Because of the high demand, we have made additional information sessions available in the Toronto Area:
NEW! Wednesday September 1, 2010 5:00-6:00 P.M. at Houselink, 805 Bloor St. West, Toronto
NEW! Wednesday September 8, 2010 12:00 P.M. (noon)- 1:00 PM at Auditorium, North York General Hospital — Branson Site, 555 Finch Ave. West, Toronto
All other information sessions are full.
To reserve a spot for yourself and learn more about this exciting new training initiative, please call 905-780-0491, Toll-Free: 1-888-780-0724, or E-Mail your name, telephone number, and which session you would like to attend, as well as an accommodations you require to: e.carvalho@krasmancentre.com
With support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, a new collaborative we have formed made up of the Krasman Centre, Gerstein Centre and Houselink Community Homes has been funded with a four-year grant to develop and coordinate a team of peer recovery educators to develop a series of wellness recovery education programs to their peers in order to support and advance employment and skills development. The project will cover South Simcoe County, York Region and the Greater Toronto Area.
We see our employment focus as educating/preparing the potential workforce of consumer/survivors or people with mental health labels/lived experience; strengthening the recovery-supporting abilities of the workforce; and supporting a culture shift for employers/organizations that is grounded in honouring and working from lived experience perspectives and disciplines such as peer support. All training will be free to participants.
Although we are not offering jobs, this program will offer the skills-training and knowledge that helps get jobs in a new and emerging field of service delivery, as well as transform the current helping system based on lived experience and the knowledge of service users.
If you are interested in participating in this exciting project, please take a look at our brochure and visit our online application form for details. Keep up-to-date by visiting our website at: www.cultureofrecovery.org.
Information sessions will be held in Toronto and in York Region on the following dates:
Wednesday September 1, 2010 6:30-7:30pm at Houselink, 805 Bloor St. West, Toronto FULL
Wednesday September 8, 2010 6:00-7:00pm at Krasman Centre, 10121 Yonge St., Richmond Hill FULL
Please let us know as soon as possible if you want to attend so that we can guarantee your space and send you up-dated information. Register for one of the upcoming information sessions by emailing your name, contact information, and any accommodations you require to e.carvalho@krasmancentre.com or by leaving a message at: 905-780-0491, ext. 125 or calling toll-free 1-888-780-0724
The application deadline is September 13th, 2010. Please help us spread the word about this exciting new education and training initiative!
Click here to complete the online application.
We have begun our search for the Coordinator who will help the coalition implement this project. See below…
Job Posting Peer Recovery Education Coordinator
The Krasman Centre, on behalf of a collaborative of agencies including Gerstein Centre and Houselink, is hiring a part-time contract PRE Coordinator. The position is based on a standard rate of $22.16 per hour at 20 hours per week. The position is for a one-year contract, with the possibility of renewal over the life of the four-year funding grant for this project. The position will be based out of the Krasman Centre Richmond Hill location, and travel around South Simcoe/York Region and the GTA is required (some areas not easily accessible by public transit).
The PRE 4 Employment Coordinator will coordinate, support and operate a modular recovery education program that develops knowledge and skill for people who identify with personal lived experience with mental health challenges or substance abuse in order to support entry to employment or advancement in current employment.
The PRE 4 Employment program, as outlined by the funding agreement, is overseen and administered directed by the project Steering Committee, and specific accountability for the program is assigned to the Krasman Centre; therefore, the Program Coordinator is an employee of the Krasman Centre. The Steering Committee is also responsible for program development, facilitation and evaluation.
The Coordinator is responsible for organizing and administering all aspects of the education programs, including recruitment, notification, coordinating delivery and supporting the evaluation. The Program Coordinator establishes and maintains communication with program participants and participating organizations. The Program Coordinator promotes and develops related opportunities for facilitation/leadership in the community through activities such as facilitating participant networks.
Responsibilities:· Operational management of the program including: promotion of the program; supporting recruitment; maintaining the program schedule; facilitation of the participant network; collection of program data; managing expenses; tracking and monitoring budget · Plan and organize education sessions including: notification and communication: registration: arranging for materials and refreshments, supporting the facilitators and troubleshooting· Conference organization and administration
- Reach out to formal and informal stakeholders and potential participants
- Provide support to the Steering Committee, including managing communication and feedback, and supporting program evaluation
- Engage potential employer groups to identify core employment skills that can inform development opportunities for participants
Qualifications
- Must identify as a person of direct lived experience with mental health challenges in keeping with the Krasman Centre philosophy
- Strong appreciation of mental health recovery principles and values
- Excellent communication skills, including public speaking (verbal and written in English)
- Strong administrative, coordination and budgetary skills
- Facility with technology: word-processing; spreadsheet; powerpoint; teleconferencing; and multimedia presentation.
