November Volume 1 Issues 4

published by ZX Media Corporation

COMMUNITY NOW! MAGAZINE

Volume 1 Issue 4 • Nov 2018

WE

AT BANBURY CROSSROADS TREASURE CHILDREN AS RESPECTED INDIVIDUALS, AND MEET THEIR DIVERSE NEEDS WITHIN A SAFE, FAMILIAL SETTING. WE ARE PASSIONATELY COMMITTED TO INCORPORATING INNOVATIVE EDUCATIONAL METHODS THAT FOSTER INTRINSIC MOTIVATION, LEARNING TO MASTERY, SELF-RESPONSIBILITY AND SOCIAL COMPETENCE.

CONTENTS INNOVATION 3 Curious Lessons On Purpose & Innovation

8 Block Cain; Boom, Bust or BREAKTHROUGH

12 Social (without) Media

20

COMMUNITY Mental Health: 5 Myths 24

The Listening Project: Not My Children

24 The Importance of The Right Type of Therapy & Funding Mental Health Resources 28

16 Reasons to meditate.

Krista Malden

Community Connector

Kenzie Webber Master Creator 36

Swimming Through Life 39 Integrated Indigenous Knowledge to Find Sustainability Within

40 What’s Possible 45 Mental Health Begins at Birth: A Children’s Manifesto 46 National Philanthropy Day

56

Josh Clark

Ad Guru

CONTRIBUTORS Stacy Richter

Adette Lacerte

Scott Pickard

Zanika Malden

Deanna Burgart

Diane Swiatek

Jill Quirk

Les Mottosky

Sophia Fairweather

Peter Lafontaine

Steven Archambault

Heloise Lorimer STEAM Team

Marilyn Dyck

Cover photo by Max-Jakob Beer on Unsplash

EDUCATION What’s Your Food’s Story?

42

For Questions, Comments or Information please contact publisher@communitynowmagazine.com Copyright 2018 ZX Media Corpoartion, Calgary Alberta Canada

Community Now! Magazine Copyright 2018, published by ZX Media Corporation.

Volume 1 Issue 4

All rights reserved. This magazine or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher or writers.

Credit to Errorist_Artist aka Zanika Malden

Our Mission: Promoting curiosity, communication and engagement in making Calgary a stronger and better place to live, to be educated, do business, promote innovation and community celebration.

Community Now! \\ 3

“It Takes a Village…”

African Proverb

Thank you

to everyone involved in making Community Now! happen!

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6 // Community Now!

INNOVATION

Innovation \\ 7

3 Curious Lessons On Purpose &

Innovation

Les Mottosky

T

he relationship between purpose and progress is one that can’t be ignored. If ideas and imagination are the fuel of innovation, purpose is it’s heartbeat.

Whether it’s the alarming average life expectancy of a North American retiree (18 months!) or how a restaurant with a focus on innovation is named the best in the USA the same week it opens, purpose is the difference maker.

While dining may not be the first industry that comes to mind when we think of innovation, there are some remarkable lessons to be found there. The first episode of the second season of Chef’s Table, holds some surprising lessons 8 // Community Now!

on the power of purpose and it’s indisputable influence on innovation. While the 55 minute show is well-worth the investment of anyone interested in purpose-driven organizations and innovation execution, this five minute read will provide a frame through which to view it.

DRIVING PURPOSE AND INNOVATION IS EVERYBODY’S PRIORITY Grant Achatz is an impossibly imaginative and hard working chef who launched a restaurant that’s name encapsulates their purpose and, through serendipity, that same

Because the two started out questioning everything, they created an atmosphere where innovation, imagination and ideas were the standard, not the exception.

This approach created a restaurant philosophy where creativity is the priority. Where the evolution of the experience generates a relationship with diners that has them anticipating, “What’s going to happen next?” The restaurants’s unflinching adherence to their purpose, created a powerful experience for the guests; one where they feel they’re discovering something brand new when they are there.

Unless the entire team adheres to the philosophy, the intended experience falls apart.

INNOVATION IS ABOUT PROGRESS - AND PROGRESS MEANS NEW PATHS TO REVENUE. inspiring purpose saved his life when he was faced with a fatal diagnosis. Alinea refers to “the beginning of a new train of thought” and from the very start, that’s the purpose Grant and his business partner Nick Kokonas embodied. As previously mentioned, they carry the jaw-dropping reputation (and the weight of expectation) of being named the best restaurant in the US the same week that it opened.

This purpose of “the beginning of a new train of thought” was adopted by the two founders so completely that they turned everything most Westerners believe fine dining to be into a question.

They chose to see everything as an assumption.

Candles, white table cloths and calling for a reservation were all blown out of the water.

When Grant and Nick questioned the booking process, they noticed a curious human behaviour: the inherent dishonesty of the interaction when making a reservation. The restaurant promises a table will be ready at the time the patron wants it (they aren’t always able to deliver that) and the patron promises to be there at a certain time with a specific number of people (they don’t always uphold that promise). So Nick set-out to create an app to solve this problem. It took him awhile to perfect it, but when completed it created the opportunity for Alinea to have line-of-sight on (continued on next page) Innovation \\ 9

(continued from page 9...) something even the busiest restaurants have always struggled with: predictable revenue.

The app called Tock requires patrons to commit to their visit with a nominal fee for the reservation that gets subtracted from the bill total later. This fee-based approach is more reliable because guests have made a meaningful commitment. And because it’s non-refundable, the app taps into the human proclivity to be more motivated by a potential loss than a possible gain. As a business, Alinea also created a recovery mechanism for noshow reservations.

The other innovation the app provided was the restaurant’s ability to charge a higher price for the busier times of the week. For instance, a Tuesday evening dinner will be less pricey than a Saturday evening dinner (think: Uber surge charge). In both cases there’s a new level of fairness to both parties and the more predictable arrangement allows everyone to have a more satisfying experience of one another.

10 // Community Now!

The Tock app has become a business unto itself with revenue coming from hundreds of restaurants choosing to replace their own reservation process.

A POWERFUL, HEARTFELT PURPOSE CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE Shortly after opening the restaurant Grant was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

The illness threatened to cost him his tongue, half his jaw and large portions of his neck , plus, he still had a 70% chance of dying.

Because treatment would take his taste - the one sense that was core to his identity — Grant chose not to do anything and in doing so was choosing a rapid death. After he told Nick about his choice to die, the duo decided to publicize Grant’s diagnosis and impending death as a service to the faithful customers of the restaurant.

A Dr. at the University of Chicago heard the news, got in touch with Nick and told him to bring Grant in because he believed they could

treat his cancer with a less intrusive solution.

During their meeting at the University, Grant’s diagnosis was confirmed and he was told the medical team believed they could treat him without surgery and afterward, he’d have a 70% chance of survival. Because the solution being put forward was experimental, the medical team’s approach was comfortable and familiar to Grant. The team took the assumptions of how to treat Grant’s stage 4 cancer and turned them into a new approach.

During his weeks of treatment, Grant continued to work at the restaurant and at one point realized he’d completely lost his taste. While at first he was distraught, Grant returned to the purpose of Alinea and realized that he must still innovate. Losing his taste, he noticed that ideas for new dishes didn’t come from his tongue, they were born of his mind.

This insight completely changed Grant’s life and he was re-invigorated with a new level of energy for his craft. While already acknowledged as one of the best in the world, he found a new level of magic as a chef.

Grant’s unwavering commitment to new trains of thought, ended up re-igniting his already phenomenal career and ultimately saving his life.

While most career-driven people may not have a purpose as powerful and personally meaningful as Grant’s, it’s something we should all aspire to.

When an organizational purpose allows for that group of people to be imagining, experimenting and innovating in a systematic way, there’s a robust sustainability that becomes part of their DNA. That sustainability can even spread beyond the four walls of the workplace and leak into the lives (and health) of the team.

Purpose and Innovation are not only undeniably intertwined, they are everything.

If you want to be an even better innovator, do the necessary digging to identify that deeper resonant purpose for your work and then watch how you inspire those around you.

Innovation \\ 11

Blockchain; Boom, Bust or

BREAKTHROUGH I

By Stacy Richter

magine a world where people all over can connect, communicate and engage with each other in real time, all day and night whenever they choose. People can make products in China, sell them in Europe and ship them to North America. Imagine in this new world that money flows easily and payments for goods and services can be sent and received instantly without the assistance of banks or brokers.

Imagine that people can have absolute trust without ever having to speak on the phone or shake each others’ hand. Imagine a world where our refrigerator can order our groceries which are delivered by a self-driving car.

Imagine this new world when the construction engineer can walk through a building from half a world away.

Many of these innovations, which could only be imagined in your favourite sci-fi, are now made possible though Blockchain.

But what is a ‘Blockchain’? The simplest explanation I have found that explains what a blockchain is comes from Reuters1: A blockchain is a database that is shared across a network of computers. Once a record has been added to the chain it is very difficult to change. To ensure all the copies of the database are the same, the network makes constant checks.

The technology is much more complicated in practice. Other related terms include Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) which cloud the blockchain discussion. Many blockchains are a form of DLT but not all.

Back to the simple explanation. The blockchain is a database that is shared by many computers. The parts require a Record (any type of information), the Block (a bundle of records) and the Chain (all the blocks linked together).

1) Murray, M. (2018, June 15). Blockchain explained. Retrieved October 31, 2018, from http://graphics.reuters.com/TECHNOLOGYBLOCKCHAIN/010070P11GN/index.html

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Database technology is nothing new nor are the storage of electronic records. What makes ‘blockchain’ so special? The blockchain is a special type of database because everyone using it shares AND monitors the same information. The databases, as we generally know them today, are owned by our banks, our governments, coffee shops, grocery stores and nearly every business or organization that collects data. The information in these databases is kept as secure as possible and only shared under strict circumstances.

The records on the blockchain are kept by every ‘node’ on the chain (distributed) and are publicly recorded. Though this is the general concept, every blockchain can handle the records differently to serve their purpose. Some are kept private while others are available for everyone to review.

In real life, the records that your bank keeps about your savings account is a centralized database which is owned and managed by the bank. The bitcoin that you may have used to buy something is on a distributed blockchain which is managed by every node on the chain.

Why should you care?

