Dr. Dan Offord Excellence Award

Ottawa City Council established the Dr. Dan Offord Excellence Award in September 2005 to honour the life work of the long-time Ottawa resident.

Each year the award will recognize one resident who has mentored and enriched the lives of economically disadvantaged children and their families through arts and recreation.

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Award Presentation

The winner of the inaugural Dr. Dan Offord Excellence Award was presented to Carole Gagné Ince on
February 8, 2006.

Recognition was also given to nominees Ekram Beshir, Fiona Faucher, Sandi Harmer, Maria Hawkins, Sonja Koch, Tim Marta, David Millen, Natalie Stern, Roselyn Thomas, Scott Towaij and Dave Umbach.

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Biography – 2005 Award Recipient Carole Gagné Ince

Carole Gagné Ince has touched the lives of children from newborn to pre-schoolers, to teen-aged street youth, and she has mentored and coached vulnerable parents along the way. Her career path has focused on agencies and organizations that serve the needs of children, with a special focus on children and families who are economically disadvantaged. Carole has spent many summers working at Christie Lake Camp, and has seen first-hand the work and vision of Dr. Offord.

Ms. Gagné Ince has provided short-term crisis counselling to street youth as a Youth Worker for Centre 313, and has helped hundreds of children and families as a childcare specialist with Ontario Works Child Care. Her work with Success By 6, first as Director, Program Support and Development, and later as Executive Director, has done much to help develop and promote early childhood development initiatives in Ottawa. Ms. Gagné Ince has recently joined the staff of the Andrew Fleck Child Care Services as the Manager of Home Child Care.

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Biography – Dr. Dan Offord

Dr. Dan Offord, affectionately known as “Dr. Dan”, devoted his life to understanding the factors that made children vulnerable and that put them at risk of a lower quality of life. His work was driven by a passion to challenge major problems facing children, with a focus on economically disadvantaged children. Dr. Offord promoted the power of arts and recreation in helping children to live and grow on a level playing field.

He was the founding director of the Offord Centre for Child Studies, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University, and one of the world’s leading experts in child development and child psychiatry. In 2001, he received the Order of Canada in recognition of his work as a child psychiatrist and his commitment to improving the lives of children. For 47 years, Dr. Offord volunteered as Director for Christie Lake Camp, where he helped to enrich the lives of thousands of underprivileged and troubled youth.

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