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A New Executive Director

It is with regret that the Board of Directors of COPA National was obliged to accept the resignation of Randa Meshki earlier this year. We thank Ms.       Meshki for her profound dedication and commitment to COPA National throughout her 27 years of service. In her time in the organization, she has held various important roles, including for the past five years, that of Executive Director. 

We wish Ms. Meshki great success in all her future endeavours. 

 The hiring process has resulted in our engagement of Marie-Claude Rioux, who on April 10th will join the COPA National team as Executive Director. Ms. Meshki and Ms. Rioux will work together until Ms. Meshki's departure on April 28

Ms. Rioux has more than 25 years of experience as an executive director of non-profit organizations. A recognized community leader and seasoned manager, she has held a number of senior management positions, including Executive Director of the Fédération des parents acadiens de la Nouvelle-Écosse, the Association des juristes d'expression française deAssociation des juristes d'expression française de la Nouvelle-Écosse and the Réseau Santé Nouvelle-Écosse. For the past 10 years, she has held the position of Executive Director of the Fédération acadienne de la Nouvelle-Écosse. 

 Her mandates at the head of these organizations in the service of       Francophones in a minority context have enabled Ms. Rioux to collaborate and network at a national level. This will be an asset to COPA National in the pursuit of our strategic objectives, which include a Pan-Canadian mandate.

For the past twenty years, Ms. Rioux has been involved with organizations dedicated to issues concerning women, and she was the founding president of Femmes-action in Nova Scotia in 2004. Ms. Rioux has numerous publications to her credit and has received several honours during her career. The three most recent awards were the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal  (2022), the Ordre de la Pléiade awarded by the Assemblée des parlementaires de la Francophonie (2019) and the Ordre des francophones d'Amérique awarded by the Conseil supérieur de la langue française (2018). 

The Board of Directors of COPA National extends a warm welcome to Ms.       Rioux.

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Change Our World!

Changer son monde (Change Our World) is a whole-school program designed by COPA National to support more equitable and inclusive cultures in school communities. ​This comprehensive 6–9-month program raises awareness and equips and mobilizes members of a school community to address violence, discrimination, and injustice in all its forms. Staff members, parents and guardians, and students all engage in a process of training, reflection, planning, and action to foster systemic change. During this process, the school will develop and adopt a code of conduct that respects differences and human rights from an intersectional feminist and anti-oppressive perspective. This code of conduct will in turn inform the development of a more equitable and inclusive school infrastructure and an action plan - all with ongoing support from COPA National.

The COPA National team recently carried out a pilot project at École Élémentaire Catholique Jonathan-Pitre. It was the first elementary school to embark upon Changer son monde, and the positive response we received went far beyond even what we had envisioned! This school was named for a young Canadian hero, Jonathan Pitre, who was born with a rare and very painful genetic mutation. Before his death at age 17, Jonathan had worked tirelessly to inform and educate the public about his condition and raise money in hope of finding a cure. During his short life Jonathan’s bright and buoyant spirit inspired everyone around him to be a better human being. The COPA National team felt proud to be building on his legacy with our work in this school. The program was offered to grades 1 through 6. Throughout the 2 weeks we spent there, we were awed and energized by the enthusiastic engagement of the kids in this work. They had so much to say, and so much wisdom to share with us. The subjects resonated deeply with them: values, identity, differences, and the questions around who holds power and why. We jumpstarted conversations, gave these kids the space to talk, and they did. They were so obviously empowered by the content and by the process, and they contributed immensely to the dynamism and success of the workshops. We at COPA National would like to recognize and celebrate École Élémentaire Catholique Jonathan-Pitre for the efforts they had already begun to make toward addressing injustices. The educators at this school had built the base for developing an inclusive culture, and now the kids are caught up in and contributing to this momentum with the help of COPA National resources, tools, and strategies. This work is hugely transformational for all involved – the COPA National team as well. We can’t wait to continue it and look forward to more success with the schools we’ve already scheduled for next year! If you are interested in finding out more about Changer son monde, contact Lynn Hadley. We have a couple of places left for the 2023-24 school year, but they are going fast!

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Special Offers for Francophone Secondary Schools

1. Act fast on this one!

We are offering an opportunity for female students in grade 12 to participate in our full-day workshop on cyberviolence, Virtue-elles. They will receive community service hours for their participation.

Groups will be limited to 15 students, and until the end of March 2023, the workshop is free of charge.