The first reason is data security. A centralized database must be kept secure behind firewalls and elaborate passwords. These are still vulnerable to attack. When you hear about a ‘data breach’ in the news, it is usually a centralized database that was hacked. The

distributed database of a blockchain is stored and recorded by all of the nodes. In order to break in, a hacker would have to break in to every node on the chain to change the data.

Bitcoin has an estimated 5500-10,000+ nodes (no one can confirm how many exactly) and each one would have to be corrupted in order to change the data making it more secure.

The second reason you should care is the types of technology that have been or are currently under development using blockchain (continued on next page) Innovation \\ 13

(continued from page 13...) technologies. Bitcoin is the most recognizable tech built using blockchain. There are many other notable cryptocurrencies built on blockchains in addition to many types of applications all using blockchain.

The question I set out to answer is Blockchain a boom, bust or a breakthrough?

To answer that question and looking forward, we need to take a look backwards at the evolution of the Internet.

The earliest forms of the Internet started in early 1969 when the ARPANET network was established. The ARPANET was only 4 nodes that connected universities UCLA, Stanford, UC Santa Barbara and the University of Utah. Fast forward to 1986 (27 years later) to when the modern email routing system was developed.

It took until 1991 to launch the World Wide Web (WWW) and form the Internet we know today. By December 1995 the Internet only had 16 million users and more than doubled

to 36 million users a year later. The internet has more than 4.2 billion users as of Dec 20172 and continues to grow.

To put that in perspective, there is an estimated 28 million3 blockchain wallet users since the technology first emerged in 2008. It took the internet close to 27 years to attract the same number of users.

The Internet was born from a decentralized network whose first widely adopted technology on the platform was email. The blockchain was born into a distributed network where Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are the first widely adopted technology.

The answer to the question of Boom, Bust or Breakthrough leans towards Boom.

But the rise and fall of the trading price of Bitcoin tells another story. As far back as 2013, one Bitcoin (BTC) was worth ~134 USD . Then the coin peaked at $19,497 USD in the middle of Dec 2017 and is now trading at $6317 USD. Some would suggest that the rise from $134 to

2) Internet World Stats. (2018, August 28). Internet Growth Statistics 1995 to 2018 - the Global Village Online. Retrieved October 31, 2018, from https://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm 3) Number of Blockchain wallets 2018 | Statistic. (2018). Retrieved October 31, 2018, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/647374/ worldwide-blockchain-wallet-users/

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Who created Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is the first implementation of a concept called “cryptocurrency”, which was first described in 1998 by Wei Dai on the cypherpunks mailing list, suggesting the idea of a new form of money that uses cryptography to control its creation and transactions, rather than a central authority. The first Bitcoin specification and proof of concept was published in 2009 in a cryptography mailing list by Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi left the project in late 2010 without revealing much about himself.

Source: bitcoin.org

where it is today is a boom while others argue that a crash from over $19k and losing 2/3 of its value is a colossal bust.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are just one type of use case for Blockchain. How might this innovation be a breakthrough?

“Let me start off by saying that blockchain for business and cryptocurrency are two different things and I will answer these questions as they relate to blockchain for business, which is cloud-based technology that stores and communicates information.

It provides real-time access to information to all the parties involved, and the ability to lock down information so that no single party can make changes that benefit only them.

Blockchain will introduce new business models, like the internet did 20 yrs ago.

It has already had an impact in gaming, social media and internet browsing by eliminating costly content advertisers and giving the users of these platforms control over their experience.” explains Elena Dumitrascu, co-founder and Chief Research and Technology Officer at TerraHub.

“In a more business setting, blockchain will change how we buy everything. It will give the buyer full transparency in product origin, costs and contents. It will give businesses the ability to instantly audit any business transaction. On the flip side, sellers will be able to use their internet browser and connect to buyers anywhere in the world through blockchain enabled networks that verify both buyers and sellers. This should reduce their cost of sale significantly. So in a way, the job of brokers, sales and marketing people will be transformed too.

We will also see a shift and impact to consultants that get hired today to confirm information (such as a land titles, deeds) on behalf of a 3rd party. Those jobs will be highly enhanced by the assistance of intelligent computers in the future.” says Elena.

The reach of impact for Blockchain technologies is deep. Much like the impact the Internet has had on the world’s population; few will be left untouched by Blockchain in one form or another. (continued on next page) Innovation \\ 15

(continued from page 15...)

Q: What types of benefits have you observed for companies who have incorporated blockchain technologies into their business?

ED: We’ve seen companies roll out private blockchain successfully to replace double data entry and verification, for example letting the software auto verify when contract terms are met or flag exceptions.

We’ve also seen companies roll out new business models, such as peerto-peer car sharing without the need for a middleman (in this case, Uber).

Q: How does the status quo of doing things (culture, infrastructure, convention) need to change to realize the full benefit of what blockchain may facilitate?

ED: I’d like to answer this not just regarding blockchain, but the trio of emerging technologies: blockchain, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. They, together, are revolutionizing our future.

Autonomous vehicles, Siri, VR for everything from gaming to buying a home and blockchain as the backend database that stores and controls all of this communication, means a future where humans will rely more and more on computers to execute daily tasks such as buying groceries, going to work, eating out and even travelling. That means kids who are 5 yrs old today may never need to learn how to drive.... So we need to start looking at social and economic impacts these technologies will

16 // Community Now!

bring and decide the rate with which we accept them into our personal and work lives. It starts with being informed, not letting marketing and TV adds sell us the “good side” of tech while we ignore the downside.

Some of the scary sci-fi movies will become our reality if we don’t pause and learn the impacts these technologies can have.

The answer to the great question ‘Blockchain; a boom, bust or breakthrough?’ is it’s all three. Just like the Internet has progressed through some significant booms by connecting the world through communication, it has also sunk with significant busts like the dot com bubble. The lifetime value of the Internet has provided many breakthroughs.

If there ever was a crystal ball that could predict the future; this is it. The development and growth of Blockchain has closely mirrored that of the Internet and all we need to grasp the future is to look at the past. Blockchain will do for business and commerce what the Internet has done for communications.

About TerraHub TerraHub is a blockchain education, accelerator and consulting firm with offices in Calgary Alberta and Toronto Ontario. TerraHub turns the world’s most compelling blockchain ideas into transformative business applications through education, training and development. For more information, visit https://www.terrahub.ca.

Innovation \\ 17

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Social<without>Media

By Scott Pickard

A

dmitted bias – talking to someone face to face who picks up their phone to see if something more interesting is taking place outside the current, in person discussion! Admittedly, I may not be the most intriguing person around, but is that not simply rude? Perhaps you are more interesting than I and this has never happened to you.

new, “better” world? We are all grouped into Gen X, millennials, boomers and whatever else we call ourselves generationally. By default, this gives permission to misbehave on the most primal human behaviour. Are we better off with all this connectivity? Perhaps we are reaching everyone but connecting with no one.

Be it social media, email, text or a phone call, many of us have become immune to this unending “bing” of devices going off. How does this affect those around us and those relationships, personal and business? Do we even care or is this just simply how it is, in our

When we spin this complex issue of connectivity and responsiveness into the work place where business owners are expected to know everything. We need to plan social media campaigns, blog regularly, post here, tweet there, build our online presence,

20 // Community Now!

expand our online brand and the list goes on.

And on. And on. I challenge the new status quo at the business level. What about picking up the phone and talking our most impactful customers? The 80/20 rule, Pareto’s Principle, states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. It is an axiom of business management that 80% of sales come from 20% of clients. Whether pertinent to your business or not, could we be forgetting about the human aspect of business relationships with the social media influx?

If your business is solely online and tied directly to social media, not all of this applies, but some of it will. I am guessing you still employ people, still have vendors you purchase from (who are people), and interact with certain customers in some way (who are people) or have investors (most of them are people). Being “social” <without> the “media” might be a way to connect and grow business in a meaningful way.

Too many times lately I have been reading articles online and an inappropriate or irrelevant advertisement pops up ‘inline’ trying to sell me something I have zero interest in. Worse, in the case of a human tragedy article; a missing person, death, fire or accident of some kind, a “fun” ad for a family vacation to Mexico appears, or an advertisement for a new car. Yes, really smart people have built algorithms to display advertising that was previously searched, but these algorithms are not fool proof. In my view, this is completely inappropriate and causes ‘brand damage’ rather than the anticipated intent of creating interest. Just because an advertisement magically appears does not mean the reader wants to see it. Is your business unknowingly creating ‘brand damage’ through social media and your online presence? By reaching every possible customer in every way via social

media, are we really connecting with our customers? Have we lost real or potential customers because of our social media presence, however well intentioned?

In business, it is a never ending exercise to grow. This is the engaging aspect of business.

When we get the honor to talk to paying customers face to face, we should be paying attention to their words and the dialog we are engaged in. The cost of customer acquisition is high. We should be engaging with people rather than checking our phones for something more interesting. I am sure you or your employees have never checked an email under the table or had to turn off your ringer while in a meeting. Right? Your customer never noticed, right?

Social media is a very powerful and influential way to grow business and engage with customers. It is addictive. It is exciting.

It is alluring. It is productive. It is worthy of a thoughtful strategy to ensure it is implemented correctly. It can also be damaging when misused.

There are many ways to engage with customers and no one can argue that online is a strong method of marketing, when done right. The impetus for this article was a recent dialog I had with a person much more informed than I about online brand marketing and the use of social media. It was an eye-opening conversation that made me realize the complexity of building an online presence from someone that has done it. Like any profession, it takes dedicated time to master a skill and social media marketing and online brand development are skills in and of themselves. Be aware that specific expertise is perhaps more important than generic activity when developing your overall strategy and tactical implementation plan for your business around social media.

Innovation \\ 21

M E N T A L

ZANIKA MALDEN

H E A L T H

COMMUNITY This Issues of Community Now! Magazine contains stories about, resources for, and information about Mental Illness and Mental Wellness.

Please be advised that they may contain triggers, and in no way is any of this meant to offend of hurt anyone* READ at your own risk.

5 Myths •

We are responsible for—and have the power to control—how other people feel and behave.

•

Other people are responsible for—and have the power to control—the way we feel and behave.

•

The needs and wants of other people are more important than our own.

