Stella Barker is a strong voice in Norfolk County.
As the Executive Director at the Norfolk Association for Community Living, she has put her heart and soul into her job and the community.
Stella was actually born and raised in Burlington, but roughly 30 years ago decided to take up a job offer at NACL in Simcoe.
It didn’t take long for her to fall in love with the community and organization, raising her family here and loving what she does each and every day.
Her job is overseeing the important work of the organization and keeping in contact with the community at large.
NACL is all about promoting and supporting the inclusion of people with developmental disabilities in all aspects of community life, and since starting some 30 years ago, Stella says she has seen a lot of shifts to those serves from being more person-centred and even funding models being more flexible to reach individual needs.
With that, she says NACL has been and continues to be on the leading edge of the sector.
When COVID-19 hit, she said it was like having to pivot on a dime and shift focus on what they do almost overnight.
She said it proved how great the team is as they went all in to make these changes and make the best for everyone under their care.
One good thing that came from the pandemic is they learned a lot about virtual connections and tech innovations and want to keep those moving forward.
With that, they are looking to get back to issues like affordable housing and being able to do even more interactions with the community.
Women of Influence Day is brought to you by Venture Norfolk.