Participants will:

learn more about the issue of cyberviolence and its various forms, the dynamics of power and control, and disinformation,

develop a vision of prevention of cyberviolence based on collective action and individual empowerment,

strengthen their capacity to assess and respond to a situation of cyberviolence,

have the opportunity to share with each other in a safe space and learn how to access appropriate services and resources.

Contact Lynn Hadley to know more about Virtu-elles.

2. Booking schools for next year!

We are now booking Courage 7/8 for the 2023-24 school year. Take a look at the description of this comprehensive program below, and contact Lynn to book your spot.

Courage 7/8

A violence prevention education program for grade 7 and 8 students consisting of 3 sessions of 75 minutes each, plus a review period

​In this series of workshops designed for grade 7 and 8 students, the topics of peer assault (bullying), assault by an unknown person, assault by a known adult, rights and responsibilities, respect and consent will all be explored through discussions, role play and verbal/physical self-defense strategies. Youth will acquire tools and strategies to gain/strengthen their own agency and also support peers.

Notes:

The En Route Toward Consent workshops for adults will be offered before this set of students’ workshops (one workshop for school staff and one for parents and caregivers)

In the third session, students will separate into 2 groups: one for those identifying as girls/non-binary and one for those identifying as boys. Girls/non-binary youth will participate in a verbal and physical self-defense course and boys will participate in a workshop on strengthening consent culture.

Review period: the review period is offered to students, after the series of workshops, by the facilitation team, on a volunteer one-on-one/small group basis with facilitators to review workshop concepts,

The teacher does not participate in these 3 workshop sessions with students and receives training beforehand.

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Intercultural Humility

Intercultural Humility is the subject of a new Professional Development training created by COPA National for the TÉÉ Program (travailleurs et travailleuses d’etablissement, or settlement workers. COPA National is the provincial coordinator for Settlement Workers in Ontario Schools, and as such we work with 10 teams serving newly arrived immigrant students and their families in regions throughout Ontario. To know more about this beloved program that is a cornerstone of our work, read our blog: COPA Presents the TÉÉ program. Intercultural Humility is intended to deepen the TÉÉ’s understanding of the vulnerability of newly arrived families and expand their capacity to support them. Many of the members of TÉÉ teams have themselves experienced what it is like to be a newly arrived immigrant in Canada, but this training is an opportunity to reflect deeply and learn new tools and strategies for their work with newly arrived families and students.

This is a beautiful and well-thought-out training that combines content, practice, and follow-up in a 3-part program, consisting of:

(Day 1) Savoir-être (knowing HOW to be) Intercultural Humility

(Day 2) Savoir-faire (acquiring skills) Developing Intercultural competence.

Follow-ups with each team (always an essential part of our practice)

Intercultural Humility is built upon the framework of COPA National’s Cycle of Positive Change: Learn, Reflect, Grow and Change. Through awareness, self-reflection, dialogue with others, and the acquisition of concrete information and tools, participants in this training learn to de-center themselves and be able to better perceive the reality of others. They will:

develop self-awareness by identifying their assumptions and biases, discovering their identity and values, and defining their cultural orientation and communication style,

develop an understanding of and respect for the logic and reasoning of different cultural orientations and communication styles, and

develop the reflex and ability to deal with cross-cultural interaction through observation, analysis, and engagement leading to the valuing and validation of diverse perspectives.

COPA National’s vision and approach is one of learning through empowerment, and we offer “tools not rules” that encourage the adoption of an intercultural approach through the cultivation of intercultural competence. We hope to eventually be able to offer this training across Canada to other settlement workers, educators, and adults who support children and youth. For more information about this Professional Development and other COPA National programs, please contact Lynn Hadley.

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BÉNA: Welcome to newly arrived elementary students

(Bienvenue aux élèves nouvellement arrivés du palier élémentaire)

In COPA National’s role as Provincial Coordinator of Ontario’s Francophone network of Settlement Workers in Schools (TÉÉ in French), we have developed and implemented a successful model to facilitate the integration of newly arrived Francophone immigrant families into French-speaking school communities in the province.

ANNA is one of the programs in this model, and is offered by the TÉÉ to students in grades 9-12 who learn how to act as mentors and allies of newcomers in schools. The objective of ANNA is to widen the circle of allies within a school so that the school community becomes more welcoming of new arrivals, which of course aids their integration into that community. A version of this very popular program is now being offered to students in grades 4-6 as part of a pilot project in elementary schools. I met with Yollande Dweme Pitta, the director of the TÉÉ program to discuss how this program is being received. I was moved by her enthusiasm and joy in working with the children in this new program and felt deeply inspired. I would like to share some of her infectious enthusiasm with you.

