PATS (Pacific Animal Therapy) is returning to GROW for a hands-on dog visit!
Friday, October 2nd, 2:15 – 3:00pm (in the library/yoga room)
Bring your photos, stories, and memories about your own “best buddy” pet/companion to share if you would like to!
This very informal session will focus on the visiting pets. Everyone is welcome!
Hike with Rumon Carter
Go for a hike at Mount Doug Park. We will be going up the backside of the mountain on an easy to moderate trail. Improve your fitness, get fresh air in a fun, supportive environment. Rumon will also be teaching everyone about
geocaching. We will download the app and go on a modern day treasure hunt! As a group we will explore some basic orienteering skills on our way to find the geocached treasure!
September 18th 1:00-3pm
There will be transportation provided. Please meet in the ICMH parking lot no later than 1:00 pm. Or meet at the Eric Martin Pavillion at 1:15 pm.
Please register with Ilene @ 250-389-1211
Seating for transportation is limited.
With degrees in wildlife biology and law, Rumon has worked to promote, sustain and protect beautiful BC. He is an impassioned lover of the outdoors.
Recently, Rumon made a significant career change to pursue his interests in health, outdoor activities and sustainability.
Now through his company, Route 2 Projects, he supports progressive individuals and organizations in pursuing their business and creative goals by helping them to better define and deliver their stories. You can also follow him on his website A State of The Wild www.astateofthewild.com which describes all sorts of his outdoor adventures. He recently ran the West Coast Trail in one day with his partner Jennie.
As part of national Mental Illness Awareness Week, ICMH in collaboration with community partners will be bringing Brent Seal to Victoria to speak about his experience as a young adult diagnosed with serious mental illness, and his journey of recovery. Through the support of professionals, family, and friends, Brent graduated from his SFU Business Class as Valedictorian, and started running ultra-marathons.
Brent dedicates his time to supporting and educating people of the value of mental health and wellness and exploring the outdoors – rock climbing, trail running and mountaineering around British Columbia throughout North America.
Brent is the Founder of Mavrixx – a social enterprise dedicated to supporting and inspiring young people to live great lives through wellness and adventure.
Brent believes that anyone can turn their biggest challenges into their biggest opportunities and build a great life through wellness.
Mark your calendars! Brent will be speaking in Victoria on October 8, 2015. The event will run from 6:30 -8:30. Location to be announced.
On September 11, 2015, from 2:15 – 3:30, GROW will be offering an Introduction to Pet Therapy group at our Skinner Street location. The Pacific Animal Therapy Society (PATS) will be explaining the process an benefits of pet therapy, as well as introducing two of their therapists.
All are welcome.
If you would like to attend, or would like more information, please contact Trudy at 250-389-1211.
Introduction to Pet Therapy Poster
With funding from the United Way of Greater Victoria, and in collaboration with Island Community Mental Health’s GROW Program and Young Adult Engagement Project, we are presenting a Hip Hop Dance Hall Workshop on August 21.
Our classes promote supportive and interactive dance floor etiquette. Through Dance Hall technique we learn to spontaneously synchronize and Hype each other up!! Personal growth, body awareness and community are our aim. Learn how to utilize your moves through many Hip Hop dance styles, while having a lot of fun! All our class’s are playful, friendly and full of community vibes. You meet everyone, dance, and the classes will end in an engaging group chat.
When: Friday August 21 1:30-3pm
Where: ICMH Community Room, 125 Skinner Street
Contact: Ilene 250-389-1211
About the Facilitator
Dance was always a part of Crystel’s life. Her love of dance has evolved to the extent that she played an inte-gral part in building a dance hall in the massive garage of her community home in East Vancouver. She hosts dance classes and started the dance crew and company “Light Twerkerz”. Her mission is to bring the inspired, liberated, fun and interactive parts of dancehall culture to everyone.
Have you ever wondered how those guys on “Whose Line is it Anyway?” do it?
Come find out!
Learn Improvisation games that will teach you the basics of how to tell a fantastic story, and how to create funny improvised scenes out of thin air!
