(TWO) HORSE OPEN AND SLEIGH
The City of Swift Current partnered with different local organizations to offer a variety of fun activities for families during Family Fun Week, Feb. 15-20. One of those activities was sleigh rides. A group enjoys a sleigh ride provided by Lost Valley Horse Ranch on a route through the surrounding neighbourhood at Riverdene Park, Feb. 15. The drivers of the team of purebred Norwegian Fjord horses are Emilie Jacobs, holding the reins, and Chris Doucet.
It can be a challenging experience to enter the job market or to find ways to prepare for employment, and the process can often result in a feeling of helplessness or stress.
The new Take Charge of Your Life initiative by SaskAbilities Partners in Employment in Swift Current offers support for young adults between the ages of 18-30.
The goal of the series of group talk and wellness sessions is to promote overall well-being as a step towards employment.
SaskAbilities Program Manager Jayda Watson said they are pleased to have received a grant of $15,810 from Cameco for the new program, which makes it possible to offer the group talk sessions as well as the learning and well-being sessions free of charge.
“It is our first time getting funding from Cameco,” she noted. “We're excited about that. We became aware that there was funding from them and took the opportunity to apply, based on what the intent of their funding was for, and we were seeing an opportunity for providing that additional support to individuals.”
The program started in late January and will continue until the final week of June. It is aimed at anyone in the 18-30 age group who feel they might benefit from these sessions.
“It does have an employment focus to it,” she noted. “So ideally it would be individuals who are working towards entering the employment world.”
The sessions have a drop-in format to allow participants to attend when they are able to and to give them the opportunity to attend a session addressing a specific topic. The attendance of the in-person sessions requires registration to ensure adherence to the provincial COVID-19 guidelines.
“Right now, we're working in-between that five to 10 participants in person for attending each session,” she said. “So we are asking participants to touch base with us before those sessions so that we can assure that we're staying within that number, but we are also looking to be able to offer individuals to come and join virtually so that we're not turning anybody away from any sessions. They may not be able to join in person that week, but hopefully they will be able to join virtually with us.”
The Take Charge of Your Life program is focused on that pre-employment skill development, job readiness and career decision-making. The sessions will assist them to learn more about themselves and it will promote their overall well-being while they move towards employment.
“SaskAbilities Partners in Employment has been in the community for many years working with individuals experiencing disability and/or barriers to employment, and that support can begin at the age of 16,” Watson explained. “We support them in their journey towards employment. We really felt that these mental health and well-being sessions would allow the opportunity for individuals to further develop their self awareness and healthy coping strategies as they continue to work through those employability dimensions towards successful employment.”
SaskAbilities is partnering with Swift Current based Brunswick Creek Psychology Services to offer the program.
“It's all part of I would call it an employment wheel,” she said. “So it's part of working through all of those employability dimensions and this was an opportunity for us to work closely with Brunswick Creek Psychology to offer their expertise in those mental health talk sessions to provide the opportunity for people to learn more about themselves.”
These in-person sessions are taking place at The Center in downtown Swift Current. This is also the first time for SaskAbilities to partner with The Center.
“This is a new partnership for us to be able to host those sessions at The Center,” she said. “We felt it was a perfect setting for it. It's downtown, it's accessible and they have a great space in there that allows us to adhere to all the provincial guidelines that we are currently following.”
Dr. Conor Barker is the clinical director and founder of Brunswick Creek Psychology Services. He is a practicing psychologist and also assistant professor in inclusive education at St. Francis Xavier University. He is leading the weekly sessions that takes place every Friday afternoon from 1-3 p.m.
His goal during these sessions is to assist participants to build a foundation of physical, mental, and emotional wellness to assist them with taking steps towards employment and career decision-making.
“This is about being mentally, physically, emotionally prepared to enter into work,” he said. “When we look at individuals who are unemployed or underemployed, we do see a connection between that and their emotional and mental health. It's hard to extrapolate what the relationship is and I would argue it's probably both. When you are unemployed or underemployed, you're not engaged in things that are meaningful and that can be problematic for your mental health, but also when your mental health is low, you don't feel like looking for a job, you don't feel like looking for an interview, or you don't feel like going to the job that you have, because you are not in a space to actually go there and perform.”
The themes of the Friday afternoon drop-in program include coping with COVID-19, resiliency and wellness, trauma informed care, anxiety busting, depression busting, stress management, self-care, coping skills, mental health stigmatization, and isolation reduction.
“We are looking at ways that individuals can take control of their own lives by understanding their own behaviour, their own thoughts, their emotions and their physiology, and how these things are connected and how they can engage in behaviour that can get their personal needs met,” he explained. “So it's an exploration of who they are as individuals along with the actual skills that they're going to need to actually go and attain their goals.”
These regular group talk sessions on Friday afternoons are supplemented with a series of self care and enrichment activities presented by staff clinicians from Brunswick Creek Psychology Services. There are several art therapy sessions as well as journaling and goal setting sessions.
SaskAbilities has arranged other wellness sessions that will be offered by different local businesses. A session about financial literacy will be provided by RBC and yoga studios will offer yoga sessions. Partners in Employment will provide support with resume development, and job search skills.
“Those wellness pieces really complement the talk therapy sessions that Brunswick Creek is focusing on,” Watson said. “We're trying to match our wellness sessions to the topics that Brunswick Creek will be offering that week. It goes back to healthy coping skills. but also developing those employability skills with the resume development, journaling and goal setting.”
The intention is to use these sessions as an opportunity for participants to create their own peer support that can continue afterwards.
“Part of the goal for these sessions is to develop a peer support group as well that will emerge and that will continue meeting outside of these sessions, hopefully supporting each other in their journeys as they move forward towards employment,” she said.
For more information about the Take Charge of Your Life program or to register, please call or text 1-306-7507457 or send an e-mail to: swiftcurrent@saskabilities.ca