MAR 19-APR 20, 2021: NFU Collective Care Workshop Series

Posted by Michalina Hunter on March 15, 2021

Collective Care Series Poster

Workshop 1: Layers of Mental Health

March 19, 2021 (3 – 4:30pm PST) (4 – 5:30pm MST) (5 – 6:30pm CST) (6 – 7:30pm EST) (7 – 8:30pm AST)

Just like an onion may develop super sweet flavours or tender gooey parts depending largely on the environments in which they’re grown, so too do farmers! Choose your layer-full plant and join us to get clearer on what mental health means to you, your peers, and how it is influenced, for better or worse, by the cultural structures in which we live.

There will be opportunities to privately reflect with creative tools and optional group share back. Listening is valued as much as sharing. In addition to mini self-care practices, this session will focus on how our collective NFU action influences the political, environmental, and social systems in which we live.

Come as you are. Bring paper and pen (and tons of colours if you want). Broader details in Event Description.

Inspired by the National Farmers Union’s youth members, and in recognition of the ongoing need for farmer mental health support, we are offering a series of workshops and chats over the next 5 weeks on Collective Care – Mental Health.

We know that mental health is complex–beyond just individual health and action. So we invite you to come together to co-create and practice systems of care, and continue our NFU collective work of resisting and transforming the social, economic, and environmental systems that we are embedded in.

All members and not-yet-members* are welcome to join! No cost to participate.

Registration required: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItcuGvpjovGNyqn-79qD0xy_9-My6eqOP- 

 Follow along on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1061811944327836

The workshop descriptions will be shared on a weekly basis. All will share tools that may make it easier for participants to reflect on their experiences with mental health , as well as the opportunity to share with each other and inform the NFU’s actions. The chats will be a space to casually hang out for social time with options for reflection on last week’s workshop topic.

What you may take away:

– Practice using a creative reflection tool

– Broader understanding of mental health and how peers are impacted

– Learn simple self-care practices and contribute to NFU policy priorities

– Feeling uplifted after connecting with other farmers, using your brain creatively, and having your experience expressed and heard

Dates and Times:

(3 – 4:30pm PST) (4 – 5:30pm MST) (5 – 6:30pm CST) (6 – 7:30pm EST) (7 – 8:30pm AST)

Friday Workshops:

  • March 19
  • March 26
  • April 2
  • April 9
  • April 16

Tuesday Chats:

  • March 23
  • March 30
  • April 6
  • April 13
  • April 20

We will send out reminders before each date.

**** Paul Wartman is a community facilitator and grower of herbs and nursery trees in Nova Scotia, Mi’kma’ki. As an NFU youth member and co-facilitator of multiple events for the past 4 years, he will be facilitating the structured workshops on the Fridays and hosting the space for casual conversations on Tuesdays.

Dixie Green is an NFU stalwart and social worker who will be on call for anyone who may need extra support during or after (for 10 minutes) each workshop. Her details will be shared during each workshop. ****

Accessibility:

– These workshops are not professional therapy nor do they replace the valuable services of the wide range of professional support. No cost mental health supports can be found here: https://www.nfu.ca/help/

– Please contact Paul Wartman (wartmanpaul@gmail.com) as soon as possible if visual interpretation is required

– Justice-based safer space facilitation practices set in place to the best of our abilities to ensure BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+, and other amazing, but marginalized, community members are as comfortable as possible so that we can all participate and learn from our differences.

– Details on how to join Zoom from calling in on a phone, computer, tablet, smart phone are included in the email sent out after registering for workshops.

– If there are other ways we can help, please let us know and we will do our best. Wartmanpaul@gmail.com

****

*Not-yet-members: While you are always welcome, we do want you to know that the NFU is a members-based organization that operates based on each member paying a fee. If you have the ability to donate to the NFU and or become a member, then we will have even greater capacity to continue the work that we do. Donate here: https://www.nfu.ca/join/donate-recurring/

Membership details here: https://www.nfu.ca/renew/