DRC Annual Report 2018

DOVERCOURT
RECREATION ASSOCIATION
2018
2018 annual
report
Building a healthy, active and engaged community
through recreation

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Dovercourt Recreation Association Annual Report 2018
Message from the President:
It is an honour to be a part of Dovercourt and a member of its Board of Directors. I've been in
the community since 1998 and my wife, children and I have all used Dovercourt's services -
two of my family members have even worked for Dovercourt.
I would like to begin with a few thank you's
• First I would like to thank the employees of Dovercourt - they spend a lot of time and
effort going out of their way to make life better or easier for clients, sponsors,
neighbours and board members. So much of what they do is above and beyond
expectations. Dovercourt is well known for all it does across the city and beyond -
that is a reflection of its employees.
• Thank you also to Dovercourt's clients or customers - their loyalty is admirable and
the feedback they provide helps make Dovercourt stronger.
• A big thank you to our many sponsors - we simply would not have what we have
today without our sponsors. When Dovercourt asked for help they responded.
• To our patient, tolerant neighbours through construction, summer camps and more -
thank you!
• To my fellow board members, thank you for your time and expertise. The big reason
I'm president is because I have time but no expertise - I just make the speeches, the
rest of you do the hard work. A special thank you and recognition to Louise Clément,
who is departing the board after 5 years and dedicated service.
The past two years for Dovercourt has been a roller coaster ride - full of highs and lows.
Dovercourt's can-do spirit, positive attitude and focus meant that the lows we experienced in
2017 only provided the motivation and inspiration for a phenomenal 2018. So much was
accomplished with the most visible sign being the construction of the addition. Not only
does Dovercourt make room for everyone, but Dovercourt just made a new room for
everyone. Well done.
Thank you.
Bill Ranson
President, Dovercourt Board of Directors

