Richelle Wilson
Richelle is the founder of children without poverty (CWP) and the idea of the ‘Sustain a Family’ program was developed after a personal experience sponsoring a single parent family with 3 children. The family had been through Inn From the Cold and moved to permanent housing. Richelle sponsored the family financially, acted as a mentor to the mother and her oldest daughter.
Richelle has 20 years experience as an Information Services Professional. She has held management positions for the last 12 years with Talisman Energy, EnCana Corporation, Unocal and is currently the IS manager for Niska Gas Storage. Through her career Richelle has developed strong business skills to assist her in the building and operation of CWP - these skills include:
- project management, leadership, and process re-engineering allowing Richelle strong abilities to build something new, see the overall picture of the organization, delegate and bring together resources from areas of expertise needed to run a non-profit, and manage long term and short term work initiatives
- budget/forecast preparation and management - accountability of 20 million dollars gives her the strong business background to operate this company to a large scale budget and operation
- implementation of best practices makes her very operationally effective and brings to this non profit organization an expectation of best practices in a new realm – and a strong desire to never re-create the wheel
- preparation and presentation of executive presentations and customer newsletters.
Richelle brings to CWP a great passion to end poverty for children. She has 6 years experience in non-profit organizations and first hand experience with successful family mentoring. Richelle has a trained background in personal coaching and experience with mentoring programs.
Richelle holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree, and currently volunteers with the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank and Brown Bagging for Calgary's kids.
Chelsey McCoshen
Chelsey is the Screening & Intake Coordinator for children without poverty – she is responsible for ensuring that effective screening of program families and mentors is completed.
Chelsey has over 10 years of experience within the Alberta Justice and Child Welfare systems. She has held positions in Probation/Community Corrections, Child Welfare as a Case Manager, Youth Court Worker, and with the Social Service Response Team. The skills and experience she brings to the organization include:
- Emergency services to children and families to ensure children’s needs are met including mental health, domestic violence, sexual abuse, neglect, youths involved in prostitution, substance abuse and other protection concerns identified under legislation
- Knowledge of and collaboration with community agencies
- Investigation of allegations of abuse and neglect under the Child Youth and Family Enhancement Act
- Experience with Family Court Proceedings
- Advocate for the child and family for systemic improvement of services when necessary
- Resource management and monitoring/supporting inter-agency responsibilities
- Establish and maintain effective involvement and communication with a range of community services.
Chelsey holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a Diploma in Criminology. She currently volunteers with the Calgary Immigrant Education Society to teach English skills to adults.