MHETA - Caring Connections - for ourselves and our communities of practice

Event is FULL - Currently not accepting registrations

FULL - Keynote Presentation

Keynote Presentation:
Jennifer Lawson, Shannon Gander, Richelle North Star Scott, Lisa Dumas Neufeld

Theme:
Our speakers and authors of the book, Teacher, Take Care: A Guide to Well-Being and Workplace Wellness for Educators, will share the inspiration for the book and the urgent need right now for such resources in our professional field. Speakers will also share a brief overview of our use of the Sacred Hoop as a foundational model through which to view well-being, infusing Indigenous perspectives of wellness and reconciliation throughout. Finally, we will touch on a few key topics, such as burnout and the stress cycle, which will be explored further in breakout sessions.

Dr. Jennifer E. Lawson is the senior author of the new book, Teacher, Take Care: A Guide to Well-Being and Workplace Wellness for Educators. She is also the originator and program editor of the Hands-On series published by Portage & Main Press. When she is not busy writing new books, Jennifer can be found presenting keynote addresses, running interactive workshops, and facilitating courses related to her publications. Jennifer is a former classroom teacher, resource and special education teacher, consultant, principal, university instructor, and school trustee. Jennifer is also one of the founders of Mission to Mexico, an organization that supports schools in some of the most impoverished communities in Puerto Vallarta

Teacher, Take Care project consultant Shannon Gander, BPE, CAC, CM, is the founder and director of Life Work Wellness, a company committed to individual and organizational well-being. Shannon has an academic background in corporate wellness, mental health, and conflict resolution, and has worked in the mental health community as a therapist and trainer since the early 1990s. For many years, she travelled Manitoba as part of the Balance team, bringing mental health program resources to educators. Shannon advocates for leaders to create systems for psychological health and safety for employees at all organizational levels. Her bliss is her family, nature, and a hot cup of coffee on a Saturday morning.

Knowledge Keeper and writer Richelle North Star Scott (Giiwedinong Anong) says Aniin! I am of Anishinaabe and Métis descent, and my Ancestors are from St Peter’s Reserve. I am the mother of three beautiful daughters: Amanda, Tehya, and Riel. I am a KooKoo of a fabulous grandson named Darius, but I call him Noozhis (which means grandchild). I am the Coordinator of Indigenous Inclusion Education for the St James-Assiniboia School Division. I am a Mide woman, Pipe Carrier, Water Carrier, and Sundancer. I have completed my mystery* in land-based education. (*I don’t use “master,” as it is a gender-binary word.)

Lisa Dumas Neufeld is a Métis-Mennonite educator from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She currently teaches in an alternative high school and is working on her Masters. She is a mother, a writer, and a local-national-international speaker. Lisa uses her personal and professional experiences to serve and share in the areas of Indigenous education, trauma, addiction and recovery, transformation, and reconciliation.

FULL - AM Session A: Fostering Schools of Well-Being and Workplace Wellness: Connecting Research and Practice to Indigenous Knowledge and Perspective

Session Title: Fostering Schools of Well-Being and Workplace Wellness: Connecting Research and Practice to Indigenous Knowledge and Perspective

This collaborative, hands-on workshop with Jennifer, Richelle and Lisa will explore the lived experiences of educators and the research related to how to promote self-care and workplace wellness. Indigenous knowledge and perspectives will be infused throughout, as the presenter’s team up to share best practices for educator well-being. Topics include:
• Current research on teacher well-being across Canada
• Exploring the Sacred Hoop: What does it mean?
• Finding balance and harmony with the Sacred Hoop
• Indigenous perspectives on well-being and workplace wellness

Presenters: Jennifer Lawson, Richelle North Star Scott, Lisa Dumas Neufeld

Dr. Jennifer E. Lawson is the senior author of the new book, Teacher, Take Care: A Guide to Well-Being and Workplace Wellness for Educators. She is also the originator and program editor of the Hands-On series published by Portage & Main Press. When she is not busy writing new books, Jennifer can be found presenting keynote addresses, running interactive workshops, and facilitating courses related to her publications. Jennifer is a former classroom teacher, resource and special education teacher, consultant, principal, university instructor, and school trustee. Jennifer is also one of the founders of Mission to Mexico, an organization that supports schools in some of the most impoverished communities in Puerto Vallarta

Knowledge Keeper and writer Richelle North Star Scott (Giiwedinong Anong) says Aniin! I am of Anishinaabe and Métis descent, and my Ancestors are from St Peter’s Reserve. I am the mother of three beautiful daughters: Amanda, Tehya, and Riel. I am a KooKoo of a fabulous grandson named Darius, but I call him Noozhis (which means grandchild). I am the Coordinator of Indigenous Inclusion Education for the St James-Assiniboia School Division. I am a Mide woman, Pipe Carrier, Water Carrier, and Sundancer. I have completed my mystery* in land-based education. (*I don’t use “master,” as it is a gender-binary word.)