Executive Director’s report
Once again, Dovercourt benefited from an outstanding group of volunteers on our Board of
Directors. As a highly successful Social Enterprise, Dovercourt relies on the expertise,
vision, connection to community and of course, the hard work that our Board provides.
Focused on our Mission of “Building a healthy, active and engaged community through
Recreation” our board expresses a vision of a successful, self-sufficient, nimble, and highly
responsive organization offering a great menu of opportunities for people of all ages and
abilities. In 2018, we had significant challenges and successes in each of our key result
areas.
KRA 1 – OUR CLIENTS
Dovercourt is an innovative charitable social enterprise and is our clients’ first choice
for quality recreation programs and related administrative services. Our clients feel
welcome and very satisfied that they receive high value service.
In 2018, we asked a lot of our clients, namely, please be patient with us as we make
significant improvements to our existing mother ship facility to serve you better. Despite the
noise, dust, and sometime confusion, our clients stuck with us and we can now celebrate
those new spaces and the program opportunities they will afford us.
We also saw continued growth in demand in our summer camp programs, particularly in
accommodating children of all abilities. Our steadfast determination to serve all ages and
abilities has become well known, and we have become a destination for people with special
needs from across the City. Going forward, we hope to assist our partners and competitors
rise to this challenge as well, as we are reaching the limits of our resources and capacity,
and need to focus our efforts on the community we are meant to serve, our more immediate
neighbourhood.
KRA 2 – OUR COMMUNITY
Dovercourt is an inclusive and progressive charitable enterprise that leads the way in
promoting and facilitating a healthy, active lifestyle. Dovercourt listens to and
informs itself about its community, and acts on this research to provide better service.
We enthusiastically partner with organizations of all kinds to achieve a healthy, active
and engaged community.
Dovercourt has an impressive list of community partners that assist us in enriching our menu
of programs and services. They lend us their expertise and enthusiasm to make our
programs better, more complete. Bluesfest, The School of Dance, Riverkeeper, McSkimming
Outdoor Education Centre, Ottawa River Rafting, the Nepean Sailing Club and many more
have helped us our clients explore their potential and find what could be a life-long passion.
We have an even longer list of friends and like-minded organizations that help us in our
mission of a healthy community, including our local community associations: Westboro,
Carlingwood, McKellar, and Westboro Beach, our three Community Health Centres:
Carlington, Somerset West and Pinecrest Queensway, Cornerstone Housing for Women,
Salus, Ottawa Carleton Association for People with Developmental Disabilities, Tamir,
Ottawa Community Housing, Ottawa West Community Support and our local group homes,
as well as a growing list of social service organizations that refer people into our financial
assistance and last minute club programs to ensure that we can include those who need us.
Our annual Social Service Lunch and Speed Dating event ensures that we know who is also
working in our community and how we can share resources and ideas for a healthy
community.
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Last but not least, we can celebrate a number of local sponsors whose contribution in
finances or resources help us in reach, quality and capacity. Our corporate donors include
Morris Home Team Real Estate, Hobin Architects, Farm Boy, Westboro Station Dental,
Carling Motors, Ottawa Sport and Physiotherapy Clinic, Whispers Pub and Eatery, Neolore
Networks, Boston Pizza, Allegra Print and Imaging, Westboro Village Business Improvement
Area, and many more. In almost all of these, our connections are personal, we have served
them and their families, and they want to help us in return. Their contributions help us host
community events, improve our facilities, add equipment and resources that we can then
share with our community. They rock.
KRA 3 – OUR PEOPLE
Dovercourt is a highly desirable place to work and volunteer. Dovercourt attracts,
develops and retains talented, engaged and compassionate citizens and leaders.
I am particularly proud of the great people on our team. We have an outstanding Board of
Directors, whose resumes and skills are very impressive, but their most important quality is
their commitment to our vision of an engaged community and their determination to do
things the right way for the right results. While there is no shortage of smarts, there is also a
richness of caring, they lead with their hearts too.
Our full time staff are top notch, recognized across Canada in our field as expert, skilled,
and as innovators. They are called upon to speak at national and provincial conferences,
step up to assist the City in crisis or program development, and on a daily basis, do their
best to meet the needs of our clients of all ages and abilities in a caring and compassionate
way.
As well, they provide the leadership and mentoring of over 250 part time staff engaged in
every aspect of our operations. An important part of our vision is to be a great employer, to
support and teach our people how to be great employees, and to share our enthusiasm for
the very meaningful work that we get to do. Of course, that includes all ages and abilities,
and our supported workers are very much a part of our team and have become over the
years, part of our extended family as well. We take great joy in seeing where our alumni
have gone, and in hearing from them that their time with us was fun, rewarding and
something they treasure years afterwards. Having them come back with their children as
clients is very cool too.
KRA 4 – OUR FACILITIES
Dovercourt’s recreation facilities are fully accessible, welcoming and inclusive. Our
facilities and programs adapt and expand to meet the changing needs of our
community and clients.
Of course, 2018 was a most tumultuous year as we built a $1.7 million, 3000 square foot
addition to our mother ship. With the expert help from Hobin Architects who had built the
original centre in 1987, our amazing construction Management team from TALCO, very
skilled trades people, and our partners the City of Ottawa, we are enjoying a bright new
gym and accessible washrooms.
As well, our landlord the City of Ottawa has been making a concerted effort to tune up the
rest of the building, and we saw a significant investment from them in repair and
improvements at Dovercourt and our McKellar community building.
We entered our 2 nd year of partnership with Carlingwood Community Association, taking
over the wading pool supervision at their site, assisting with their winter rink operations,

