CMHA Toronto recently held its first in-person all-staff meeting since before the pandemic. The morning session – equal parts information, inspiration, and celebration – brought more than 300 staff together to reconnect with each other and take a pause for wellness. Under the banner “Together We Thrive,” the meeting and wellness fair reflected not just a deep appreciation for employees, but also the values that have earned CMHA Toronto the Nonprofit Employer of Choice Award in 2023 and the honour of being named one of Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures by Waterstone Human Capital in 2024. 

“We could have held a regular all-staff meeting and done organizational updates, but we wanted to centre the gathering around the staff and what would be of value to them so staff could fill up their well and draw from it as the weeks go on,” explains Rann Sharma, CMHA Toronto’s Chief People & Culture Officer. “We wanted to put intention behind it … to take everything we've learned over the last few years about navigating burnout, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and bring these learnings into an intentional approach to wellness.” 

With those guiding principles, Rann and Lee Shelson, Senior Manager Communications, along with a planning committee, built an agenda that would cater to staff from across every site and every area of the organization.  

Informing the planning of the day was a deep understanding of CMHA Toronto’s staff demographics, the majority women aged 40 and above. Many staff have come to Canada from abroad and are trained health care providers in their home countries starting afresh in Canada. Rann says that “these staff have a lot of different responsibilities: They are caregivers at home. They might be financially supporting family back home. And they're also supporting our clients. So, these staff are used to taking care of everybody but themselves.” 

Raptor-style wellness.

This attention to what will be most meaningful and beneficial to staff is reflected in CMHA Toronto’s benefits package. “We have curated a very intentional offering that represents the employees we have,” Rann says. In keeping with CMHA Toronto’s focus on equity, Rann shares that she is having “very intentional conversations with our benefits providers to bring culturally safe services to staff so that staff can feel as though their culture and their practices are represented.” CMHA Toronto’s benefits include increased social work supports and Indigenous mental health supports, as just two examples. 

An important element of the meeting was to share more information about the benefits that CMHA Toronto staff have available to them. In wellness-fair style, providers set up booths that let them interact with staff and describe their offerings in more detail, from the Healthcare Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), to the extended health benefits provider, GroupHEALTH, and its employee and family assistance program, Sparrow, to other wellness and nutrition services including massage, nutrition, fitness, and sound therapy. 

Rann believes that the organization’s role is to stay on top of the health and wellness benefits trends that employees may not have time to investigate on their own. “We really want to look at the newer things that staff may benefit from knowing,” she says. “When you're busy taking care of your family and taking care of clients, you don't always have time to do the research.” That was the thought behind introducing some unconventional wellness offerings and inviting providers to demonstrate them: “Maybe you don't know what sound therapy is, but you walk away learning that listening to certain sounds can help regulate your nervous system after a tough day. Or you gain a new understanding about how to eat nutritiously to support your wellbeing. The wellness fair feeds into our larger philosophy of supporting staff wellness generally.”

Beyond information, the session offered many moments of inspiration. The planning committee’s goal was to go beyond the expected and surprise people with ideas and experiences that would be fun, interesting, and would give staff something they could take back with them to their busy days and busy lives. 

One of these was a mindfulness visioning exercise led by Dayna Charbonneau, Director of Wellness for the Toronto Raptors. Rann says the staff were keen to engage in an exercise that the Raptors’ players use to get focused for a big game.

Spoken-word artist Britta B engages the team.

“Many of us left thinking about ways to incorporate [the mindfulness practice] into a team meeting, at the beginning of the work week, or as a reflection at the end of the work week,” she says. CMHA Toronto Case Manager Ezhil Souparamnian complemented this session by leading the group through breathing exercises as an additional takeaway. 

Unleashing the power of creativity and imagination, Britta B, a Toronto-based Black spoken word artist, performed a poem that revolved around “taking care of the heart that beats for you every day” and another that recalled the simple pleasures of childhood. Rann shares that we may think of poetry as something abstract or intellectual – “and who's got time for that kind of indulgence?” she laughs – but that taking time to enjoy the imagery and experience of poetry can “take you into an expansive space, the world of imagination, and these are things that can rest and reset your mind.” 

The morning session was also a way to reinforce the message that employee wellness is a core value of CMHA Toronto’s organizational culture. Rann says that this is especially important in a sector that has experienced, and continues to be challenged by, massive transition and pressure “from the pandemic to the need to do more with less because funding is really limited. We've got health human resource challenges. We've got nursing shortages. You name it, we’ve faced it.”  

That's one way to find balance!

Wellness for CMHA Toronto is a holistic people and culture approach, rooted in the ways the organization engages and manages employees and its dedication to supporting their personal and professional growth. “We try and pull every lever we possibly can, from making sure that the work expectations are clear, that people are managed in a supportive way, that any change that's coming is communicated properly, that we [managers] put an emphasis on our own wellness,” Rann says. She adds that “as Michelle [Christian, CMHA Toronto’s Chief of Staff] says, ‘managers hold the built world of the employees every day’ and so it's important for us to always model the behaviours we want to reinforce for staff. So, if you're off, you're off. You're taking care of your own wellness. If you’re on vacation, please don't check email.” 

Michael Anhorn, CMHA Toronto’s CEO, opened the meeting speaking about his own wellness practices and what he does to stay connected with what matters most to him. “When staff hears that from the CEO, there's no disconnect between what we say we are and what we actually are, between the internal and external brand,” Rann says.  

In another of the morning’s highlights, the team presented Garfield Bembridge, CMHA Toronto’s Chief Organizational Performance Officer, with a King Charles III Coronation Medal during the event.  

Garfield is awarded a King Charles III Coronation Medal.

“Everyone gave a standing ovation to this person who has literally dedicated his life to supporting mental health in the community,” Rann says, describing the moving tribute the team paid to Garfield, who is a visionary and leading voice in the mental health sector. (Read more in A Just Culture, A Well-deserved Honour.) 

The opportunity to recognize someone so deeply respected within CMHA Toronto and throughout the sector added another “intentional yet unexpected moment” in a morning that was filled with them. 

“I'm hoping that the staff walked away feeling like, ‘Wow. I was not expecting all of this,’” says Rann. “I hope we left them with a feeling of awe and wonder and that it gave them some inspiration. We can all get narrowly focused on our own departments and programs, but this was a chance to recognize, ‘we're all in this together. I don’t have to shoulder the burden of all of this on my own, I have a team.’”