Until now TÉÉ have only worked with parents of elementary students, but BÉNA (Bienvenue aux élèves nouvellement arrivés du palier élémentaire) is being rolled out in a few select schools in response to a robust demand for the program from students, parents, and educators. It was first piloted in Peterborough, ON in October, and four more schools are scheduled to be part of the pilot project - in Brampton, Mississauga, Ottawa, and Waterloo, ON. The workshop in Peterborough was a huge success. The kids were happy, the TÉÉ were positive, and the school was grateful. Yollande and her team were excited to see how enthusiastically the kids responded to the offering of “tools, not rules”. Tools and strategies empower and build capacity in kids and all people, and we hope that offering them to kids of this age will equip and inspire them to continue being allies in the future. The COPA National team had customized the workshops for this age group, incorporating the latest research in child development. They also adapted the content and activities to accommodate the dynamic energy and fun-loving nature of this age group. It was obvious how much these kids loved to learn by playing, and this is what made them such a joy to work with for Yollande and the TÉÉ. They spent the whole day with the COPA National team, starting out with a chat in the circle, playing games and doing a treasure hunt to learn how to help newcomers find their way around the school. The team modelled scenarios and strategies, and the kids practiced them and role played – one of their favourite parts of the day. Yollande says these kids are natural champions of their peers. The tools they were offered were put into practice right away, because they had such a strong desire to help and support others. They also had much to say about what they were learning and gave the team feedback in the moment. As Yollande says, we often underestimate the capacity of children to understand and care about the complexity of situations like this – where children coming into their schools need to learn and navigate so much change. But children are so very perceptive, and they understand, absorb what we do, and learn by watching us. And if we are cognizant of how much they bring, we in turn, will learn from watching them and listening to what they know and what they need. At COPA National, our approach empowers kids to tell us what they know – and this is how we all learn, as they have so much to share with us (and we with them).

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The Connected Community

The vision that has always fed our work at COPA National is of “a world in which all children, all youth and all people can flourish and reach their full potential. In such a place, children and youth will be safe, both physically and emotionally; their strengths and capacities will be respected; and they will live freely, while respecting others’ needs to be so too.”

The truth is that our society is not organized in a way that promotes the flourishing of children, youth, or in fact, most of the rest of us. We live in a world of rampant economic and social inequity, and those who are most vulnerable live most precariously, for example - children, youth, women, LGBTQ+2S, racialized and Indigenous people, and those in difficult economic circumstances.

At COPA National we believe it to be our collective human responsibility to care for the most vulnerable in our society, and a significant pillar of our work is to mobilize the broader community to ensure that all children and all people can exercise their fundamental right to be safe, strong, and free.

On a recent episode of The Gray Area podcast, the host Sean Illich interviewed Gabor Maté about his new book, The Myth of Normal. Their conversation echoes COPA National’s unique approach and makes the link between trauma caused by interpersonal violence and the loss of personal rights (as in adults not respecting the personhood and rights of children) to this broader societal context.

In a society where so many children live in isolated nuclear family units, parents are overwhelmed with monumental responsibility, and face a lack of adequate support and resources. Communities that once may have offered some measure of support to families are now less able to do so, as they are experiencing increased partisanship, unrelenting economic hardship, ongoing racial inequity, anxiety due to COVID, etc. There are things we as individuals can do to empower children, but if society does not support families by providing supportive networks, safety nets, financial buffers and caring, compassionate services, then families will continue to be left to struggle through disasters like the pandemic on their own, and kids will suffer.

The COVID pandemic only exacerbated this problematic social context for families and children. During the lockdowns, families were subject to even more crushing isolation and increased responsibility due to school closures. Factor in the financial stress experienced by so many and the anxiety of being in the midst of a pandemic, and it is no surprise that the rates of domestic violence skyrocketed. We know that the consequences of these events and these environments for children (Adverse Childhood experiences, or ACEs) can be catastrophic and long term, and lead to Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

During the pandemic, the crisis in child and youth mental health exploded. One study found that after a year of the pandemic, the brains of adolescents in the study had actually aged and surpassed the participants’ chronological ages. In addition, the frontal cortex (in charge of executive function) had thinned, and the amygdala and hippocampus (regulators of fear and stress responses) had grown larger. It is no surprise either that diagnoses of obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit disorder increased, and rates of suicide in children skyrocketed. In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health and called for increased funding to strengthen community systems to aid families and kids.

