Lucas Foss 2013

Lucas Foss has worked tirelessly since 1976 to serve, support and advocate for adults with disabilities.  He started his career as a social worker for adult deaf and hard of hearing at an agency that was then called: The Society for Cripple Children and Adults of Manitoba. In 1980 he moved to Vancouver and worked for Polaris as a job placement counsellor for adults with mental handicaps. He then worked as a Vocational Counsellor at ORW – a certified trade school for adults with disabilities; as a Special Needs Counsellor for the Canada Employment Centre for Surrey, North Delta and White Rock; as the CEIC Employment Equity Coordinator for Persons with Disabilities for the BC Yukon region; and last but not least, has spent the last 22 years working as a Disability Advisor at Capilano University. Many of the services, resources, accessibility, equipment, assistive technologies and attitudinal changes that exist today at Cap would not be there if it was not for Lucas. He also coordinated The Speech Assisted Reading and Writing (SARAW) program at Cap for 7 years and taught Communication and Conflict Resolution classes. Lucas was recently presented with a partnership award from Community Psychiatric Services for his support of our ever increasing numbers of students with mental health disabilities.

As well as working on the front lines with students, Lucas also sat on numerous committees, such as the Diversity and Equity Committee and the Human Rights Committee, making sure the needs of students with disabilities on campus were represented. Lucas’s final contribution to his field is his new disability awareness play called “Re-Calculating” which debuted at Douglas College last June. His play was also performed for the students in Cap’s Health Education programs last Fall and was performed earlier this month for Caps faculty during their PD Days. In closing, during the 15 years I have had the pleasure to work with Lucas, he has consistently given 200% and has been caring, considerate, respectful and knowledgeable in his dealing with everyone, but especially in his dealings with students. He was always there to listen and offer support and will be sorely missed by everyone who knows and loves him.