•

Following the rules is also more important than addressing our needs and feelings.

•

We are not lovable as we are; we can only become lovable through what we do and say.

*From the Book Everyday Narcissism https://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Narcissism-Yours-Mine-Ours/dp/1942094450 Community \\ 23

Not our Children Raising a child is one of the most challenging jobs we will ever undertake. A child is born with one or more parents, each of whom bring with them a lifetime of beliefs, values and behaviors they have inherited or developed along their journey. Our baggage increases as our journey continues and our children have an incredible ability to unlock and open the baggage on us daily. I don’t know one parent who was truly ready for the experience of parenting and yet we bring forth the most amazing beings. They are here, among us, they are us and we are them. We all survive, and many of us thrive but are we truly engaged in the experience our children offer us?

“Pretty much all of the honest truth telling in the world is done by children,” Oliver Wendell Holmes, Author and Poet Let’s challenge ourselves to consider thinking about our children from a different perspective.

1) Our children are not ours, they are part of something much greater than us. We are their caretakers, the ones responsible to nurture their personhood. Our job is not to create individuals we approve of, who make us proud because we have established goals and standards to which they are adhering.

Rather, our role is to see who they show us they are, as individuals in their own right, to love them and nurture them regardless of the choices they make. Our role is to support their 24 // Community Now!

development and nurture their personhood so they may confidently be a gift to the world.

2) We are not perfect, we are all broken to some degree. We are no more or less than any other human we encounter on a daily basis. Children are products of their village, a reflection of all those individuals that play a role in their lives. The children of our village communicate with us daily, from the very first interaction we have with them they are giving us feedback about the world they are experiencing.

Are we listening, really listening? How are we responding? Are we unconditional in our

positive regard, love, and respect for them?

I know by instinct we will all respond with a resounding yes. That is the right answer after all, but I challenge this response with the evidence of so many of our young people living marginalized lives, on the fringe of society. We call them ‘Street’ kids.

When children decide they can no longer relate with their family and community they will rise and make decisions for themselves.

There are so many reasons why this may occur. I would love to give you a list of all the reasons young people choose to live as part of a subculture that we may not understand or agree to.

There are the obvious culprits: dysfunction, turmoil, abuse, addictions, family breakdown, poverty, privilege, abandonment etc. All of which lay blame and create yet another box to segregate people from one another. They become our checklist as parents to rationalize the life we have created for our children. It provides answers that make us feel better or worse about the lives our young people live.

We are either proud parents who brag about our children or parents who wonder, worry and disengage from our young people. We

feel the need to explain away behaviors when they don’t fit our norms Street kids scare us. They live lives that are often entangled in crime, addictions and homelessness. Their clothing, music, friends and behaviors concern us and appall us. We can’t seem to understand who our child or the child down the street that we’ve watched grow up have become. We cross the street and look away when we see them.

Why? These are our young people. They have something to say. They didn’t just end up where they are. The onus is on all of us. The question is not Why are they there? And Why don’t they ‘get their shit together?’

The question is: Where were we?

What if we put away our ideas of how a ‘good parent’ raises a ‘good child’ and how a ‘bad parent’ raises a ‘bad child’? What if instead, we looked at each child as an individual of worth, with a voice of their own? Inclusion is not a word or idea, it is an action.

This is our call to action. (continued on next page)

Parent

Community \\ 25

In the 30 years of days we have listened to young people making their choices to get off the street, the truth we hear the most often is that young people do not feel heard. Not in their families, not in the professional systems designed to help them, not in the social safety net of paid â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, not in the world around them that gives them the social messages of avoidance, shunning, mocking, abuse, criticism, exclusion.

The long list of behaviors and messages absorbed by children and young people lead them to conclude that they do not belong.

Who is paying attention to the experience of a child or youth living in fear and sadness and anger and defense because they do not understand the ways they are treated by others? This is not psychology. This is being human.

Where are we? Do we only see the children whose birth certificate holds our name?

How have we contributed to the conclusions of these young people? They are not making stuff up. They are living out the direct impacts of the choices made by adults in their lives.

Children mirror the society that raises them.

Attempts to include a child once they have been excluded are complex because the initial learning of the child is real and emotional and solidly in their brain. Our every word, every action, every experience is critically impactful in the learning brain of a child. Forgive and forget is not an operative in any way. Their brains store all things for further reference.

Changing deep learning is a long emergency.

It is a social crisis in our society to know how many children have been harmed by the choices of adults.

Until we begin to talk out loud about what we know, nothing will change. Adults have 26 // Community Now!

imposed silence as a way of protecting the storytelling of truth by children. Rehearsing the rule that children must obey persons taller than they are must be challenged. Respect is taught starting with the way you hold a baby.

That profound responsibility does not change throughout their lives.

Children are persons. They will listen after they feel listened to. Our role in being human is only that: to listen and respect the children we see and know. We need to learn from them. Their capacity to love is boundless. We just need to restore and protect their trust.

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” If this is true, we cannot afford one more hour, minute, year, without paying diligent attention to children and young people, and with particular concern and energy, to pay attention to the young people already marginalized by our choices, who need our invitation to learn how to overcome what has been their experience and reality as a child and to find a place of belonging among us.

[These thoughts were written with the shared learning perspectives of 30 years. Our richest resource is our young people. We have the honor and responsibility to nurture them to do the great things they imagine and to lead us forward to a future built stronger because of their learning from us.]

Marilyn Dyck, Executive Director, The Doorway

www.thedoorway.ca

www.thelisteningproject.ca

CRA 13140 1226 RR0001

listening to everyone

Community \\ 27

The Importance Of The Right Type Of Therapy & Funding Mental Health Resources

28 // Community Now!

What do we need to make a recovery or to heal? What is the best way to start the process?

There are free services available & there are paid services available. Your Doctor can recommend someone or somewhere, friends and family can try...but you can’t start the healing process until your ready. You can start by talking to a counsellor, therapist or doctor. People don’t always know what the best route is or what is actually available and what the rules are and how hard is it to say “I need to talk to someone, can you please help me find the right help” For example if you decide to go the route of therapy how many options do you really have if you don’t have the funding to pay for therapy? Can you choose? If you have free counselling services and the counsellor isn’t a match are you allowed to ask for a new one?

The answer is yes but most people won’t they just stop going, especially because it’s hard to ask for help and when you get help and its the wrong help .... most people will blame themselves for that route not working or give up.

To make therapy work both the therapist and the patient need to be a match, it is a healing relationship, a relationship built off of trust.

Below is a letter explaining how a match and having funding available can lead to the start of recovery. *Funding is a really big part of healing, if we do not provide the right resources to people they do not have a fair chance at healing... so while reading this we need to think about how we can make mental health resources more available. (continued on next page) Community \\ 29

(continued from page 29...)

Dear Patreon Thank you for your lifeline. You are my silent hero.

My name is Alex and I have struggled with mental illness for as long as I can remember.

Was I born this way? Perhaps, I do come from a long line of broken souls. Or was it developed? I could tell you about my childhood, the pain and trauma, the violence, that one dirty breach of trust that breaks a child soul completely and perhaps worst of all, the silence, but there are images of suffering you don’t want to have. Regardless of how I became this way I am lucky that I have always had a drive to get better.

In times of good fortune I could pay for my therapy. This would allow me to see the therapist of my choosing. Somebody I could build trust with. Wouldn’t you want to feel safe with a therapist with whom you will walk the hardest journey and share your shame and pain with? It takes time to find that therapist and it also takes time to build trust. However, I never had enough money to be with a therapist long enough.

In times of misfortune I would struggle to exist. Often it would start with exhaustion because I would be over working and over compensating. I would do this because I felt inadequate and also I had come to expect highs and lows in my life. So when I was doing well I would work doubly hard to save, store and gain momentum in case I crash and burn. Like a squirrel that hoards and prepares for the long dark winter.

I once described my depression as swirling a drain made out of a cheese grader. fighting and panicking desperately. Trying not to get sucked in and sliced up. You can only hang on 30 // Community Now!

for so long and once you’ve gone down you’re sure you’ll die, even though you’ve clawed your way back up a thousand times.

No matter what, somehow there has always been the littlest flame that refused to go out.

A need to live. So I would reach out for help.

Without therapy, I may have died a thousand times. I was able to scrape enough money together to help or find another resource but never long enough or consistent enough to fan that little flame in to a fire. I would have to make due with the little bit of time I had. Just enough to keep the flame going a little longer.

These therapists or temporary therapies would offer me tools to cope. I’m grateful and they worked for the most part. But after a while I started to wonder if carrying around a heavy massive bag of tools was the right healing for me. It didn’t feel like I was healing, it felt like barely surviving. A metaphoric aspirin or bandaid simply doesn’t work. I want to cure the pain.

I have waited and existed for a long time in my search for the cure. I knew what I needed was inside me and I had to do the work but I need a guide, a Yoda or Glinda. Enter stage left, Steve Archambault.

The first time I met Steve was not in a Therapy capacity, not intentionally at least. He was my boss. I had an instant respect for him. That says a lot because I don’t trust or respect easily. He taught me important things like, there is a big difference between being a manager and a leader. That growing your own garden is a smart business practice. That it’s important to have different personality types in a group, even if you may not appreciate the differences, the diversity helps things move forward and grow. The other interesting thing about Steve was his amazing ability to see right through people. I often wondered if

he had a choice in the matter or if it was some sort of cursed gift. Though he had this amazing ability to see through people and really see them in their entirety, he never used it against anyone. He was never afraid to see every person reach their highest potential. That was the key component that gave me the trust in our work relationship and our friendship.

Steve went on to reach his goals and I left the company to do the same. I was doing well.

Still struggling but I had my giant bag of coping tools. I was having a long run of good mental health. I had money in the bank, my debts all paid off. I was smart enough to know not to get to comfortable but for the most part, my mental illness’ where managed. I was really in a safe place and well prepared for the eventual typical crash. But I had no idea what was coming. I couldn’t have prepared for that.

All of a sudden my life changed. February 9th of 2013. I had a stroke.