At COPA National, we are committed to creating a more supportive context for families, children, and youth. We promote communication, contact, and compassion in the child-friendly tools and strategies we offer to communities, schools, and families. We do not believe in or participate in parent blaming because we recognize the hardships they live with. We provide these tools and strategies to build the capacity of all adults to care for kids, and we encourage and reinforce their motivation to do so.

When everyone is equipped with tools and strategies, kids reap the benefits.

It really does take a village …

 1)      Bringing in families, caregivers, and the wider community

Most of us were raised to think of punishment as normal, natural, and even logical. At COPA National we encourage those caring for children to leave the path of punishment, shame, and blame and move toward a focus on learning opportunities. Empowerment Parenting is a website for parents and caregivers that offers concrete tools, strategies, and examples for how to do this with children from 2-12 years of age.  Explore the website to learn more about being a positive parent, COPA National's strategies, and corporal punishment and its effects.

Problem-Solving Together is COPA National’s Tool for Empowerment. It outlines a clear and simple process for how adults can offer support to children who are struggling with a problem and at the same time help them develop their own capacity to solve problems.

Respect for You and Me is a guide about Consent for parent and caregivers (and all adults). It defines sexual assault, rape culture, and consent and explains how adults can support children and youth empowerment, reinforce resilience, and offer collective support to young people.

Another great resource for parents and caregivers (and all adults) is a series of animated short films that offer inspiration and motivation for parent engagement and greater home and school collaboration. Each film has a discussion guide to help jumpstart dialogues about the various subjects in the short films, for example: Reading with Our Children, Parent/Teacher Meeting, Believing in Our Children's Success, Equity and Diversity – Schools and Communities, etc.

The series of 3 blogs below outlines ways in which adults can understand and intervene helpfully in situations of bullying, while again, building capacity in children.

5 Ways to Support a Child that is Being Bullied

5 Ways to Support a Child that Witnesses Bullying

Can the Child who is Bullying Change? 5 Ways We Can Make a Difference

Listen Hard, Hug Softly is a free online course in bullying prevention for parents, caregivers, and all adults. Learn how bullying may affect children and explore our skill-building strategies for prevention.

One of the ways in which COPA National is unique is that we offer programming to children and youth, their parents and caregivers, and to educators – the whole circle of care surrounding a child. Again - when everyone is equipped with tools and strategies, kids reap the benefits, as the adults in their lives are collaborating to enhance their well-being. And when everyone shares a collective understanding, it is more likely that each child will be safe, strong, and free.

 2)      The role of educators

At COPA National we encourage educators to become more aware of their importance to kids. Teachers play a central role in helping students develop a core belief in their own intrinsic self-worth. Each school day presents a multitude of opportunities to interact with students in a way that allows them to accept and respect themselves and others. We have many programs, resources, and tools to support educators, and you will find a selection of them below.

We offer capacity-building programming to educators to help them learn more about violence prevention and how to reduce the vulnerability of children to violence and assault through empowerment-based strategies. To learn more about our programming for educators, visit our website.

Safe@School is a comprehensive website developed by COPA National in collaboration with the Ontario Teacher’s Federation. It features 4 Professional Learning Modules: Youth Empowerment, Bullying Prevention, Equity and Inclusive Educations, and Parents and Caregivers: Partners in Prevention. These modules have been designed to provide educators with resources and proven strategies to assist them in handling issues of bullying, homophobia, racism, and sexism in schools, and the specific incidents that schools must deal with daily. As its foundation, the modules use COPA National’s approach to prevention education and current research on, and best practices for, promoting a school environment in which all students can be safe, strong and free™.

Respect for You and Me (educator’s guide) is a tool that provides practical, hands-on strategies for educators to prevent sexual assault. The guide includes definitions of sexual assault, rape culture and consent and explains how educators can build empowerment in youth, model resilience, use intervention strategies, and work with communities to create a culture of consent and establish healthy relationships.

COPA National’s online bullying prevention course for educators is a practical resource filled with scenarios, exercises, and classroom and school-wide activities. Discover our unique approach to the prevention of bullying and building healthy and inclusive learning and working environments.

3)      Empowering children and youth ...

We believe that social factors such as lack of information, dependence, and isolation increase the vulnerability of kids and other marginalized social groups, and we offer empowerment strategies to reduce that vulnerability. In all our programming for children and youth, we:

provide them with information about their rights in a clear, concrete, and realistic manner,

encourage them to identify potential sources of support – both peers and adults,

increase their capacity by offering tools and strategies for problem-solving that foster rights.