Lisa Dumas Neufeld is a Métis-Mennonite educator from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She currently teaches in an alternative high school and is working on her Masters. She is a mother, a writer, and a local-national-international speaker. Lisa uses her personal and professional experiences to serve and share in the areas of Indigenous education, trauma, addiction and recovery, transformation, and reconciliation

FULL - AM Session B: Keeping Your Mojo: Preventing Burnout & Compassion Fatigue in Frontline Work

Working in a helping profession can be both rewarding and energizing. It can also mean you experience times of feeling challenged and drained from daily interactions. Particularly when life throws you other sources of stress (family issues, health challenges, or a pandemic). Compassion fatigue can be experienced by anyone who is supporting other’s experiencing stress or suffering (such as students, parents, colleagues, even family). There are ways you can protect your own mental health to help you in your role, your work, and to get a better night’s sleep. This session is for those that would like to bolster their toolkit with strategies for resilience, ranging from navigating difficult interactions, recovering from a challenging day of caring and interacting with others to resetting and recharging for your own well-being.

Join Shannon in this interactive and dynamic workshop, as participants will explore:
• The relationship between compassion fatigue & empathy burnout
• What is needed in your personal toolkit for mental well-being?
• Individual protective strategies for before, during and after people interactions
• The role of self-compassion in our daily recovery for letting the day go & sleeping at night.
• Team strategies for resilience & burnout prevention in school settings to help each other thrive.

Presenter: Shannon Gander

Teacher, Take Care project consultant Shannon Gander, BPE, CAC, CM, is the founder and director of Life Work Wellness, a company committed to individual and organizational well-being. Shannon has an academic background in corporate wellness, mental health, and conflict resolution, and has worked in the mental health community as a therapist and trainer since the early 1990s. For many years, she travelled Manitoba as part of the Balance team, bringing mental health program resources to educators. Shannon advocates for leaders to create systems for psychological health and safety for employees at all organizational levels. Her bliss is her family, nature, and a hot cup of coffee on a Saturday morning.

FULL - PM Session 1: Denim Rag Quilting Bee with a Machine Embroidery Lesson

Come and help make a denim rag quilt for our altruistic project - Sleep in Heavenly Peace. We will work in small teams to get the quilts completed in a day. Team members will be doing a rotation which will include organizing the pieces, sewing them together, doing an introduction to machine embroidery and snipping the seam allowances. At the end of the day, the quilts will be presented to SHP to go with the beds that have been constructed.
This is a great technique to share with your students as there is very little cost. The quilts are made with scraps and old jeans. Very environmentally friendly as it saves fabric from ending up in the landfill. This technique can be used on a project as small as a pillow or a full-sized quilt

Presenters: Janice Skene, Lindsay McFayden, Samantha McDonald

Suitable for: Beginner/Novice/Experienced
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ALTRUISTIC CHALLENGE for Sleep in Heavenly Peace
HELPING CHILDREN IN NEED SLEEP BETTER
This national organization fully believe that a bed is a basic need for the proper physical, emotional, and mental support that a child needs. When it was brought to our attention that the need for beds went far beyond our own neighborhoods, they stepped up and took initiative. A national organization answering the call to a national problem.

All children deserve a safe, comfortable place to lay their heads. Across Canada, too many boys and girls go without a bed – or even a pillow – to sleep on. These children end up sleeping on couches, blankets, and even floors. This can affect their happiness and health.
That’s where Sleep in Heavenly Peace comes in. We’re a group of volunteers dedicated to building, assembling, and delivering beds to children and families in need. Our organization has grown steadily over time, and we’re working on opening more chapters in different provinces to serve more people.

DONATION BOXES WILL BE SET UP DURING THE CONFERENCE FOR twin-sized sheets, pillowcases, and blankets for SHP community needs! Bring in personal donations or create pillowcases with your own textile classes and donate. Giving is GOOD!