Just imagine for a moment. I had struggled my entire life with mental illness and now I had to struggle with a broken brain. Up until that point I used all of my brains ability to function the best I could.To ad insult to brain injury, I lost the ability to hide my mental illness from the world because along with most brain injuries comes the inability to control your emotions. I felt like a deformed turtle without its shell. I lived in the hospital for 3 months putting my physical self back together. I healed well. But out in the real world I was suffering. I could not relate physically or emotionally to the world around me. I couldn’t make sense of my coping tool

bag, so I fell deep into a depression. I lived in fear and paranoia of the world around me.

In this state I still managed to work towards independent living. That took 4 years.

I finally got my own place. It wasn’t fancy, I was living below the poverty line. I was excited and scared. I struggled to live on my own with a brain injury. The fear got the better of me and I became a recluse. I started to realize I needed a new approach.

Steve and I touched base every once in a spell over the years and I had heard that he was now working in therapy with a hypnosis format. I thought about reaching out but wasn’t sure.

Eventually we connected.

We met at a coffee shop. It may as well have been a war zone. I rarely left my house at that time. I only heard about half of what he was saying. The entire time I was screaming in my body. I was trying to keep my composure. My bones were rattling in my skin from anxiety.

This woman sat close to us and it felt like she was trying to attack me. All she said was “ may I sit here” I looked at her, I looked at Steve, I smiled. I hoped I looked normal. I took in the information I could. Both for my own benefit and also because I was happy for Steves awesome journey. I went home. We (continued on next page) Community \\ 31

32 // Community Now!

(continued from page 31...) continued to touch base but I hadn’t made a commitment to work with him in therapy. I couldn’t afford it. I lost everything after my stroke including the ability to work a stable job. I was now on AISH. As much as I was a recluse, I was very lonely.

I found myself in a relationship. So I called Steve. I told him what he already knew. I was living well below the poverty line, I was a mess and I needed his help so I didn’t fall apart in this relationship because my new boyfriend needs me. The irony in this surfaces later in therapy.

Clearly my reasons for finally getting therapy with Steve where backwards but no matter the reason, I was ready. Steve agreed to work with me and allowed me to receive treatments with a cost I could afford. He found me a benefactor through Patrion. This was important to me because pride often gets in my way. I would pay Steve what I could afford and the Patreon Benefactor made up the difference.

It took a few sessions to establish a deeper trust and fully realize I was safe. We worked on some surface stuff and reestablishing tools to cope in day to day life. When I was ready, I asked Steve to help me actually heal not just cope. He asked me one simple question, “how far do you want t go?” “All the way,” I said.

We spent the next year doing intense therapy with hypnosis. We literally would take a current pain or struggle and hunt down it’s origin. Straight back to the beginning. It was hard, frightening and worth every pants shitting moment. I have gotten more out of that first year than I had in all the years of therapy with all the different treatments and medications. I now live a relatively normal life. I feel safe most of the time. I love myself for the first time ever,sometimes. I am medication free.I don’t carry around a massive

metaphoric tool bag just to cope. I continue to grow. I have aspirations, hope, goals. I have reconciled with my post stroke brain and learned to see that event as a blessing. I am writing a book, exploring new career paths. I am on a journey that will eventually lead to me being a Patrion Benefactor for someone else one day.

Whats most important to point out is, that I could not have made this journey without continuity of care and a therapist that was the right fit. I financially could not have afforded to take the first few sessions to simply create trust. I could not have afforded to start my intense therapy and had extra healing and support sessions in-between. Without knowing that I couldn’t have take my time to feel safe, I simply couldn’t have done it. We opened a can of worms and had no idea how long it was going to take to get through this.

Because of Patreon supporters, I could take all the time I needed. I wasn’t suddenly “cut off” in a vulnerable moment.

I still see Steve. We still have work to do. He has helped heal deep wounds. I have never been able to do this with another therapist because of the trust and financial difficulties.

But also because some of things I had to share were so graphic that most therapists couldn’t handle it. Even when I started to share, there was a part of me that would look for judgement or repulsion in his face. I never saw it. No matter what was said it was met with love and compassion.

So thank you Patrion Benefactor, you are my silent hero. You money helped rebuild an entire human being.

In Heart

Alex.

(continued on next page) Community \\ 33

“Without a listener, the healing process is aborted. Human beings, like plants that bend toward the sunlight, bend toward each other in an innate healing tropism. There are times when being truly listened to is more critical than being fed.”

Miriam Greenspan - Healing Through the Dark Emotions.

(continued from page 33...)

“This resonates with me because in this world so many are listening to speak and not to hear.

It was also a book that resonated with me and how our ego gets in the way of our healing.”

Steven Archambault Steven Archambault, CHt, RCHt and Founder of Healing Self Hypnosis is a person who has taken a journey to self discovery and recovery and is now setting an example to show that everyone deserves a chance to find the right healing path.

Through Archambault’s practice he offers a safe environment for people to come and start their journey with no judgement.

Archambault’s career began with just less than 5 years in the Canadian Armed Forces.

“It was during this service that I observed both the greatest and sometimes the worst humanity had to offer.” stated Archambault.

34 // Community Now!

He then moved into the Financial Industry where he spent 20 years moving up the ladder into a Senior Leadership Sole. But this wasn’t enough for Archambault. Mentorship and being a leader were integral in his life and he realized his real dream and passion was serving people so they could be and discover the best them.

Archambault has also journeyed through his own emotions of life and he shares that journey openly which allows him to go into places with clients without judgement.

But why hypnosis? “Simply put, hypnosis is a state of highly focused attention or concentration often associated with relaxation, and heightened suggestibility. While under hypnosis, it seems many people are much more open to helpful suggestions than they usually are.”

Along with a kind soul, a safe place and guidance, Archambault offers rates based

on what you can afford and he also offers a chance for people to help other people start the healing process.

Archambault offers what he calls Compassionate Pricing.

Compassionate Pricing is available for anyone through application. The application will be emailed upon request. Automatic compassionate pricing is available for people who receive AISH, EI, and students.

How can you help someone start the healing process. Archambault adjusts price based on monthly Patreon support. “This support can be client initiated or support through someone who wants to help.” states Archambault “Patreon was set up to allow people to get involved in making a difference in their life and in the life of someone less fortunate.

Support levels get different rewards such as early access to my blogs, early access to videos, Patreon only research, advertising for your business and much more.”

If you would like to learn more about Healing Self Hypnosis, Steven Archambault or would like to become a Patreon click here: https:// stevenarchambault.com

Some cool facts just for fun: Steven Archambault has Tattoos and plans for more.

1 of his 3 daughters says that “he is super goofy and immature in lots of cases.” And when a 16 year old calls you immature you know your winning at life.

Community \\ 35

16 Reasons to Meditate

By Steven Archambault

PHYSICAL HEALTH BENEFITS OF MEDITATION • Meditation increases blood flow to your brain…

• Meditation reduces cortisol production, a stress-induced hormone that suppresses the immune system and can make you feel anxious nervous and unsettled for no real reason (other than having too much cortisol in your system).

• Meditation reduces blood pressure and heart rate.

• Meditation increases the production of good neurotransmitters including serotonin and dopamine, both of which play a huge role in

controlling our moods.

• Meditation triggers the parasympathetic nervous system, which enables us to rest and recover from stress.

• Meditation boosts the immune system. As we reduce our stress, the immune system is boosted.

• Meditation causes muscle relaxation.

• Meditation slows the ageing process.

Meditation significantly increases melatonin and DHEA and decreases cortisol, which has a significant impact on slowing the ageing process down.

PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFITS OF MEDITATION • Meditation reduces stress related conditions such as anxiety and depression.

• Meditation increases stress resilience.

When we are able to switch off the sympathetic nervous system (responsible for the fight or flight response) and trigger the parasympathetic nervous system (responsible for the relaxation response) on a regular basis, we are training our bodies to rapidly recover from the impact of stress.

Over time the brain learns how to stabilise the autonomic nervous system in everyday life without having to switch into the fight or flight response when faced with challenges or demands.

• Meditation increases focus and present moment awareness.

• Meditation increases emotional stability and 36 // Community Now!

intelligence. When we meditate regularly, and reduce our stress levels, our hormones balance out and we feel less reactive, less defensive and effortlessly balanced more of the time.

• Meditation increases empathy and compassion. These 2 are such games changers in our world and scientific studies reveal that our ability to be compassionate and empathetic is really a brain game.

Regular meditation rewires the brain and increases our ability to be able to consider the feelings and needs of others and how we could be of service.

• Meditation increases a sense of connection to yourself and others. The more you meditate the more you become aware of who you are.

When we allow the mind to go beyond those

everyday levels of thinking we may get stuck in and experience deeper more expansive states of ourselves, this experience begins to inform us of our deep subtler nature. After a short while, we experience a more quiet, calmer and dynamic sense of who we are.

Our relationships become deeper and more meaningful based on the simple principle, ‘the more you know yourself the more you can know another’.

• Meditation increases your sense of purpose and meaning. The more you meditate the more you become aware of what you like and don’t like, what you are passionate about and what you aren’t. Regular meditation gives rise to clarity about what is important in life and a sense of confidence to make choices that enliven your passions and dissolve distractions. Life takes on greater meaning and you feel a deeper sense of purpose and satisfaction.

• Meditation improves sociability. Taking time out for yourself is really important but for us to live a full rich life, we need meaningful connections with others. Nervousness, anxiety and feeling down or disorientated can play a big role in not wanting to hang out with people. Meditation increases our ability to get out there and connect with others as a result of feeling more connected to ourselves and clearer and more confident about what is happening inside us.

• Contrary to popular belief, the benefits of meditation are experienced in varying degrees immediately. Meditating every now and again is great and you will notice a change with each session you do. However a regular daily practice of meditation is the key to experiencing the full force of these exponentially increasing benefits.

AN EASIER WAY TO LIVE WITH ACCEPTANCE, COMPASSION, AND TRANSFORMATIONAL SELF HEALING Hypnosis gets your subconscious mind working for you… Addictions, mental health concerns, or removing limiting beliefs can all be successfully treated with hypnosis.