Find out more about our programming.

COPA National has created a series of 3 beautifully illustrated storybooks for young children featuring themes related to bullying prevention, belonging and support. They include gentle messages of listening, kindness, caring, compassion, and courage. Caring is the Universal Language is a reissued collection of these storybooks that have been translated into seven Indigenous languages: Cree, Inuktitut, Michif, Mohawk, Oji-Cree, Ojibwe and Oneida.

A Sticky Situation is a fantastically illustrated comic book for students in Grades 5-8 that can help start conversations with young people about peer pressure, bullying, courage, and support.

Respect For You and Me: Sexual Assault Prevention Strategies for Students is a guide with tools and ideas to help students learn about sexual assault, challenge the myths surrounding it, and promote the principle of consent. It includes definitions of sexual assault, rape culture, and consent and explains how students can develop healthy relationships, supportive friendships, resilience, and be an advocate for peers experiencing sexual assault.

COPA National’s long-term vision is that of a society with more cohesion, mutual support, and interdependency – one that provides a continual supportive context for families. We are working to create this positive and lasting change in communities by building capacity in people, families, schools, and organizations.

The Social Factors of Vulnerability is an analysis developed in 1978 by staff at a sexual assault centre in Columbus, Ohio. It has informed COPA National’s work since its inception and enables us to understand the connections and linkages between the oppression of various marginalized social groups.

According to this analysis, society is largely organized and structured by those in positions of power and tends to reflect their vision and understanding of what is important (for example, their interests, experiences, priorities and needs). People from marginalized groups may share a vulnerability to abuse (interpersonal or systemic) and discrimination due to their social conditions.

Women, people from marginalized ethnocultural groups and those with marginalized sexual orientations and gender identities (and other groups) are increasingly vulnerable to abuse, assault, discrimination and other manifestations of inequity and exclusion the more they:

lack information,

lack power and are dependent upon those who are most likely to have power over them, and

are isolated.

We mitigate factors of vulnerability and reduce the vulnerability of all marginalized people including children and youth, by increasing their capacity through information, support, and strategies and tools that empower and foster rights.

We invite all members of the broader community to learn and grow and change with us. Because it takes a village! It takes a whole school! It takes the whole community!

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Getting Parents Involved!

Ensuring their children’s success and well-being at school and in all spheres of their life is the top priority of parents, guardians, and caregivers, but when it comes to being able to protect their children from sexual assault, harassment, bullying, cyberbullying, or other assaults, they may simply be at a loss. Very likely, they have received no training to provide them with the information, skills and tools that would enable them to support and guide their child.

COPA National offers opportunities to parents, guardians, and caregivers to acquire information, practical tools, and strategies to both guide and support children at home, and support a safe and welcoming school culture as well. We offer several workshops for them as part of our school programming, and many practical tools and resources online. We have included some of them below this article.

We cannot emphasize enough how important a role parents, guardians, and caregivers have in creating a safe and inclusive school culture. When parents, guardians, and caregivers have the necessary skills and opportunities to influence decisions and take action, they can collaborate with schools in order to reduce their children’s vulnerability to bullying, inequity and exclusion.  And when they feel welcome and encouraged to participate meaningfully and the whole school community is mobilized, it can lead to the development of a school culture that respects differences and embraces diversity through promoting equity and inclusion.

Below are some of the free, online resources we offer for parents, guardians, and caregivers.

Respect for You and Me: Sexual Assault Prevention Strategies for Parents and Caregivers

COPA Habitat resources for parents, guardians, and caregivers

Online bullying prevention class for parents, guardians, and caregivers

5 ways to Support a Child Who is Being Bullied

5 Ways to Support a Child Who Witnesses Bullying

Can the Child who is Bullying Change? 5 Ways We Can Make a Difference

Problem-Solving Together

Our online PLM developed in partnership with the

Ontario Teachers’ Federation

offers a wealth of information, ideas, and tools to help educators get parents, guardians, and caregivers involved:

Professional Learning Module for educators - Parents and Caregivers: Partners in Prevention

And these short capsule videos for educators are fun and helpful reminders for creating conditions to support cooperation and collaboration.

Establishing Positive Relationships with School and Home

Modelling Effective Communication

Working Together for Students’ Academic Success

Inviting Contributions to School Life

Collaborating on Well-being and Safety

Fostering Equity

Addressing Conflict Effectively

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English Programming

We are excited to announce that the following programs will be available for purchase in English across Canada starting in September 2023. Please contact us at info@infocopa.com for details and pricing.

