Member-To-Member Connection (Summer 2015)

10 YEARS: Happy Anniversary Moving On!

It has been ten years since the Moving On project was first introduced to postal workers.

Our Unions recognized that members who have adult sons and daughters with disabilities face additional emotional and financial stress as well as a lack of adequate supports and resources as they try to balance work and home life. Following the Special Needs project, a parent told us: “Children don’t stop having disabilities when they turn 19.” In fact, issues of independence and future planning for the child’s security increase along with family stress and financial worries.

CUPW-UPCE/PSAC responded to members’ needs and CUPW, in 2003, successfully included adult children who are dependent on their parents for care into the Child Care Fund, Appendices L (CUPW) and H (PSAC) respectively.

Moving On has helped to support members and their families with the additional challenges they face as their sons and daughters with disabilities ‘move on’ to adulthood. Since the project began, we have supported 452 members with approximately 475 adult daughters and sons.

And now, some members, like Robert MacDonald featured in this newsletter, are retiring. We wish him, and all those members who are “moving on” to new places in their lives, all the best!