Mention this ad and get the first 1 hour discovery session free! https://stevenarchambault.com/ 587-577-9642

Community \\ 37

Mental Mental illness illness does does NOT NOT discriminate discriminate … …

By ByKM KM

It It does does not not care care what what size size pants pants you you wear wear It It does does not not care care about about the the colour colour of of your your hair hair Mental illness doesn’t care if you are rich or poor It doesn’t keep a score

Mental illness does not judge you by age It is not a craze or the latest rage Mental illness is REAL It’s something we all feel Mental illness is everywhere And And is is in in no no way way fair fair Mental Mental illness illness is is here here to to stay stay Unless Unless we we work work together together to to find find a a way way ......to tobe becontinued continuedin inissue issue55

38 // Community Now!

Swimming Through Life

Adette Lacerte, Traditional Life Coach

Have you ever wondered about all of the life analogies around

competitive swimmer it would be important to take advanced

water? Dive right in, treading water, don’t throw the baby out

swimming lessons, learn about the dynamics of your body

with the bath water. There are so many of them. Ironically, I

in the water and how to maximize your strokes. Beyond a

got thinking about them while swimming laps of breaststroke

swim instructor, you might need a coach, someone who can

in the pool the other day.

work with you one-on-one or in a group to help maximize

It got me thinking about our relationship with water. Each of us is brought into this world via a cozy sack of fluid. Within this protected cocoon we grow and flourish until we are ready

your performances. They are there to pick up on where a slight change in your kick pattern or how your hand enters the water could improve your performance and outcome.

to push off into a world of unknowns, a world of reliance on

Those of us that are brought up with a fear of the water might

oxygen to keep us alive, separate from the fluid.

also find ourselves in a world full of frightening experiences

As small children, we might be exposed to a pool, lake or river where our parents keep a close eye on us in the shallows ensuring that we don’t drown. We might be fortunate enough to take swimming lessons, which allow us to go beyond the depth of our own legs and explore the world of water in a much different way. Some of us go on to use tools such as

and so we hold back. Our parents may have sheltered us or maybe we ourselves held back and never tested the waters due to the stories we made up about what might be lurking just beyond. You could say, we stayed close to shore and didn’t learn any new skills that would allow us a full experience of the world around us.

snorkels and fins and hone our swimming skills to be faster

Another way of looking at it would be to ask yourself, “when

or more proficient. Or, we might be raised in an environment

I stand on the shoreline am I truly opening myself up to see,

of fear associated with water, fear of drowning, not being able

explore and experience all that the body of water has to offer?”

to breathe.

We know from watching movies and videos that there is a

In many ways, our lives are like our relationship with water.

Our first nine months are extremely protected and sheltered.

Then the day comes and we born into a world that is strange and new, but our parents protect us. They help us develop our bodies and our minds with encouragement to crawl, walk, grasp, say words, etc. As we grow we are continuously increasing our awareness of the world we live in by trying

whole world of unbelievable marine life that exists below the surface of the waters, but unless we learn new skills, discover cool tools, and hone our skills we miss all of those experiences.

Much the same as in life we need to be continuously open to learning new skills, using new tools, exploring our skills and challenging ourselves so that we can truly have a life that is full of experiences and a life worth living.

new things and learning new skills. We experiment with tools

If you find yourself floundering around in the water or

such as crayons, shoes, bicycles, balls, and bats. As we get

apprehensive to approach the water for fear of sinking or

older our skill development continues not only in the physical

drowning it might be time to expand your support network

elements but also in our mental capacity to understand the

and get some new tools. Our friends and family are always

world around us. We are introduced to books and school

there to help support and encourage us, but sometimes it takes

systems, which help give us a wealth of information and

someone with a slightly different approach or perspective to

knowledge about the world around us.

be able to coach us through what might be holding us back

Eventually, we learn to adapt and change directions, much like we do in the pool. Underwater we learn to either hold our breath, maybe breath out, or to use a snorkel. We learn that by adjusting how we kick or move our arms it allows us to change our direction avoiding a collision or to see something different. Adaptations in our daily lives are often about adjusting how our body responds to stimuli, adjusting our speed, adjusting our thinking and how we see the world all in order for us to better navigate and have experiences.

If we want to advance our experience with water it usually takes some additional training, support and maybe even a coach. These are our support teams, they are there to ensure

from getting in the water or gliding gracefully with ease into the deep end.

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that we dream of. For example, if you want to become a

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Integrating Indigenous Knowledge

to Find Sustainability Within

40 // Community Now!

By Deanna Burgart, P.Eng, CET, Indigeneer™

In the corporate world, we easily talk about wellness programs that involve nutrition, exercise, ergonomics and physical safety. It sometimes becomes more uncomfortable to talk about psychological safety, mental and emotional wellness, and we rarely discuss spiritual wellness. After almost 20 years in the energy sector, I often felt that it was expected that any non-physical issues are supposed to be left at home when we came to work.

Stress leave was something to be avoided, ashamed of, and often resulted in negative repercussions upon return. Mental health was whispered about, and toxic environments were tolerated. The phrase, “getting a thicker skin” is often heard in boardrooms and HR offices alike. I have lived with mental health challenges since my first major panic attack at 22. Eventually diagnosed with PTSD due to childhood trauma, my reaction to some environments was often amplified for me because of this. My healing was influenced and shaped by business leaders like Stephen Covey and inspiring survivors like Viktor Frankl, who both taught that we often cannot change what happens to us, but we can choose how we respond to it. I spent my whole career training myself to respond better to unhealthy situations and environments. Eventually, after a particularly stressful time, I decided to take my overall wellness into my own hands and dedicate my energy to helping organizations and educational institutions move towards healthier work places. More inclusive spaces. I wanted to help facilitate the creation of environments where people didn’t feel like they had to leave to live.

Finding my roots and exploring my Indigeneity as a Cree, Dene, Irish adoptee showed me a different way to be. Indigenous culture does not separate the parts of self. It is not uncommon to begin a conference, a business meeting or an event with a smudge (burning of sacred medicines to cleanse one’s self and the energy of a space from negativity), a prayer and a blessing from an Elder. As I begin a new role at the University of Calgary as Indigenous Engineer in Residence, I am honoured to be welcomed with a Traditional Ceremony and blessing, and it feels like a powerful and important (continued on next page) Community \\ 41

(continued from page 41...) way to begin this new direction. The Medicine Wheel taught in my Cree culture describes humanity as having four parts; spiritual, mental, emotional and physical. My teachings have taught me that if any one of these parts is out of balance, it can show up as illness in any one of our four parts. Chronic physical pain can impact our stress levels. Chronic stress can cause physical ailments. For many years I approached wellness and balance of each part of self in isolation.

For the physical, I worked out, took kickboxing, was a long distance runner and eventually a personal trainer after losing over 100 lbs. Today, I live with a chronic pain condition in my hips and pelvis that I know is partially connected to trauma. I spent over a year in a wheelchair and now occasionally need a walker when the pain flares up. I have had to learn to live in a new state of being, and adjust to what wellness means to me. My eyes have been opened to the needs of those 42 // Community Now!

with mobility challenges, and I am passionate about accessibility â&#x20AC;&#x201C; both physical and mental.

I am now integrating a holistic approach to wellness to progress my recovery. Working on my emotional healing has improved my physical pain and my ability to cope with it.

For my mental wellness, I have returned to school twice. Once when I was a single mother and my son was 18 months old, I finished my high school diploma and obtained a diploma in Chemical Engineering Technology from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.

After over seven years in the oil and gas industry, I returned to school. This time I attended Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and obtained my degree in Chemical Engineering. I will always be grateful for the support of the Aboriginal counselling services and the Lakehead University Native Student Association â&#x20AC;&#x201C; without them I am not sure I would have been successful in my studies. I am a lifelong learner, and I have learned to

integrate my love of learning into my holistic wellness. I am working in the realm of reconciliation and intergenerational healing and am using this continued learning to help transform workplaces, learning institutions and the engineering profession.

For my emotional wellbeing, I initially started out with more Western methods of care; medication and therapy. It wasn’t until the Aboriginal counsellor at Lakehead taught me about the Medicine Wheel that I realized I needed to integrate my approach. I am still open to medication when needed, and I believe in integrating Western medicine and knowledge with traditional teachings from around the world. I am passionate about selfcare and always open to new ways of healing the whole self.

The last part of self is our spiritual self. I love the description from Alberta Health Services.

A brochure I once saw read, “Everyone is spiritual, whether or not they are affiliated with a religion.” The brochure goes on to describe some common themes associated with spirituality. These are: • A process of self-discovery and learning who you are and who you want to be.

• The challenge of reaching beyond your current limits. This can include keeping an open mind or questioning current beliefs.

• A connectedness to yourself and to others.

Spirituality is personal, but it is also about finding “your place in the world.”

• Meaning, purpose, and direction for your life.

• A relationship with a higher power, whether rooted in religion, nature, or some kind of unknown essence.

Every day I look at the Medicine Wheel and

reflect on the things I will do to nurture each part of me. Some days I forget, it is so easy to get wrapped up in the day to day stresses.

Two weeks ago my father passed away, and the pain and shock of grief caused me to forget to nurture my whole self when I needed it most. Writing this was the reminder I needed.

Today, I am an Indigenous Oil, Gas and Pipeline Engineering Environmentalist with a passion for energy and sustainability. I am spiritual. I am traditional. I have spent the last 20 years healing my Inner Child, and today I am ready to start listening to my Inner Elder.

The ancestors speak to me with a longing for all our people to be whole. To be healed. I am no longer hiding parts of me for fear of judgement. I am now on a journey of blending those siloed parts of me towards a sustainable and holistic state of wellness. It is when I create sustainability and balance within me that I can best serve the people and projects around me. I believe if we can empower the youth to do the same, we can heal the world.

I believe it is time for all of society to be open to seeing things, to being, a different way.

Indigenous inclusion is more than creating spaces that are culturally safe and welcoming for Indigenous people. Indigenous inclusion is about understanding that Indigenous peoples have wisdom, ways of knowing and ways of being, that can not only help heal ourselves, our workplaces, our classrooms… but can help heal our planet. Indigenous ways of being and knowing can transform the engineering profession to a way that is more interconnected with the land, more sustainable and more harmonious with the peoples that are stewards of the land. I am grateful to be on this journey and I invite you to step into a space of learning as we cocreate a more sustainable tomorrow. Finding sustainability within is the place to begin.