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and hopefully, setting the stage for a bigger and better community building at their site in
the next year or so. We continue to look after the wading pool and rinks at Westboro
Kiwanis, Woodroffe, and McKellar Park, as well as the community buildings at Van Lang and
McKellar, and the Bluesfest School of Music and Art (BSOMA) at Festival House.
Our partnership at the Van Lang Fieldhouse is also thriving. We are seeing a very well used
building and great community connections with the help of our partners Carlington
Community Health, Westboro Beach Community Association, and Ottawa Community
Housing.
KRA 5 – THE CITY
Dovercourt is a highly regarded partner for the City of Ottawa.
Every year, we celebrate the trust that the City of Ottawa has placed in us as their service
provider for recreation in our part of the city. We do our best to be both an efficient and
effective supplier, while keeping up the community activism that are our roots. The secret to
a great partnership is a shared vision. We pay close attention to their objectives, and do our
best to contribute to our mutual goals of a safe and caring community, while doing it our
way.
We celebrate as well a new partnership with another community builder, the NCC. The
SJAM Winter Trail has been a big hit, providing a great opportunity to ski, fat bike,
snowshoe, or walk along the beautiful riverfront. It has been a great way for us to show we
will partner with anybody who will shares our vision of a healthy, active and engaged
community.
John Rapp
Executive Director
John Rapp
Director Team: Kathleen Finn, Robin Cloutier, Trish Stolte, Geoff Cass, Steve Nason

Summer Camps
An exciting addition to the camp lineup this year was the creation of our S.T.E.M stream of
camps that included Aviation Fundamentals & Electronic Art (STEAM Aviation) as well as
Robotics Circle & Triangle (Ottawa Robotics Academy). Highlights from these camps also
included a visit from Harjit Sajjan, the current Minister of National Defense to our Robotics
camp.
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We also were honoured with a visit from our Member of Parliament, Catherine McKenna
who joined us for a “Giddy Get Down” on the field with about 600 campers. Her office
approved funding for 15 student positions this summer including support workers for
campers with special needs, females working and studying in the STEM fields, and bilingual
staff.
At the annual Summer Camp Staff Banquet, Ben Blacklock was the recipient of the first Jonas
Mitchell Award. Jonas was a beloved and long-time Doverkid and Camp Counselor who left
a lasting impression on the culture of our camp team. He represented a leadership style that
was enthusiastic, authentic, and remarkable. Jonas was killed this past year after being
struck by a car while bicycling to work. His family has set up a fund in his honour to help
more kids benefit from the camp experience and from strong camp staff role models like
himself.
High Five Awards – 2018
Caring Adult:
Friends:
Participation:
Play:
Mastery:
Ainsley Taylor
Jon Brennan
Lexi Rudlin
Ben Van Dine
Nic Curcio
High Five Staff of the Year: Chloe Pennock-Bank
Numbers
We served 2987 campers last year. Each year our number of campers increases, as does
retention rate.

Half of our campers attend multiple weeks, and one in five campers attends 4 or more
weeks of camp
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187 of our campers were part of our Inclusion & Integration program and identified as
having special needs. Of these, 21 attended with 1:1 workers, and 39 were matched with
camp buddies. Also, 65 of these campers were new to Dovercourt.
35 campers from the previous year were moved off of the Inclusion & Integration list and
were no longer followed by the Inclusion Team for their second/third summer at
Dovercourt, as they learned how to navigate on their own.
151 youth went through our 2-week Leadership Programs and 38 continued volunteering
afterward.

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Camp Registrations by Age Comparison 2017-2018
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
13-19 5 to 12 0 to 4 Total
Camps 2017 Camps 2018
Out of School
The After School program continued to grow in 2018, providing quality programming to 150
children from 20 different schools. This program is delivered by more than 50 part-time staff
ranging from Junior Counselors to experienced Program Leaders and offers a variety of
active and creative play opportunities during the critical after-school hours. Our After
School participants and families enjoyed the annual events including the holiday Twinkle
Show, the end-of-year Rock Show, and the sleepover.
The After School program at Notre Dame High School is also delivered by the Out of School
staff team and offers a variety of recreation experiences for students in grades 7 and 8.
Activities vary depending on the season but include things like photography, drama, cake
decorating, tutoring, basketball, and skateboarding.
This program offers quality recreation programming in a safe and supervised environment
and offers High School students in grades 9-12 opportunities for volunteering and
employment.