- Knowledge of the GTA and York Region/South Simcoe an asset
- Experience facilitating groups is required; previous experience with WRAP is also a must
- Ability to work a flexible schedule including evening and weekends
- Ability to work independently and solve problems with minimal supervision
- Access to and use of a car is an asset as travel around York Region/South Simcoe and the GTA is necessary
Deadline for application is Thursday June 3rd by 4pm.
To apply, send your resume and cover letter as an attachment to postmaster@krasmancentre.com. In order to be considered for the position you must identify as a person with direct lived experience and also have completed an Introduction to Wellness Recovery Action Planning (WRAP). Please identify these two qualifications in your cover letter (confidential and private).
No telephone calls please. No telephone calls will be returned about this position. For more information, please see www.cultureofrecovery.org.
We are very happy to announce that, with support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, a new collaborative we have formed with the Gerstein Centre and Houselink has been funded for a four-year grant to develop and coordinate a team of peer recovery educators to develop a series of wellness recovery education programs to their peers in order to support and advance employment and skills development.The project will cover South Simcoe County, York Region and the GTA.
We see our employment focus as educating/preparing the potential workforce of consumer/survivors or people with mental health labels/lived experience; strengthening the recovery-supporting abilities of the workforce; and supporting a culture shift for employers/organizations that is grounded in honouring and working from lived experience perspectives and disciplines such as peer support.
Although we are not offering jobs, this program will offer the skills-training and knowledge that helps get jobs in a new and emerging field of service delivery, as well as transform the current helping system based on lived experience and the knowledge of service users.
Although still in the early planning stages, we know a few things: People with lived experience of mental health/addictions problems or labels who are interested in being part of this program will register/undertake a selection process into the program and must be able to commit to the full course of the program. At this point, we are considering the following seven groups as the core curriculum:
1) First level of Wellness Recovery Action Planning (WRAP)
2) Like Minds – 3 days
3) Pathways to Recovery Facilitation – 3 days
4) How to facilitate Gaining Autonomy over Medications groups (1 day)
5) Crisis Intervention – 2 days
6) WRAP Facilitation level
7) Summit – 1 day
We see orientation as being the first week of September and the curriculum will be completed by March 2011.
This is an intensive program and will require a significant time commitment if selected into the program. If you are interested, please stay in touch with this website or with www.krasmancentre.com for updates and announcements!
For those of you who atttended our “Recovery Politics: Tensions and Opportunities” session at the 2009 Making Gains conference in Toronto, the presentation slides can be found in the Media category under Presentations. Over 100 people attended this workshop, many of whom had extensive experience building a recovery-supporting environment, to discuss the inherent tensions in shifting organizational culture, and understanding the culture of peer support and recovery as part of the larger consumer/survivor movement. �
This forum is for stakeholders from across the city of Toronto, including consumer/survivors, family members, service providers, researchers, and LHIN representatives.
The morning will include:
- Descriptions of findings from focus groups with Caribbean,
- Somali and Tamil communities;
- Presentation of an enhanced model of recovery;
- A panel of service providers discussing implications for practice;
- Opportunity for participant dialogue.
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 9:00 am – 11:30 pm Location: Debates Room, Hart House 7 Hart House Circle (University of Toronto)
Space is limited. To register please send an email to Deqa Farah at: dfarah@crct.org or Call: 416 482-4103 ext. 223.
Is there ‘Hope for Recovery’?Every Door Is the Right Door is the Ontario government’s discussion paper on mental health reform. The paper speaks positively of the recovery approach, but the document is rather general and short on specifics. In the interest of clarity, we are holding a public forum that will shed more light on the future of the recovery approach in our province. Public hearings relating to the ‘Every Door’ discussion paper are underway; however, we believe it is necessary to have a focused dialogue on the future of recovery at the local, provincial and federal levels to ensure its coordinated implementation. This event includes formal presentations from government/policy representatives, who will address how they see the recovery approach being implemented in Ontario, followed by responses and questions from a panel of community discussants, and then a moderated discussion with the audience.