FULL - PM Session 3: English Paper Piecing

Join Jennifer Isaac for some mindful hands-on skills –
If you’re looking for a way to use up scrap fabric at home or in your classroom, English Paper Piecing can be your answer. Come learn this hand sewing method that uses geometric shapes and whip stitching to create a variety of patterns. Create projects from pre-made patterns or from small or large designs. During the session we will be making a small English Paper Piecing design and learning how this method can be adapted to make a variety of designs and projects

Presenter: Jennifer Isaac

FULL - PM Session 4: Join *MCIC (Manitoba Council for International Cooperation)

Join *MCIC ( Manitoba Council for International Cooperation) for an engaging and interactive workshop that will provide a meaningful appreciation of the Sustainable Development Goals (known as the SDGs) and why they matter for individuals, families and communities.

- Building a Good Life: This activity frames poverty as a “lack of opportunity” rather than a “lack of basic needs”, enabling students/clients to see poverty in a new way and promote empathy over judgement. We ask, and explore, what it means to have a good quality of life.

- Designing for the Future: With a focus on sustainability and inclusive communities, participants will dive into a scenario to explore a community’s sustainability problems and work together to problem-solve and come up with possible solutions. Scenario topics include sustainable structures, protecting heritage & culture, inclusive communities, and effects of climate change.

Presenter: Trevor Churchill

FULL - PM Session 5: Real Care Baby Session

Do you work with teens, expectant parents, first-time caregivers? We are offering a session to experience the Real Care Baby program in action. Practice with baby and learn how you can use this device in your program. Experience the responsibilities required for caregiving of a new infant. Baby will cry and need to be fed, burped, rocked, and have its diaper changed. Also includes how to use the computer program, install new batteries, clean and store babies for optimal use.

Other uses include parenting styles and attachment parenting, the role of the father and simulating a childcare centre.
Session also offers the Empathy Belly, monthly pregnancy models, Shaken Baby, Fetal Alcohol and drug-affected babies.

Presenter: Caitlyn Schick

FULL - PM Session 6: Financial Well-being

Financial Well-being can be considered as ‘a continuum ranging from severe financial stress to being highly satisfied with one’s financial situation’ based on ‘having financial security and financial freedom of choice in the present and in the future’ (CFPB 2015). How do we journey along this continuum? What moves us forward or what holds us back? What do we have control over or what controls us? Is gaining financial literacy (knowledge) enough or are there other considerations necessary to generate behaviour change? Join us to explore the journey to financial well-being through an interactive session including consideration of key behavioural economic principles, the impact of a ‘Scarcity’ mindset and Money Habitudes. Suitable for use with clients/students/personal

Presenter: Sally Massey Wiebe, (she/her) BHEc, AFCC, QI Community Financial Counselling Services

FULL - PM Session 7: Join Jim Thiessen

Child bed lessness is a national problem. As a volunteer organization SHP along with donors and partner organizations builds beds for kids who are sleeping on the floor.
In Winnipeg alone, it is estimated that 4,000 of our children sleep on the floor – without a proper bed. SHP are on a mission to ensure no child sleeps on the floor in our city, and surrounding communities. This day’s build with see these beds donated right here in our conference community of Selkirk, MB.

Presenter: Jim Thiessen is a retired police officer and Winnipeg chapter president for SLEEP in HEAVENLY PEACE (SHP) in a Bed Building Afternoon

FULL - PM session 2: When does ‘Healthy Eating’ Become Unhealthy?

Join Registered Dietitian, Amanda Hamel, in a discussion on the nuances of ‘clean eating’, ‘good vs. bad’ foods and how to navigate tricky conversations around food and body image in a society that values diet culture. After this session, you’ll discover helpful resources and strategies for not only you, but also your students.

We’ll discuss:
• What is ‘healthy’ eating anyway?
• When messages to children/youth about ‘healthy’ eating can be harmful
• 4 ingredients to make a difference in your students’ or client’s lives
• How to talk to children and youth about food and body image

Pre-requisite**: (if you have time – please view prior to session)
Prior to joining this session, please watch Nüton’s webinar titled The Battle Against Fat Bodies: A Teacher Shares Her Personal Experience: https://nuton.ca/battle-against-fat-bodies/

We’ll also be doing a fun food activity together!

Presenter: Amanda Hamel

Amanda is a Nutrition Programs Educator for Nüton Nutrition Education (funded by Dairy Farmers of Canada), a team of dietitians committed to providing training and nutrition programs to Manitoba educators so they can help kids feel comfortable around food and eating.