Stephen Quinlan

Director

Stephen Quinlan joined the board after the AGM in 2017. Steve has been a Registered Social Worker for 30 years and has practiced in England, Scotland and B.C. Steve has a significant experience, serving people with a wide ranging need, such as, preparing youth to leave care, supporting families at risk of losing their children as well as adults with addiction and medal health challenges. In 2015 Steve was the first recipient of the “Inspiring Social Worker of the Year” awarded by UBC and The B.C. Board of Registration of Social Workers for his work on quality improvement, in the "Case Administration Management System" (CAMS - named after his son) which is a database he started developed and grew to support 20 Community Social Service Agencies in B.C. to improve service quality; as well as his work in improving service delivery and ethical practices. The award recognized his work of 20 years, working at PLEA where for the last five years had been one of the Director’s of the agency and was responsible for best practice development and CAMS, the database system. He was also the Privacy Officer and the Complaints Officer for PLEA.

In 2017 Steve was invited as a Subject Matter Expert to sit on a working party to set the minimum standard needed to pass the North American Board of Social Work Registration Exam. Also in 2017 Steve decided to work part time as a front line worker and he took a job as an Adult Addictions Counsellor at Alouette Addictions Services. Steve has worked in the social services community in Maple Ridge for 20 years, where he lives and his two grown children, both his daughter and son are doing their undergraduate in Maths at UBC.