In the 1980’s and 1990's, the Nobess family challenged the Manitoba Government over rights violations of a family member living with a disability. This hard-fought challenge proved to be long and stressful, but resulted in the creation of the Vulnerable Persons Act in Manitoba, now known as the Adults Living with an Intellectual Disability Act (ALIDA).  This act was designed to protect the rights and freedoms of all Manitobans living with intellectual disabilities. Following this, the family was joined by the Block family to set up supports for the first two family members to be supported by a new fledgling agency that was called Arcane Horizon Inc. Since that time, more than 60 other families have joined the Arcane Horizon Community, and the agency has continued to grow, and evolve into the new and dynamic organization that it is today.

Rooted in the principles of the Adults Living with an Intellectual Disability Act, the agency continues to strive to meet the needs of its community, respect and advocate for the rights of people living with disabilities, and create a workplace culture that values the needs of the staff who provide meaningful living assistance and relationships with the people they support and the connections to their friends and families.

Arcane Horizon is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors, who share their skills and insights to help the agency operations team achieve its mission and vision. 

With their guidance, we are able to explore the skills and insights of adults with intellectual disabilities, advocate for the resources needed to achieve the most positive outcomes, and help the people we support to actively belong to their communities.

Role of the Board

The Board of Directors has these key responsibilities:

• To establish and implement the organization’s mission, vision, direction and purpose.
• To establish goals and priorities in meeting the strategic direction of the organization.
• To ensure that the organization has a defined governance framework in place including policies and processes.
• To develop, implement and ensure compliance with laws, bylaws, and policies.
• To select, support, guide, direct, evaluate and determine compensation for the Executive Director (ED).
• To ensure the financial health of the organization by ensuring there are adequate resources to conduct its work, by monitoring the budget and expenditures, by protecting the assets of the organization and by ensuring there is an annual audit of the financials.
• To enhance the organization’s public image through Agency public relations and promotions.
• To monitor the community to ensure that services are relevant and accessible to supported individuals.
• To report to the community on an annual basis at the annual general meeting.
• To oversee the operations of the Board by determining its role, evaluating its operations, and by recruiting, training and evaluating individual Board Directors.

If you are interested in becoming a board member, please send your resume and cover letter to Human Resources Director Trent Whidden at twhidden@arcanehorizon.org.