Community \\ 43

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WHAT’S POSSIBLE WITH SOPHIA Once you are well known and start going to events, you start realising some are worth going to and some aren’t. I am going to tell you one that wasn’t.

I was going to an event in a town fairly far away from Edmonton and when I got there it looked like I might meet some influential people who could help me. As the event went on, I realised I was mistaken because half of the people there were security protecting the maybe like one important person there and the other half were people there to look around.

But, I thought, “Let’s just see how it goes.”

So, I made up my mind to stay for a bit more.

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After an hour and a half of network time, everyone headed to another large room so I followed, curious why everyone was going there. When I finally got in the room there were many tables and chairs and I sat down in a chair like everyone else, wondering what would happen next. Someone went on stage and started talking and didn’t stop for quite a while, then someone else went on the stage and one after one people kept going on stage and talking and the talking went on for around 5 hours. When the talking was done the event was done.

While my dad was driving me home I thought over and over “Why was there was so much talking and many people there just to look around?” There was not actually much point to that event but I never actually found a good reason why the event was like this, so I just put it aside and don’t worry about it.

What’s possible? Some events may trick you to go to them but make sure there is a real reason you’re going and that you know why you are there.

Contact me if you want to have an honest meeting about;

Contact Me Today jadealbertsconsulting.com

Facebook.com/jadealbertsconsulting jade@jadealbertsconsulting.com

403-771-1301

Community \\ 45

Mental Health Begins at Birth:

A Children’s Manifesto

By Diane Swiatek, Founder and Director of Banbury Crossroads School

“

There ought to be a law!” Although, as my father used to say, “You can’t legislate against stupidity”, he would, from time to time, utter the former statement.

When some societal flaw appears in our democratic society, we tend to create a law for the protection of our human rights, and we adjust our attitudes and responses to fit the necessary changes. If it is true that mental health begins at birth, and it is, then “there ought to be a law”, or, at least, a 46 // Community Now!

moral imperative, to protect and elicit the mental health of the youngest members of our society. What would this moral law be?

It would contain two fundamental principles: the first, that children should have the right to be happy, nurtured, heard and visible; the second, that children should have the right to determine the course of their own lives, as long as they do not interfere with the rights of others—the right to liberty, and the expectation of responsibility and mutual

respect. As in the rest of the Western world, the expectancy of mutual civility in Canada is the basis for a harmonious life. As our neighbor to the south, Abraham Lincoln, said in his First Inaugural Address in 1861, “the better angels of our nature” motivate us to influence the world around us for the better, to create the bonds of affection that bind us as citizens and that heal whatever pain arises between us. That sounds like a description of mental health in action. We need to call on this inner impetus to improve the mental health of Canadians, and it does begin with birth.

When children come into our lives, they become primary beneficiaries of this attempt to make the world a better place. Children provoke us into being our best selves. At least, they ought to. Children are citizens of their country, and already benefit from the laws of their land. Yet, due to their small size, children can be overlooked, and their value as human beings can be minimized. In some ways, we can take their physical, intellectual and moral immaturity as a reason to underestimate their value and their dignity. How often I have seen children in public places, saying, “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!” or “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!”, trying to get their parents’ attention away from some other focus, like a cell phone or a conversation with another adult. They may, indeed, be impatient, but all it takes is a quiet acknowledgement that they have spoken and a few words, “I’ll be right with you!” to satisfy their impatience.

It is easy, if our attitude is benevolent. I have also seen little children stand in a line-up at a store with money clutched in their hands, and when their turn came to be the first in line, the cashier simply looked over their heads at the next adult customer. We can step in and say, “Oh, this person was here first.” Sometimes, children can seem invisible, both to us and to themselves. We can be positive bystanders

who intervene. At the opposite end of the visibility scale, people sometimes nudge children into being the centre of everyone’s attention, partly because the adult is proud of their progeny. Children go along, because they are innocently willing to do the dances to enter centre stage. Nonetheless, children do not exist to bolster their parents’ status; they are human beings in the making, and they belong to themselves.

Human beings are a complex mix of biology and environment, of genetics and societal impact. All of this can represent an overwhelming responsibility for families, teachers and other community mentors, as they attempt to understand the complicated interrelationships between these factors. There is an enormous commitment required to assist children in their growth through childhood into adulthood, healthy in mind and body.

Moreover, since children represent our future, the consequences of our understandings and our actions are enormous for all of us.

Part of our being overwhelmed is experiencing confusion. Sometimes, I think we don’t know what to make of children. They can seem both wise and peaceful observers of the adult world, and yet, at other times, they can seem raucous, self-centered beings that shatter our peace. They surprise us with their exhilaration and wonder, their cherubic sleeping presence, and their daytime energy and intense feelings. They elicit very profound, elemental emotional responses within us of connection, fatigue, elation, frustration and awe. They require us to learn things we thought we already knew—like how to negotiate, how to overcome our inertia in order to rise to the occasion when spontaneity appears, how to play again, and certainly, how to care for (continued on next page) Education \\ 47

(continued from page 48...) others. Children add immeasurable interest, passion and especially meaning to our lives.

We experience altruism. Not only do we impact upon them; they impact upon us.

So, in our efforts to simplify our parental and mentoring task, we need to learn everything we can about healthy child development in all aspects: physically, emotionally, socially, intellectually and creatively. We need to access information from many reputable sources.

This takes work and commitment to learning what we need for our mentorship role. Yes, it takes work and time and effort: we need to read insatiably, to watch intently and to listen openly. Then, we need to think, to evaluate what we have absorbed, so that we can have some principles to guide our actions. After that, we need to live by our principles, those intentions that arise from our “better angels” to promote these spheres of development.

We need to behave with wisdom, kindness, patience and empathy towards our children.

In the end, it’s all about behaviour. Our principles need to find expression in actual behaviour. Within schools, homes, and the community, these are the primary tasks of children’s caregivers.

If there were, then, such a thing as a moral imperative to create and live a “Children’s Manifesto”, to help us nurture the mental health of our youngest citizens, it ought to highlight that children deserve respect… as individual people. In our homes and in our schools and on our streets, we can treat children with the same respect with which we treat our peers. For example, if we wouldn’t use a disparaging tone of voice with our friends, we ought not to use it with children.

After all, they are not as secure as adults are.

They have not been on earth long enough to 48 // Community Now!

realize that they do matter and that they are valuable human beings. They cannot handle rejection or disrespect with equanimity as well as adults might. They have feelings, and needs, and hopes and fears, and it is up to us to ensure that we are trustworthy recipients of these emotions. We need to live up to their trust in us.

Children’s mental health needs may be described in the duality that children need to feel both lovable and capable. All human beings do, actually, and it all starts at birth. The lovable part begins with their growing attachment to their caregiving parents, which allows trust and a sense of security to develop. From parents, this requires that we spend time gently holding them and interacting with them nonverbally, talking to them, and looking fondly into their eyes. This latter activity has been shown to produce the hormone Oxytocin in the brains of both mother (or other caregiver) and child. Oxytocin plays a role in social bonding, trust and empathy. The release of Oxytocin happens even between dogs and their owners when they gaze into each other’s eyes! More generally, children learn that they are lovable when the adults in their lives respond affectionately, empathically and kindly towards them, and when those adults’ body language transmits the clear message that they are happy to be taking care of them.

As guardians of children, we need to help them learn how to be lovable, and one way of doing this is through their development of emotional self-regulation. Emotional selfregulation involves dealing effectively with anxiety and stress, and this ability is important for maintaining mental health, because not being able to do so can lead to alienation and depression. If children cannot regulate themselves emotionally, they tend to misunderstand situations, and they overreact

by becoming prickly with their emotions, and sinking into rudeness or temper tantrums to disperse their feelings and to prevail over others. This distancing and power-seeking behaviour can make them a pariah to their peers and caregivers alike. Emotional health is not defined by being self-centered and dramatically conflict-ridden; this is actually very dysfunctional.

On the contrary, children need to develop emotional intelligence, to learn how to reach out to people, face to face, as they grow, so that they will experience emotional connection, affection, collaboration and the joy of synergistic work. Emotional self-regulation is an internal, individual experience that contributes to becoming, and feeling lovable.

Indeed, emotional health is defined by being self-aware, able to define feelings and seek out their sources, and then by being flexible enough to have options for self-expression.

Emotionally healthy people are able to work in good faith through challenges, and to selfsoothe when their feelings are raw. They have the ability to define their dreams and to lead the life they imagine. This inevitably involves the ability to be socially responsive to others and to show compassion and benevolence.

Our role in childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives is to be proactive and protective, and at the same time, to show them how to go out into the world and handle it themselves. Once again, we are the ultimate, daily role models. We can behave with commitment and passion, with grit, in our own pursuits. When we meet our challenges with resilience, we demonstrate what it looks like to meet challenges constructively and with courage. We can also advise our children, when the situation is relevant, how to recover from disappointment and rejection and defeat. We can show them how to soothe themselves when they are aroused. To participate in their learning like this, we need to be empathetic, to listen actively when they are solving problems that are theirs alone, and to instruct them in strategies that will help address frustrations and challenges. We can persist in an optimistic frame of mind, and let them know that we believe they will learn how to handle themselves well. We need to be caring and mutually respectful in order to nurture childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s emotional health.

Living according to the principle of mutual respect is also central to the social sphere of (continued on next page) Education \\ 49

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(continued from page 49...) children’s experience. In order for children to learn the soft skills that lead to harmony between people, they need to learn how to communicate their feelings and ideas, their needs and wants. They also need to learn how to listen to others, and to seriously respond to what they say. Our young people depend upon us to communicate constructively, with care, honesty and tact, because we are their role models for communication. When we attempt to demonstrate our understanding by acknowledging their words and the emotion behind them, then they learn to listen actively to us. When we identify body language and facial expression as important indicators of others’ feelings, they will realize that this is an important source of information, even if it may be hard for their brains to interpret this information until they are young adults.

When we role model the search for win-win solutions to problems, ours and theirs, then they will learn how to do that on their own.

When we live with the understanding that each of us is important…but that so is everyone else…then children will learn that you cannot solve problems without considering everyone’s needs. This is so much at the heart of problem solving, that children or adults who are unable or unwilling to take into account the needs of others cannot be allowed to participate in problem-solving sessions. Parents or mentors need to take over.