When: Monday August 24th 10:30-12:30 pm
Where: ICMHA 125 Skinner St. In the Art Studio
For more information call Darlene Arseneault at: 250-588-8171
To register call Ilene at : 250-389-1211
Darlene Arseneault has a BA in Theatre from UBC. She has been an actress for over 25 years, performing
Improvisational theatre, sketch comedy, new plays and
classic theatre.
NetWorks provides supported employment services to individuals recovering from mental illness who are seeking work. One of the community resources they refer clients to is Communica Dialogue and Resolution Services, who teach communication and conflict management skills. These skills are often essential in maintaining employment and positive relationships.
NetWorks has just partnered with Communica to offer a seven-workshop series called Communicating Trough Conflict at our Skinner Street location. The workshop covers conflict basics, conflict styles, active listening, assertiveness, managing emotions, and culture and power. If you are interested, please contact Dawn twin at dawn.twin@icmha.ca
For details on the individual workshops, click here.
This fall, our Housing Rehabilitation and Support program is offering the Ready to Rent workshop series. This series of six two-hour workshops covers areas including:
Graduates receive a Ready to Rent certificate recognized be housing providers as a reliable and trustworthy housing reference.
Please register by July 27, 2015 by contacting Katilyn Nohr or Jennifer Stevens
The Art of Seeing – October 7, 2015 10:30 – noon
with Quinton Gordon
The simple act of looking at the world around us and making photographs that express our emotional response to what we see opens new avenues of connection and creativity.
This short workshop with Quinton Gordon focuses on ways to heighten our sense of personal connection through a simplified approach to photography. Using low fidelity, simple cameras removes the technical barriers of image making, allowing us to focus on creative, visual, and emotional exploration. During the workshop Quinton will lead the group through a discussion on how a simple camera can be used to great effect followed by a one hour photo-walk.
Bio:
Quinton Gordon is a visual artist, photographer and educator who has used his camera as a means to explore the world for over 30 years. These explorations have taken him around the world on assignments for international publications and clients but his most important photographs are made right here in his own backyard. In 2012 he published Mile Zero: A Place Uncertain, a handmade monograph from a three year personal project that explores his connection to place. He is currently working on a follow up book, Personal Fiction. Quinton lives in Victoria with his wife, daughter and a growing collection of animals.
Quinton Gordon
Photographer At Large
To register for this workshop, please phone 250-389-1211 or email info@icmha.ca
On July 29, GROW is offering Playing with Words – A Morning with Poet Susan Stenson
Nobody can write your poem except you, because nobody sees the world the way you do. But where do you begin? Writing poetry, Charles Simie says, “is the process of fumbling around.” Whether you write daily, or whether you have never written a word, free-writing lets words cartwheel across the page.
In this workshop, using prompts, pictures, exercises and models, the ideas will come easily, then we’ll shape them into poems.
Let’s write poems big enough for “their own small moons”.
July 29th 10:30-12:30
125 Skinner Street in the Art Studio
To sign-up please call Ilene @ 250-389-1211
Teaching Approach
Ashton Kutcher’s friends “got punk’d”, but Susan Stenson’s students “get poemed”. Constantly looking for opportunities to turn her students in to authors or poets, Ms. Stenson inspires her students to participate in events like Victoria’s Random Acts of Poetry month, where poets frolic about town reading poetry and exposing people to great writing. Ms. Stenson doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk and through her own writing, shows students that she is willing to take the same risks that she asks of them.
Her poems have been short listed several times for the CBC literary prize and are also featured on buses throughout British Columbia in the Poetry in Transit program. Her work has also been commissioned for CBC radio’s Out Front Program.
Susan teaches English and creative writing to high school students in Saanich School District, has taught at Kamhlaba United World College in Mbabane, Swaziland and for The Victoria School of Writing. She is a regular on the roster of literary festivals, most recently for Poetry Africa in Durban, South Africa, and Words Aloud 3, in Durham, Ontario.