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WAVE
The WAVE program has continued to become better structured and streamlined with the
dedication of a full-time Program Coordinator. The goal of this program is to help
individuals reach their goals through community apprenticeships and social activities.
Through strong ties with Dovercourt and the Westboro neighbourhood, the program focuses
on enriching the lives of its participants through community connections and work or
volunteer opportunities.
In 2018 WAVE and ALIVE fully amalgamated as one program, which has resulted in fewer
barriers for new participants, and more leadership opportunities for those who require less
support.
The WAVE participants organized two successful fundraisers – a theatre night that raised
more than $400 in donations, and the first annual Halloween Dog Parade in partnership with
local Westboro/Hintonburg businesses, which raised about $3000 to go directly back into
the program.
The WAVE program currently has 38 apprentices, working and/or volunteering at more
than 10 different places including Ikea, Home Depot, Ottawa U Heart Institute, Boomerang
Kids, Village Quire, and more.
Westboro Brainery
Westboro Brainery saw 125 participants taking part in 13 courses in 2018, all at the Bluesfest
School of Music and Art. Courses included Winter Whimsical Landscape painting, Healing
Stone Jewelry, Keep Calm and Curry on and Egg Etching.

BSOMA
Participation in music and arts programming at BSOMA continues to climb. Our growing
roster of music teachers (now 26) delivered 4510 private lessons in 2018 in vocals, guitar,
ukulele, drums and more. Participation in group classes and camps grew once again to 312
participants and 123 respectively. Our students performed at RBC Bluesfest, CityFolk,
Westboro Fuse, Music in the Park, and the McKellar Park Fall Festival, entertaining crowds
with their fine musicianship. Our very first Rock University band, Five + None, who has been
with us since 2016, has established themselves in the last year as one of the top new rock
bands in Ottawa, landing a single on commercial radio, booking festival gigs, and placing
well in local band competitions.
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Arts and Culture
Arts and Culture programming at Dovercourt is now entirely overseen by the BSOMA team.
We have continued our commitment to employing great community artists as our visual arts
instructors, and have developed our own courses for all age groups, rather than relying on
third party providers. The results have been a greater variety of visual arts programs for that
maximize the strengths our instructors and better suit the needs of our clients, and better
revenue results. Our Dance program saw 306 participants, a slight decline in registrations
from 2017, but with a renewed investment in program quality, we expect great things in the
coming years. Pottery registrations were again strong, maintaining the same number of
participants as in 2017 (200+).

Sports
In 2018 we created a Dovercourt Sports Department headed up by manager Christine
Pelletier. The sports department developed its own programming and lesson plans in line
with Sport for Life and HighFive principles of healthy child development to create wellrounded
and dynamic classes including T-Ball, Multi sport, climbing and cycling for kids.
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Birthday Parties
2018 saw the launch of our very successful Commando parties. This fast-paced hour with
nerf guns, shooting, running, and dodging has become one our most requested party
offerings. Cool cat swim parties continue to be the number one sellers within the birthday
party department. The warm water and amazing swimming instructors who deliver the party
remain the reason so many come back year after year.
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Aquatics
While aquatic facilities across the country are cancelling swim lesson and eliminating public
swims because of staffing shortages, Dovercourt has been able to grow its offerings due to
our system of in-house training for aquatic leadership. Our highly skilled aquatic team
delivers quality instruction in a warm water pool to ensure all learners and visitors have a
safe and enjoyable experience in the pool.