Our Power in Adversity is a whole-school program for families, school staff, and other adults that support children and youth. It is designed to increase individual and collective resilience in young people post-COVID-19. This comprehensive program was developed initially for Franco-Ontarian community organizations, but its success led us to adapt it to a wide range of organizations and communities. It addresses post-pandemic challenges faced by children and youth, such as stress, isolation, and family conflict. In this workshop we explore issues of family violence and cyberbullying and learn to distinguish between positive and toxic stress as well as how to manage both. We’ll discuss the concept of well-being and individual and collective resilience, and explore internal and external resources that promote well-being and resilience - including the choice to assert one’s own identity in a respectful and supportive context. Participants will share stories and strategies to help young people overcome challenges and access support. There will also be an opportunity to participate in creative activities related to the experiences and perceptions of resilience. ​Read our blog post on Our Power in Adversity to find out more. Strategies for Change This is a bullying prevention workshop for parents, guardians, caregivers, and families In this workshop, participants will learn more about bullying, how to recognize it and help prevent it. They will also learn how to offer compassionate, effective, and constructive support to children who may be involved in bullying, in a way that focuses on reflection, learning and change. En Route Toward Consent This is a workshop for educators, parents, guardians, and caregivers that will give them the tools, skills, and confidence they need to talk about CONSENT with children and youth. Participants will learn more about how to communicate the complexity of consent and rights, and how not having authentic, informed, and free and clear consent takes away the rights of others.   Consent Culture A workshop about sexual and gender-based violence and harassment for educators, case workers, college and university students, and teachers-in-training, parents, guardians, and caregivers. This workshop focuses on the prevention of sexual violence in school and daycare settings, and on intervention strategies. Educators will learn more about sexual violence and how to share this knowledge and information with children and youth. They will expand their capacity to provide appropriate support to young people who speak up about a sexual assault situation and develop their ability to identify survivors of sexual violence as well as situations of sexual assault. In the course of this workshop, they will acquire tools and strategies to reduce the vulnerability of young people to sexual assault, support high-risk students, and intervene successfully in sexual violence and gender-based harassment. Bridging Intergenerational Conflict Designed for newly arrived parents, guardians, caregivers, and educators, the focus of this workshop is on intergenerational conflict in newly arrived families. Immigration can have negative effects on relationships between parents, children, and youth, and this can affect family stability. Our objective is to raise the awareness of adults about adolescent development and help build healthy and equitable intergenerational relationships. In this workshop we will focus is on youth aged 12 to 18 and the injustices and harms they may experience during their integration into the school community. We will discuss the different stages of youth development and examine how they impact integration. We will also talk about the way that youth are perceived in North American society and how this perception can shape their development. 

The workshop wraps up with a short exercise examining the impact of traditional socialization. By talking about these themes and the systemic injustices youth aged 12 to 18 are confronted with every day, we encourage newly arrived parents, caregivers, guardians, and teachers to better understand the situations of adolescents with the hope of reducing intergenerational conflicts.

Courage 7/8

In this series of 3 workshops (75 minutes each) designed for grade 7 and 8 students, the topics of peer assault (bullying), assault by an unknown person, assault by a known adult, rights and responsibilities, respect, and consent will all be explored through discussions, role play and verbal/physical self-defense strategies. Youth will acquire tools and strategies to gain/strengthen their own agency and also to support their peers.

Notes:

The En Route Toward Consent workshops for adults will be offered before this set of students’ workshops (one workshop for school staff and one for parents and caregivers)

In the third session, students will separate into 2 groups: one for those identifying as girls/non-binary and one for those identifying as boys. Girls/non-binary youth will participate in a verbal and physical self-defence course and boys will participate in a workshop on strengthening consent culture.

Review period: the review period is offered to students, after the series of workshops, by the facilitation team, on a volunteer one-on-one/small group basis with facilitators to review workshop concepts.

The teacher does not participate in these 3 workshops sessions with students and receives training beforehand.

For information and pricing, please contact us at info@infocopa.com.

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Trauma-Informed Programming

Trauma is described by the CAMH as “the lasting emotional response that often results from living through a distressing event” such as sexual assault, violence, an accident, or a long term, repeated pattern such as childhood abuse (sexual, physical, emotional), sex trafficking, war and displacement, discrimination, and incarceration.

