Community Health Centre CEO appointed
Vaughan Perspectives

By Jim Keenan

The board of directors of the soon to-be-opened Vaughan Community Health Centre (VCHC) is excited.

After an intensive recruitment process they have named the new executive director for the center. Her name is Isabel Araya.

Vaughan Perspectives recently met this engaging woman. She radiates a welcoming warmth as
well as a great deal of passion for her work. She brings solid management, communication and leadership skills to her position, as well as a wealth of knowledge and experience, with more than seventeen years of service within the Community Health Centre sector.

Over the past sixteen years, Araya has held several senior level positions at Stonegate Community Health Centre, including the executive directorship, and is well known in the health care sector as a strong advocate for work done by community health centres.

"I came from Columbia to visit in 1987 and ever since I have experienced Canada as a land of opportunity," she says. "As I have advanced in my career, a primary motivator has been to give back to the system what I have been given."

Centre an “evolving, organic" entity

She sees the new health centre as providing a framework of connection and collaboration with existing health providers in Vaughan. "In turn, the VCHC will be an evolving, organic entity which will expand as it responds to the needs Vaughan residents present us, with," Araya says. "With our multidisciplinary team of health
service professionals, our task is to enhance the community's health promotion and disease prevention capacities."

She says that the centre will respond to whatever health care needs are presented by the general population.
"At the same time, seniors, youth, mental health and addictions will each be a particular focus of the centre," she says. "In addition there is now a large stream of new immigrants coming into Vaughan with many different
issues. It is great that we are in close proximity to the immigrant Welcome Centre on Jane and Rutherford, and we hope to collaborate' with that organization to provide the very best we can for these new Canadians."

The centre will provide multiple points of entry for persons to access health care. She explains that you don't have to first see a doctor when you come to the VCHC. "A person may come to us with a problem that is best addressed by a social worker," she explains. "In turn, as that presenting issue is addressed, a health care or health promotion issue may arise that is best addressed by a nurse, therapist or physician."

All about unique needs

The key, she explains, is to address the unique needs of each individual. "What works for one person, may not work for another," she says. Araya states that while basic funding for the VCHC comes from the province, it will not be the only source of funding for the programming offered by the centre. "As needs in our community arise we will look for grants and other sources of funding to address those needs," she says.

A Vaughan resident, Araya says she is delighted that she will now be able to "give back to the community that has been so good to me." Her two boys, Daniel, 14, and David 11, attend a French language school in Maple, and they are fluent in English, Spanish and French. She will officially take on her duties as the VCHC's first CEO, on Feb. 25.