Fitness
2018 saw us continue to build on our on Speciality programs. The Summer Specialty Fitness
Pass program continued to garner positive feedback. This inclusive pass, introduced in
2016, has seen community usage increase by 56% over three summers.
We continued to build our partnership with the Youth Services Bureau (YSB) to expand our
Youth Job initiative of a formal summer apprenticeship program that included professional
fitness certification courses and supervised skill development integrated into our summer
programs, as well as the staff to facilitate the SSFP programs.
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Marketing and Communications:
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Print
While we continue to expand our channels of marketing, we have maintained our traditional
print collateral, which we feel is still necessary and appreciated by our clients. We
expanded our relationship with Kitchissippi Times/ Great River Media in 2018. We place a
regular half page ad page 5 in every issue of the monthly community paper, as well as
sponsored content and ads in feature sections. Their design team produces our sessional
guides, which are inserted and distributed through the KT, by Canada Post. Our camp flyers
and extra swim flyers are designed by Red Wagon studio/ Julie Dorion. As summer camp is
our largest program area, we have a wide campaign of print advertising from January to
June, including the Ottawa citizen, KT, Hill Times, Ottawa Jewish Bulleting, Canadian Military
Magazine and Aylmer Bulletin.
We added a large, outdoor, 2-sided display board by Curbex, the “Mini B”, which sits at the
top of the driveway. We tried it for Spring 2018 and liked it so much that we have maintained
it, changing the artwork as needed. This replaces the building banners, which were
becoming difficult to install and maintain.
We also do smaller print pieces like postcards and buckslips for various programs (parties,
OOS, BSOMA etc).
Email
Email marketing includes quarterly Centre newsletters as well as many targeted campaigns
for programs like swim lessons, dance, fitness, BSOMA, PD days, camps, employment,
birthday parties, sports. In the near future, we hope to make the generation of client lists
easier, and add automated email campaigns to serve our clients better.
Branding & image
In 2018 we produced the second set of “This is Dovercourt” stories, printed on canvas.
Dwayne Brown Studio shot the striking black & white portraits, and John Rapp provided the

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text. Subjects include Apollonia (for youth leadership), Groomer Dave (for community
leadership), Patrick & Allison (former staff, now married paramedics); John McLeod, Barb
McAdam, Austin (all abilities staff and participants) and Antwan & Karen (Syrian refugees
who work as lifeguards and swim instructors).
Our shaggy turquoise mascot, Dovercat, went to Sugars Mascots in Toronto for extensive
cleaning and refurbishment in late 2018, and continues to be shared with and supported by
the Westboro Village BIA.
We have developed a series of “Did you know?” stories/ items to include in emails and in
our new digital screens (launched in early 2019) to better communicate our charitable
endeavours.
Trade Shows
In 2018, we participated in two trade shows, the Kidsfest Show at the EY Centre (swim lesson
focus) and the Parent & Child Expo (Summer Camp focus) at the Nepean Sportsplex.
Strategy
We engaged KarmaDharma, a local marketing company; they encouraged us to tell our
many compelling stories, and helped us hone our messaging for our Out of School program,
which led to creation of a new 4 page flyer (designed by Trish) which states our benefits and
compares our pricing directly to the school board programs (our pricing is very competitive
but we offer so much more). We did a large print run and distribution through Canada Post
in the summer, and saw increased registration for the 2019-2020 school year. We have
engaged them (KD) to work with us on Google Ad Words campaigns, to take advantage of
the NFP Ad Grant credits available to us.

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Social Media
Our presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram has greatly increased and improved,
thanks to Devon McNiven’s expanded role in social media from just BSOMA to include all of
Dovercourt.
Other efforts
We researched Digital signage (now in place in 2019), efforts to improve the look of the
building (makeovers for the Studio/ Westboro Station Dental room; McKellar Field House), a
lobby redesign (on hold), decluttering the centre (fewer signs & notices as we move
towards digital signs). There was significant work in signage & notices for the building
expansion project, the SJAM trail promotion (sponsor recognition, signage and NCC
containers & banners), and fundraising efforts over the year.
Groomer Dave & Trish at the Remic Rapids rest station on the SJAM trail; NCC tripanel displays.

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Stats at a Glance
COURSE REGISTRATIONS BY AGE 2018
2017
55+ 35-54 20-34 13-19 5 to 12 0 to 4
0 to 4
30%
55+
15%
35-54
8%
2018
5 to 12
35%
20-34
5%
13-19
7%
Course Registration by Age Comparison
2017-2018
18000
16000
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
55+ 35-54 20-34 13-19 5 to 12 0 to 4 Totals
Sports Course 2017 Sports Course 2018

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Financials
Three Year Financial Summary
6,200,000
6,000,000
5,800,000
5,600,000
5,400,000
5,200,000
5,000,000
4,800,000
2016 2017 2018
Revenue
Expenses
Community
Development
Grants & Rentals
12%
Revenue Sources 2018
City Funding
7%
Program Fees
81%