When we consider rates of interpersonal violence as well as discrimination and inequity in our society, it may not be surprising that some estimates suggest that over 75% of Canadian adults have experienced significant trauma in their lifetimes, including adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs. ACEs include traumas sexual and physical abuse, neglect, or family instability due to divorce, suicide, incarceration, or parents or caregivers with substance abuse or mental health issues. Research shows that between half and two thirds of Canadians have experienced one or more ACEs before the age of 18.

A traumatized individual (survivor) can suffer for a lifetime from repercussions of the loss of personal power, control and agency, and their ability to trust or feel safe. They are also more vulnerable to chronic disease, anxiety and mental health issues, loss of cognitive function, and behavioural problems. ACEs can affect brain development and future educational and employment opportunities, cause lifelong depression and relationship issues, and increase vulnerability to ongoing trauma such as sex trafficking.

Considering the toll of trauma on individuals, families, the workplace, and communities, it is no wonder that we hear the term “trauma-informed” more and more often to describe health care practices, therapies, even leadership models that recognize and seek to accommodate survivors of trauma.

But for the COPA National team, being trauma-informed is not a new approach at all, as our organization was founded almost 30 years ago on the principles of trauma-informed practice. To this day, all our programming and resources are still developed and delivered with a trauma-informed approach.

The origins of our approach were a disturbing event in the late 1970’s in Columbus, Ohio. When a 7-year-old girl was raped, the local school and community were thrown into turmoil. Shocked, disturbed, and frightened, the community was desperate to prevent this from ever happening again. Community members approached the local sexual assault centre (Women Against Rape) and asked them for help. Workers from the centre rallied to help the community find answers and created a school-based program called the Child Assault Prevention (CAP) Project. The CAP Project was so innovative and successful that it spread quickly across the United States, throughout the world, and into Canada.

Today, COPA National is one of 4 CAP projects in Canada, and is also a regional CAP training centre. We have been using this unique and effective prevention curriculum since COPA was founded in 1995, in schools, community organizations, and the wider communities. Using CAP as inspiration we have developed a range of resources and programs for different groups - including immigrants and refugees. The CAP Project is the cornerstone of all of COPA National’s programs. Its unique vision, principles, and approach are at the core of our resource development.

Fundamental to CAP’s vision of violence prevention is the recognition of assault as a violation of human rights, expressed through the assertion that all people and all children have the right to be “safe, strong and free”. This basic premise underpins the foundational principles that form the basis of the CAP Project:

Prevention starts with breaking the silence and secrecy and debunking the myths surrounding violence against children, women, and all marginalized groups.

Effective prevention strategies address the social roots of violence: inequity and hatred.

People and communities have the right to information, skills and resources that will enable them to take back their power through capacity building.

These principles and approaches dovetail with the 6 guiding principles of a trauma-informed approach offered by SAMHSA's National Center for Trauma-Informed Care in the United States:

Safety

Trustworthiness and transparency

Peer support

Collaboration and mutuality

Empowerment, voice, and choice

Acknowledgement of cultural, historical, and gender issues

How is COPA National’s programming trauma-informed?

COPA National’s approach to the development of programming and resources reflects our care for the individual and their experiences and at the same time addresses social, institutional, and systemic issues. Designed to mitigate harm to the survivors of trauma, they are, in fact, welcoming and inclusive practices that work for all humans. We are creating spaces where marginalized people and ALL people are seen and heard and have a voice – or in other words, where all children, and all people, have the right to be safe, strong and free.

Below is a brief discussion of how we continue to incorporate trauma-informed principles into our prevention programming. COPA National also strives to espouse these principles internally within the organization to ensure coherence between what we practice and what we preach.

Our programming is rooted in awareness of the factors that increase vulnerability to assault, aggression, discrimination, child abuse, and other traumatizing events

The strong theoretical framework that underlies and informs COPA National’s programming is what makes it so unique and powerful.

We believe that lack of power—social or personal—underlies all situations involving assault, which is by definition an abuse of power. Inequities and exclusion increase vulnerability to assault, triggering and perpetuating a cycle of violence against children, women, and all other marginalized social groups. Strategies for assault prevention are only effective when they promote equity and inclusion by facilitating the individual and collective empowerment of socially marginalized groups and individuals.

We recognize and make linkages in our programming between the different types of violence and harassment that members of marginalized social groups (children, women, LGBTQ2+, IBPOC, etc.) experience every day, and that are normalized.

Our understanding is that trauma is widespread and that those affected by it are everywhere, including in our workshops and trainings. Thus, every time we work with a group of people, we ensure that we actively recognize the presence of survivors and take their experiences into account.