Also, we cannot be autocrats with others, if we intend to have a healthy working relationship with them. We cannot operate as arbitrary decision-makers, pronouncing judgements that certain behaviours are either forbidden or allowed, without providing valid reasons and without allowing for discussion. That capricious and non-empathetic approach emasculates children: they learn either to

weakly wait to be told what to do, or they fight tooth-and-nail for positional stances in opposition to the adult, or else they make decisions themselves without regard to logic and reasoning. Young people can get into serious trouble by adopting such unhealthy approaches to problem-solving, and that certainly does not lead to mental health.

This leads us to another crucial part of the problem-solving process that young people need to learn: the issue of how to deal with the consequences of hurtful actions, both emotional and physical, in order to heal whatever pain arises between us. This is an enormously significant aspect of creating a civil and harmonious society. It is absolutely essential. Young people need to understand the universal importance of feeling internal empathy and remorse, and expressing this remorse to others, so that they can apologize and make amends. They need to understand that forgiveness is not an entitlement, but that it is up to themselves to sufficiently convince the victims that they are safe in the future. In order to do this, children need to learn that it is bearable to admit to failure and mistakes, so that they can actually take responsibility for themselves. If they cannot handle shame, they will try to blame others for their own actions to maintain their self-perception as an innocent victim. This process has been termed DARVO (deny, attack, reverse victim and offender) by Sarah Harsey and Jennifer Freyd to describe the responses of people accused of sexual abuse, but it describes a common response by anyone unwilling or unable to accept responsibility for their own actions.

In some cases, the “D” stands for diminish or defend, with a sense of entitlement underlying their excuses. Reconciliation and forgiveness are both delicate processes, and people need (continued on next page) Education \\ 51

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

They do not need to be organized every moment of their day.

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(continued from page 51...) to understand how they work, if they wish to experience peace and comfort in their social relations. Facing the real consequences of the pain we cause, and healing the rifts and distrust that arise between us because of our actions, is a process of humble acknowledgement, and then the offer of empathy, authentic apologies, and reconciliation. Forgiveness is tied to trust, and when trust is broken, it may take time, a lot of time, to reappear. So, forgiveness may, or may not, be given by the victim, depending upon the repentance and reassurances offered by the offender. To help young people learn how to navigate these delicate processes, the adults in their lives need to be capable of modelling humility, remorse, and making amends, and they need to expect appropriate behaviour from their children. A lack of empathy is likely at the root of hurtful behaviour, and empathy is at the root of the whole healing process.

In essence, everything points to the fact that we need to become mentally healthy and fully functioning ourselves, capable of taking responsibility for our feelings and attitudes and behaviour. We need to behave as kindly, compassionate, approachable mentors. It boils down to the fact that we need to be a non-anxious presence in our children’s lives.

If we can become our best selves, our role modelling will be worthwhile. This matters, because the style of problem solving that we do with our children will become the way they solve problems out in the world.

The second part of children’s duality of needs for mental health, the development of capability, happens through the learning that the children do. As they gain skills and knowledge, that is when self-esteem develops.

There is no short cut to this process. No

confidence is built by pretending that effort or work is of high quality when it’s not. Children can sense when adults are being dishonest, anyway. No artificial praise or rewards to elicit good behaviour will accomplish true self-esteem. However, appreciation offered from the heart is fine, because it is not manipulative. It is simply a demonstration of thankfulness. Moreover, gratitude cannot coexist with entitlement, and children need to learn the importance of gratitude, and the toxicity of entitlement.

Free play is another realm in which children learn to be capable. What is required of adults here is simply allowing children the time to decide what to do with the materials, the place and the people they have available. They learn decision-making, collaboration, creativity and social roles through such play. We adult caregivers need to step out of the way and let children be free to engage in this play. They do not need to be organized every moment of their day.

Let no adult think that their child would not learn anything unless they are forced to. Such a child would be unnatural. All human beings need to expend energy to learn how to master their environment, or else they would die. It is as clear as that. In other words, we need to trust children that they are intrinsically motivated to learn. Free play arises out of this internal motivation. Parents and other mentors just need to not squash the intrinsic motivation their children already have.

There is an active role that adults do play, however, in the process of children learning to become capable. They have a primary responsibility to present new opportunities to children to stimulate their interest and imagination. It is not enough to say, “Well, I will just wait until my child expresses an (continued on next page) Education \\ 53

(continued from page 53...) interest in such-and-such a thing.” Without becoming aware that such-and-such a thing exists, the child will never think of it. Take reading, for instance. Words are everywhere, and they give us messages that we adults know how to decode. It seems a natural impetus for parents to help their children understand what words are for, and what they enable us to understand. After all, reading is like magic: readers can understand the thoughts of others across space and across time. Words are like a puzzle, a code that can be unlocked to reveal information that, otherwise, we would have no access to. Parents are wise to enable their children to understand this amazing opportunity for learning. A simple and effective way of doing this is for parents to read to their children.

They can demonstrate their own proficiency

as readers, by providing, and using, books and magazines in their homes. They can write a dictated letter to their children’s Auntie.

They can add their children’s wishes to a grocery list. They can decode simple words on signs. They can play word games. They can show that reading is important. Reading is part of children’s mental health, because it empowers them to access their world.

Our significance as sources of inspiration in all regards cannot be overstated. We need to understand that, on their own, children would not think to attend events they have never heard of. They would not, out of a vacuum, think to attend a concert or a theatre, or learn a musical instrument, or go swimming or horseback riding, or learn a new language, or travel to Australia, or…well, the list is endless! Adults need to present these options to children, because they already know about

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them. Then they need to be prepared to foster â&#x20AC;&#x153;concerted cultivationâ&#x20AC;? of those curiosities their children seem drawn to. This term was coined by the sociologist Annette Lareau, and described by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers. Children need both free play and concerted cultivation of their talents and interests. The more intrinsic their play and their work, the more they will learn, and the more they will love to learn.

We can provide a solid basis of love and support for the children in our care, guiding them through life with mutual respect, and we ought to live according to this moral imperative. At the same time, we need to understand that children need to, ultimately, live their own journey to mental health. We may have extraordinary power over children when they are under 6 years old, because they are so vulnerable and have not had much

time to learn about themselves and their environment, but as they grow, our power diminishes to absolute zero, and, hopefully, what will replace it is our influence over them.

We also need to realize, in the big picture, that genetics and outside environmental impacts will always play a role in who a child becomes.

Nature operates in concert with nurture. Over time, those biological particularities that affect childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s intelligence and personalities will assume greater importance, and will need to be addressed as well. The hope is that as they mature into young adults, they will learn how to take over the responsibility for their own specific mental health needs. This is a very complicated topic. Everything affects mental health and mental health affects everything.

National Philanthropy Day & What It Means Internationally - Provided by AFP Global

Philanthropy is “the love of humankind,” National Philanthropy Day® (NPD) is the day that thousands of people around the world come together to both (1) put that word into action and (2) recognize the change that word has brought to our communities.

NPD is a celebration of philanthropy—giving, volunteering and charitable engagement— that highlights the accomplishments, large and small, that philanthropy—and all those involved in the philanthropic process—makes to our society and our world.

National Philanthropy Day® is both an official day and a grassroots movement. Every year, since 1986 when President Ronald Reagan first proclaimed November 15th as National Philanthropy Day®, communities across the globe have celebrated by hosting events to recognize activities of donors, volunteers, foundations, leaders, corporations, and others engaged in philanthropy.

56 // Community Now!

In 2012, Canada became the first nation in the world to officially recognize NPD permanently, setting a new model for other countries to emulate.

But NPD is far from just a top-down idea full of formal events. NPD is also a grassroots movement to increase public interest and awareness of the importance of philanthropy, as well as knowledge on giving, volunteering and engagement at the charitable level so people can practice EFFECTIVE philanthropy.

While many people show interest in giving or getting involved, they often need a little reminder about needs and to be inspired by goals and dreams. NPD spurs action, by not only providing tips and guidance, but ways to connect with causes and each other— so people can be inspired by what others are doing and create their own ideas for philanthropic engagement.

A LOOK AT THIS YEARS NPD EVENT IN CALGARY! Sometimes we forget to celebrate the good; this event allowed people to come together to celebrate what can happen when we work together. It was a great way to bring community together, celebrate the work of amazing organizations, companies and individuals while getting a chance to network and learn about what’s happening in and around the city.

Dave Kelly and Angela Knight did an amazing job hosting. While Mayor Nenshi provided an uplifting speech.

To learn more about this event, the people honoured and the organizations involved please visit https://community.afpglobal.org/ afpcalgaryareachapter/home

Congratulations to the 2018 Generosity of Spirit Honourees: Corporate Philanthropist – TELUS (Nominated by ARBI)

Small Business Philanthropist - Supreme Men’s Wear (Nominated by Fresh Start Recovery Centre)

Philanthropic Group - Children Hospital Aid Society (CHAS) (Nominated by Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation)

Doc Seaman Individual Philanthropist - Evan Hazell Sponsored by the Calgary Foundation

(Nominated by YMCA Calgary & The Calgary Opera)

Youth Philanthropist - Tina Guo Sponsored by RBC

(Nominated by Outrun the Stigma & YW Calgary)

Philanthropic Family - Alan & Shelly Norris Sponsored by United Way of Calgary & Area

(Nominated by RESOLVE Campaign & Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter)

Lifetime Achievement Philanthropist - Tom & Debra Mauro (Nominated by Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre)

1 [1] Kenzie Webber; Creative Director of Community Now!, Tom Mannix; from Boys and Girls Club; Boys and Girls Club, Derek Fraser; Past President of AFP Calgary & Area Chapter [2] Naheed Nenshi; Mayor of Calgary and Krista Malden; Founder of Community Now!

2 3 [3] Stacey Petersen, RSW; RSW executive director Executive Director, Fresh Start Recovery Center, Soulayah Petersen, Wayne Steer; Director of Fund Development Fresh Start Recovery &Past President of AFP Calgary & Area Chapter, Presley Biedermann,Darren Biedermann, Creative Director and Owner of Supreme Men’s Wear Limited Ltd., Krista Malden.

