Sophia Kelly

Sophia Kelly Technology Tailoring won the 2006 Environmental Stewardship Excellence Award from the GLBA. The other nominees were two environmental organizations doing great work – The Cooperative Auto Network and Better Environmentally Sound Tranportation.

Sophia was awarded the prize in recognition of many years of service to the environmental movement, including most recently co-founding the Vancouver Renewable Energy Cooperative, a workers cooperative and nonprofit which sells and installs solar energy systems. She also practices environmental conservation in her business and transportation practices.

This board game was created to help families that people recovering from psychosis and their family learn about self care and managing the illness in recovery. By playing the game as a family, all family members can learn how to reduce stress and other environmental factors to promote recovery.

Engaging the whole family in a creative task can be helpful to get people of different ages and abilities working together as a team. It was developed as part of a project for the BC Schizophrenia Society and BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information, with consultation from staff at the Fraser South Early Psychosis Intervention program.

Please see below for a link to the game on the BC Schizophrenia Society website. Sophia Kelly Technology Tailoring created the concept, game board, cards, rules and assembly instructions, along with all related design. Sophia has professional graduate-level training as an art therapist, and used that training and experience to design the concept. Her work on the Recovery Cup was featured in the May 2006 BC Art Therapy Association Journal

With the instructions and files linked below, families and professionals will be able to create their own physical copy of the game to use. http://www.bcss.org/2006/05/08/the-recovery-cup-board-game-for-families/

As part of a project to provide accessible information for the general public, families and persons with psychosis, I was contracted to write a number of fact sheets on psychosis in 2005-2006 for the BC Schizophrenia Society.

The challenge here was to write technically accurate, evidence based health information which was at a reading level for public use. These fact sheets were reviewed by psychiatric professionals who were experts in the topic areas, as well as family members of persons with mental illnesses. The writing, layout and design was completed by Sophia Kelly as part of the contract.

To follow are the links to the completed files on the BCSS website. Continue Reading »

This project is a programme that matches family members of persons with a serious mental illness with one another for one-on-one support. Sophia Kelly designed the program for the BC Schizophrenia Society, then piloted, documented and evaluated the pilot, and designed embedded ongoing evaluation. The program matched family members of persons with a serious mental illness with one another for one-on-one support.

The program deliverables included guides, procedures and forms for program coordinators and volunteers. Sophia  Kelly also oversaw the piloting of this highly successful program in four regions in BC in the spring of 2006. NEW: This program has now been adopted in several regions in BC, and is being considered in other parts of Canada and in New Zealand. See www.buddy.bcss.org for more details.

Materials were designed to be easily adapted and included emailable evaluation materials. The logic model diagram for the program shows how the assessment of the program was built in to the structure. Here’s a link to the complete program materials.

• Databases that Fit the People Who Use Them
• Technology Used Effectively
• Websites regular people can maintain
• Training that fits the learner
• Well-researched and written documents at the right reading level
• Help to see the big picture through logic modelling, program evaluation and planning

A long-time committed volunteer in the areas of the environment, women’s equality, community economic development and the cooperative movement, she is an active part of the non-profit  and small business communities she serves.