciated boost for the grassroots organization.
\n\u201cOne of my employees sons is part of Able Network and she talks about how involved they are with him, how every year they make sure he is in the right environment for what he needs and what he is capable of doing and how he can contribute to the community,\u201d says Natasha. \u201cThey review where his strengths and weaknesses are and how they can situate him to improve himself in just everyday life skills.
\n\u201cAble Network didn\u2019t know about the Refuse to Settle campaign that was going on for 2018, but I met [Director] Barb Allan at a Chamber of Commerce event and it just clicked. I knew that that was it.\u201d
\nThat same click was felt by Ms Allan.
\n\u201cWe all want to be valued, busy, and reach our full potential,\u201d she says. \u201cIt is nice that they thought of us and honoured us this way. It is nice that they thought of the Able Network in the context of the Refuse to Settle campaign, showing that we\u2019re not going to settle and we want our guys to be the best they can be and reach their full potential. Ever since Pita Pit moved into Aurora, they have been a good champion for us.
\n\u201cWe are a community organization and everything we do is a natural job in a community setting. We don\u2019t have a lot of expenses in regards to things or \u2018stuff\u2019 because we spend all our time out in the community. The biggest reason we fundraise and accept donations is because we\u2019re trying to continue Able. We\u2019re a fee for service organization and we\u2019re trying to continue to be an affordable organization. Our biggest cost is staffing and having our staff support people in the community.\u201d
\nMore than half of their operating budget, she says, is met through fundraising, with the balance recouped through fees from families coming to Able Network. Every little bit helps, says Ms. Allan.
\nLast week cheque presentation afforded two Able Network members \u2013 Elaine and Michael \u2013 with one more opportunity to learn a very important skill: Ms. Both and Pita Pit employee Jennifer McPhee taught them step by step how to assemble the perfect pita, which they were able to bring back for lunch at Able Network\u2019s home base, The Rectory at Trinity Anglican Church.
\n\u201cThey really enjoyed it and it was a highlight for sure,\u201d said Ms. Allan of the hands-on experience.
\nAdds Natasha: \u201cThey had such a blast being a part of it. Elaine called her mum and told her, \u2018You\u2019ve got to sit down. I\u2019ve got news for you.\u2019 She was just so thrilled to have a pita she made.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Able Network wants its members to reach their full potential and be the best they can be.
\nIn short, the Aurora-based organization which provides education and opportunities for those living with intellectual challenges, not only refuses to settle for less with their young men and women, but they also refuse to settle for less as an organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-22-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5fk","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 12:55:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}