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A look at two of the Honourees 2018 Small Business Philanthropist

Supreme Mens Wear It is Darren’s constant passion to inspire people to believe in themselves at a time when all hope seems to have been washed away that really keeps his fire burning. Over the years, Darren has supported many charities by donating gift certificates, holding special events and generating awareness for charities like Kids Sport and Inn from the Cold. Seven years ago, one of Darren’s trusted clients introduced him to a charity that helps people recover from drug and alcohol addiction and become independent.

Darren’s friend suggested he reach out to his clients and ask them to bring in their gently used garments to be donated to Fresh Start Recovery Centre, to supply men in recovery with nice clothing to celebrate their successful completion of the program and to look and feel good for job interviews.

Over the past 23 years, Darren Biedermann,Owner and Creative Director of Supreme Men’s Wear, has built his business to be more of a community gathering place than a retail clothing store. While he sells men’s fashion items, he delivers connectedness – both withinand outside of the store’s four walls.

58 // Community Now!

Shortly after this first drive, Darren attendeda Fresh Start “Gratitude” (graduation) ceremony, where he saw previously broken men exuding confidence and style, in part because of the clothing. This inspired Darren to continue to hold and grow these clothing drives – eventually bringing Fishman’s Personal Care Cleaners in the mix – donate new clothing off the rack at the end of each season, reach out to his customer base to promote and advocate for Fresh Start and make cash donations to help make possible some of Fresh Start’s popular no charge events to increase the organization’s reach and impact in the community. *provide by https://community.afpglobal.org/HigherLogic/Go.a spx?MicrositeGroupTypeRouteDesignKey=6279287d-b1b6-4e60805c-c28a24ff8b05&NavigationKey=97cdaecd-5011-465a-8667d1b578111f3b

2018 RBC Youth Philanthropist

Tina Guo

University of Calgary med student Tina Guo already has a long history of philanthropy.

As a high-school student, she organized fundraisers and events for a number of local and global charities, including ShelterBox, the Calgary Humane Society, Care Canada, Free the Children, Save the Children, UNICEF, Africare, the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, Kids Cancer Care, Movember Canada and Stephen’s Backpacks Society.

Once in university, Tina’s experience allowed her to focus her efforts on two causes close to her heart: domestic violence and mental health. For three years, Tina was actively involved with Outrun the Stigma (OTS) Calgary, helping to raise $34,000 for the Distress Centre Calgary ConnecTeen program.

In addition to serving as co-chair of OTS Calgary, Tina founded the Students Against Domestic Abuse Association (SADAA), the first student-run initiative of its kind in Canada, and a member agency of the Calgary Domestic Violence Collective. In 2018, Tina led the SADAA group in planning Canada’s first-ever WALK A MILE IN HER SHOES On Campus in support of the YWCA of Calgary.

On top of her fundraising efforts, Tina also serves as the finance executive of the Student Run Clinic, which allows medical student clinicians, under the guidance of family physician preceptors, to provide free clinical services to marginalized populations – namely homeless families and refugees – at the Calgary Dream Centre, Inn from the Cold, and the local Refugee Clinic.

Provided by https://community.afpglobal.org/HigherLogic/Go.a spx?MicrositeGroupTypeRouteDesignKey=6279287d-b1b6-4e60805c-c28a24ff8b05&NavigationKey=8d3434b2-93a1-4555-a811999dcae4c44a

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EDUCATION

Education \\ 61

WHATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S YOUR FOODâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S STORY? How can we tell the story of our food?

How can we honour, appreciate and celebrate food while also learning to be sustainable?

Food is important for our body. What we eat controls our mood and how our body functions.

Food gives us energy and give us the essential nutrients our bodies need to survive. Food helps our mind and bodies grow. My mission is to use the classroom to try to find ways to help families reintroduce food in a positive way, learn strategies with our students to limit our fast food intake and encourage students to be sustainable.

62 // Community Now!

Food is also important for our community.

Preparing food and eating food can bring us closer together. Nothing is better than having a meal with the people you love, especially if everyone has been preparing something for the meal. As an educator, I see that we need to improve on how we educate our students about their food choices. We need to empower students about food. It would be great if educators and students together could find new strategies for whole-body wellness, which will also improve both teachers and studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happiness.

There is a small group of students in the STEAM Team which call themselves We Eco Sustainability Club. These students have been trying to find ways to grow our own produce on site for the three years our school has been open. We have been working hard, innovating ways to overcome the many obstacles there are with growing food at school. One of the main obstacles is financial. Last year, we received a $1500.00 grant with #Farm2School, (a nonprofit organization that promotes Canadian grown produce in our schools and

community). We received the grant to help us kick start our school community garden with a tower garden. This also helped us to change the way we see food being used in our school.

This tower garden is displayed proudly in the STEAM lab. We are currently growing tomatoes, basil, mint, and variety of lettuce crops. We have the produce and now we want to figure out, how can we use the produce to educate our school community about improving our physical and mental wellness.

FarmstoSchool program website: https://www.farmtoschool.ca/.

The WE ECO Sustainability Club have been using the produce we grow at school in recipes and share what we create among staff and community members. For example, last year we made delicious salsa with all our school grown produce and shared it at lunch time in front our school cafeteria, showing how easy it is to grow and make your own food. What we want to get across is that; All food has a story to tell. We want students to think about; (continued on next page)

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(continued from page 63...)

What is your food’s story? Where does each item come from? What story could your food tell? We are going to take photos of student lunches and see what we can find out about our community by observing and analyzing what we bring for lunch.

The STEAM Team members are always questioning - how is everything connected? A group of students have been researching into; how does our nutrition affect how we learn?

STEAM students want to learn how to make our brains work more efficiently. So, we are going to analyze, what is in the food we eat?

And by analyzing what’s in our food, students may think more about their food choices.

STEAM students have decided that our mascot should now be a Veggie Monster – not the Cookie Monster. This may help the process of getting kids to think more about their food choices.

STEAM students thought that we should make a MakerMinds Sustainable Innovation

64 // Community Now!

challenge, targeted to provide wellness opportunities for our community. The idea behind the project is to explore new innovative ways to be healthy and happy.

Students are creating design challenges, where food and overall wellness is the focus.

Students want to create various challenges in our school STEAM lab to learn how to connect with our community better and foster a culture of innovation and education based on promoting overall wellness and sustainability.

The challenge will be focused on teaching nutrition, researching new recipes, learning new culinary skills, tasting new flavours and finding new ways to be physically active.

The theme for Rocky View Schools this year is #InnovatorsCAN. And we think innovation should start with the food we eat. We want students to look at themselves as innovators of food. Wouldn’t it be great if schools were a place of holistic learning? Food should be the focal point of our learning, training our body and mind in how to be happy.

Rocky View Schools has a Design Team that can help teacher innovation ideas get off the ground. Design Learning coach, Sara Martin has been a great resource to bounce ideas for this food journey we are on. A cohort of teachers interested in Sustainability and Farms to School initiatives learned new culinary skills at Cuisine et Château in a Rocky View Design Day called, Inspired byâ&#x20AC;Ś Farms, Foods & Futures day. These Design Days allow teachers to be in the driver seat and experience the learning first hand.

Teachers get to experience what it feels like to be the learner and to get inspired. When I got to make the tortellini from scratch, I felt such a wonderful feeling of purpose. It made me feel like I was part of something great. When we sat down to eat, we were all so proud of what we created. I want my students to feel such purpose by making their own food.

The STEAM Team are trying to find new ways to teach culinary skills this month. Luckily, we found something quite special right here in Airdrie called, Ferraro Italian and Artisan

Pizza and Pasta restaurant. I met Nyla and Emmanuele Ferraro while eating pasta and discussing the importance of teaching kids how to cook in the classroom. Nyla decided that she must come and teach the kids at Heloise Lorimer how to make homemade pasta and tiramisu. We have had meetings to determine the cost per kid and how the culinary teaching will happen. After the students make their pasta next week, they are going to make enough to share with some of the high school students from Chestermere High School. This will give the students that same sense of purpose that I had when serving my pasta to my fellow cohort friends.

When students learn how to make their own delicious meals, I think they will take charge of a very important part of their lives, the food they choose to eat, and then they can become innovators of their food!

Where to start?

The STEAM Team have started investigating food by learning where certain food comes (continued on next page)

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(continued from page 65...) from. For example, grade 3 students in the STEAM lab inquired into how pumpkins grow. Students learned all about pumpkin seeds by scraping them out of the pumpkins and then tasted the seeds after we coated them with salt and pepper and then roasted them in the oven. Learning about pumpkins from getting their hands dirty…literally!

Another angle I am trying to work on is getting kids to think critically about what’s in their food. The food exploration challenges I have created aim to break down food through student’s senses. I put a delicious homemade pumpkin spiced cookie in front of the students. Then students had to go through all their perceptions before they ate the cookie.

The idea behind this was to get kids inferring into what ingredients are in the foods they love. This will help when students need to think about creating their own recipes. The challenge leads them to create a piece of writing to communicate their experiences with their senses. This activity got even the hardest kids to softening up to writing.

This is an example of the kind of writing that students created:

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I see nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, pumpkin glaze and ginger too. It looks lumpy. There is moistness from the pumpkin, grill marks and stickiness. I hear, “EAT ME I AM SO DELICIOUS!” I smell nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, pumpkin glaze, salt and ginger too!

When I bite into it, the sides of my mouth and tongue feel like a cinnamon bomb went off in my mouth! Delicious!

Cora Sharp – Grade 5 STEAM Team member What I love about introducing a food challenge is there is going to be so much to explore. We can analyze food chemistry, food waste, food art, recipe creation, even the evolution of how diets effect our bodies and our society.

There is so much STEAM to explore when using food. I love how when I was creating Halloween chocolates for example, I found myself testing my chemistry knowledge.

Figuring out what to add to the chocolate to make the perfect scientific combination, was a great learning experience for me. I then surprised my students with these homemade chocolates to test out their senses again and challenge them to think creatively.

I am really excited for the upcoming Food Challenge month to explore student voices and hear their authentic food stories.

THANK YOU TO THE COMMUNITY Sandra

Al

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Kenzie

Tracy

Scott

Les

Josh (Mj)

Stacy

Adette

Sophia

Diane

Peter

Jill

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