Parent Facilitator Training Workshop
Parents for Children’s Mental Health is very proud to report that we held our first workshop on the weekend of April 23—25, 2004. This workshop was attended by 60 parents from across the province—Thunder Bay, Sarnia, London, Ottawa, Sudbury, Windsor, Sault Ste. Marie, Toronto, Brockville to name just a few.
The workshop was designed to provide parents with the tools they require to start, facilitate, and maintain Parent Support Groups in their local communities.
The workshop featured the following speakers: Judith Klie and Laura Spiers of the Ombudsman Ontario Office; Gillian Kranias of the Self-Help Resource Centre; Susan Hess of PCMH; and Kathryn Richardson and Susan MacIsaac of Prime Times Strategies.
Topics covered during this weekend included: How to Complain Effectively; Introduction to Self-Help/Mutual Aid; Starting a Self-Help Group; Developing Structures and Guidelines to Keep Your Group on Track; Facilitation Skills for Self-Help Groups; Planning Your Next Steps; Exploring Challenging Situations Through Roleplay; Taking Care of Yourself—Preventing Facilitator Burnout; and Effectively Telling Your Story.
This weekend was about more than learning new skills. Participants expressed how important it was for them to be in a community where everyone knew and understood what it meant to be the parent of a child with a mental illness. A community where there was no need to explain or justify—where “we can look across the room into someone else’s eyes and know they ‘get it’ and we are not alone”.
This workshop is already bearing fruit as participants now prepare to launch new Parent-led Parent Support Groups; information is being spread across the province; and parent networks are expanding—increasing the power of our communal voice.