Speakers include: Allan Strong – Self-Help Alliance, OPDI (Keynote) Howard Chodos – Mental Health Commission of Canada David Kelly – ON Federation of Community Mental Health & Addiction Programs Jai Mills & Candy Williams – Central East LHIN, MoH Policy representative – TBA Toronto Central LHIN representative – TBA
Community Discussant Panel: Deqa Farah – Community Resource Connections of Toronto Karyn Baker – Family Outreach & Response Program Kate Storey – Centre for Building a Culture of Recovery
Wednesday December 9th, 1-4pm Debates Room, Hart House, U of T (7 Hart House Circle, near Hoskins and Queen’s Park Circle)
This event is organized by the Leadership Project, and the sponsors are Alternatives, Community Resource Connections of Toronto, and the Family Outreach and Response Program. For more information, contact, Brian McKinnon, 416-285-7996, ex. 227; bmckinnon@alternativestoronto.org
Ann, Kate and Tanya will be attending and presenting on peer support, WRAP and mental health recovery over the course of the 2009 Annual PsychoSocial Rehabilitation conference. To find out more, go to www.psr-rsp-conference2009.ca
We are extremely happy to announce that we will hosting Shery Mead from August 31st to September 4th for a week-long Intentional Peer Support Training.
*Shery Mead Consultant and Peer Provider, New Hampshire, USA is the past director of three New Hampshire Peer Support Programs including a peer run hospital alternative. She has done extensive speaking and training, nationally and internationally, on the topics of alternative approaches to crisis, trauma informed peer services, systems change, and the development and implementation of peer operated services.
Her publications include academic articles, training manuals and a new book co-authored with Mary Ellen Copeland , Wellness RecoveryAction Planning and Peer Support . Shery is currently the project director for the Evidence Based Practice, Consumer Operated Programs Toolkit funded by SAMHSA .
Registrations will be limited. For further information please contact Theresa Claxton, Coordinator, Central LHIN C/S Network at 647-203-3726 or email tclaxton@nygh.on.ca.
Workshop Cost:
$500 for Consumers / Survivor Peers working in the field
$750 for mainstream ally organizations
More details to follow.
If you are a peer currently not employed in the mental health field, but would be interested in this training for future use, please contact us regarding a possible reduced rate.
Future Events
We will also be hosting another session of WRAP Level II Facilitator Training with Ann Thompson in September. This training is for those who have taken a Wellness Recovery Action Planning session and are considering being able to facilitate WRAP groups. This is a special training and potential employment training opportunity for consumer/survivors. Dates and location to be confirmed soon so stay tuned.
In addition, we will also be hosting a Like Minds training with Kate Storey also in the fall, as part of this comprehensive training opportunity. Like Minds is a peer support recovery education training designed by peers. Check back for dates but for more information, please contact the Krasman Centre at 905-780-0491.
The Culture of Recovery (www.cultureofrecovery.org) project advances an agenda for change to systems as well as for people experiencing mental health problems and substance abuse. The Culture of Recovery project intends to form a new set of values and principles consistent with a recovery perspective: autonomy and empowerment; building hope and living from a position of wellness not illness.
Engaging and supporting people in recovery[1] to expect wellness and autonomy, and to inspire personal growth and change, requires participatory education, to change beliefs and thinking, as well as experiential education to learn practical skills related to being well and exercising choice. For more detailed information about the project, refer to the Building a Culture of Recovery article under Publications.
Four Pillars define the Culture of Recovery:
[1] Language leverages or sustains power and affects engagement. In mental health, the term “consumer” was adopted to shift the label from the primarily medical term “patient” – the term “survivor” is used to indicate the reality of having literally survived both the experience of mental health problem or diagnosis, and its treatment. Our project uses the term “person or people in recovery” as a mindful strategy to promote a hopeful and wellness oriented perspective and because this usage is consistent with recovery as a critical exercise.
Critical and Creative Exploration of Groundbreaking Approaches in Mental Health Recovery
Hart House – 7 Hart House Circle, University of Toronto, Toronto – Ontario
Thursday, June 5th and Friday, June 6th 2008The “International Recovery Perspectives: Action on Alternatives” conference offers participants an opportunity to hear from distinguished clinical practitioners, researchers, advocates, authors and activists who are renowned for their work in alternatives for recovery. The conference is a collaborative initiative between the Leadership Project (Toronto) and the International Network Toward Alternatives and Recovery (INTAR). This is a rare opportunity for Ontarians and our neighbours to meet with, and hear from the members of INTAR and the other international guests who are working to create alternatives to psychiatric treatment, and who are pressing for meaningful change at the local, national and now, international levels.
For more information or to register, please download the full registration package below:
