We provide a series of six core workshops that are interactive and peer-facilitated. These two-hour workshops are appropriate for English-language learners and can be tailored to specific audiences and needs.

The workshops are for newcomer communities, settlement workers, communities of mental health service users, and newcomer and mental health services, agencies and institutions.

Our workshops include:

• Building Bridges: Anti-Racism 101: This workshop explores issues of racism, diversity and anti-racism, and is ideal for people who are familiar with the idea of multiculturalism and diversity but have not been introduced to anti-racism. It encourages participants to explore how racism works and its different forms in particular contexts. Participants are encouraged to question their own prejudices and explore practical alternatives.
• Understanding Migration: This workshop introduces participants to the complexities of migration and explores some of the social factors that shape the settlement process for newcomer and immigrant communities such as language, income disparity, housing, loss of status, and discrimination among others. It will encourage participants to move away from a single narrative of migration and see the great diversity that characterizes the experiences of newcomers and immigrants in Canada.
• Mental Health & Wellness 101: This workshop promotes a broad understanding of mental health, incorporating the social determinants that impact the health of particular individuals and communities. It introduces participants to a variety of mental health perspectives and approaches. Participants will be encouraged to call into question the stigma and stereotypes associated with people living with mental health challenges and disabilities, engaging in critical dialogue around potential strategies.
• Stress and Self-Care in Context: This workshop includes a core level one followed by a level two workshop. The core workshop encourages participants to explore collectively some of the major stressors that affect particular groups and communities, understanding stress not only as an individual factor but as a social phenomenon rooted in specific socio-economic conditions. Participants will explore self-care strategies and practices that are appropriate to particular groups/communities. The level two workshop takes participants one step further into the concepts of what is stress and provides additional self-care tools.
• Starting from the “I” reflecting on Our own Identities: This workshop will encourage participants to reflect on their own experiences of socialization as they relate to race, ethnicity, citizenship, economic condition, gender, sexuality and more. Participants will explore how power, privilege, and inequality shape their identities and how they relate to others. The concept of “intersectionality” will be introduced to highlight the shifting nature of identity and multiple ways of being.
• Know Your Rights 101: This workshop is in partnership with the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), and is ideal for newcomers, service providers, mental health service users and mental health workers. The workshop aims to familiarize participants with the Ontario Human Rights Code and build strategies for dealing with discrimination and harassment including ways of accessing the OHRC.