Psychological and Physical Safety

Safety is key to a trauma-informed approach.

In COPA National programs, we begin to create psychological safety at the start of every workshop by generating a set of agreements with participants - children, youth, and adults. Participants identify their needs for a safe environment and commit to:

fostering a positive and inclusive space for LGBTQ2S+

respecting what others say

practising non-judgment,

listening when others speak

holding in confidentiality what others share

We continue by recognizing that survivors may be present, and naming their courage. We acknowledge that some topics we will discuss may be difficult and may elicit painful emotions, while emphasizing that we will also focus on positive strategies for prevention. We encourage those who feel the need to seek support, either from COPA National facilitators or from services in the community.

We ensure the physical safety and well-being of survivors by:

arranging in advance with schools that kids who are triggered by the content in the workshops have permission to leave in order to protect themselves.

ensuring there are at least 2 facilitators in every workshop or training: one to facilitate, and one to observe and offer support to those who are visibly triggered by the content of the workshop.

inviting participants to speak with us at the end of workshops, providing an opportunity for them to access support and resources. COPA National facilitators have all received empowerment-based crisis intervention training offered in-house and are up to date with what resources exist so that they can link those who need them with the appropriate resources.

Collaboration

Active listening is foundational to everything we do. Whether we are facilitating discussions or providing support to individuals during program implementation, we listen deeply to the stories of those who have experienced assault and trauma. New programming and resources are created in consultation with them and adapted according to their feedback. We know that listening, consulting, and integrating them within our programs is part of the healing process for survivors of trauma.

For example, A Circle of Caring and Joining the Circle, toolkits intended to foster the well-being of First Nations, Métis and Inuit students at home and at school, were developed by COPA National in grassroots collaboration with Indigenous communities all over Ontario. We sought the wisdom and guidance of people and groups from different communities, and met with hundreds of family and community members, and leaders. It was important to us to ensure that the content in the toolkits was what was needed by the communities and that it was also responsive to the context of historical and cultural trauma.

Another example of this type of collaboration is Virtu-elles, COPA National’s cyber-violence prevention program, an online workshop developed in consultation with witnesses and survivors of online violence against women and with front-line workers from women’s organizations.

Our Whole School Prevention program Change Our World is part of a repertoire of educational resources to promote equity and inclusion. It was developed through a consultation process with a wide range of equity-seeking individuals and organizations. Change our World also includes a consultation process with each school we work with. A committee of allies is created within the school to assist the change process. In this way, we not only recognize and elicit the experience and knowledge of those within the community, but we deepen the potential for ongoing and transformational change by leveraging allies of this change.

Yet another example of this is in our role as provincial coordinators of Ontario’s Francophone network of Settlement Workers in Schools (TÉÉ). When creating the conditions of success in schools for new arrivals, we form committees of student allies within the schools we work with that include those who have already gone through the experience of being a new arrival.

COPA National approaches program delivery as an ongoing and never-ending consultation. Our contact with students, parents and guardians, teachers and other schools staff represents a precious opportunity to listen and learn about their experiences and to identify emerging issues.

And fundamental to how we work and how we view things at COPA National, is our belief that kids have much to contribute, and wisdom to share with us. We share power with kids, and we recognize their knowledge and elicit their wisdom. We also model this way of being to the adults we work with.

Capacity Building

We believe that certain social factors such as a lack of information, dependence, and isolation, make children and women (and all marginalized social groups) particularly vulnerable to assault.

Therefore, all resources and activities created, developed, adapted, and disseminated by COPA National strive to reduce the vulnerability of children (and women, and members of all marginalized social groups) to assault. We do this in the following ways:

1) We facilitate people’s empowerment with TOOLS NOT RULES, sharing problem-solving tools and strategies that build their capacity to prevent violence and take care of themselves and others. We always frame it as tools not rules – in other words, as choices and not imposed. Trauma comes from loss of power and choice, so we aim to provide those who experienced trauma with opportunities to take back their power and build their confidence by making choices and taking action.

2) We aim to break the silence and secrecy surrounding violence against children, women, and other marginalized groups by providing accurate information and resources, addressing stereotypes and myths/false information around all forms of violence and its root causes, such as sexism, racism, etc.

3) We encourage children to seek and develop peer and adult support, and we educate adults on how they can provide empowering and respectful support to children. Problem-Solving Together is an excellent example of a tool that builds this capacity. It is a practical guide to supporting children who are struggling with a problem and also to helping them develop the ongoing ability to solve problems. This approach can be used with adults as well as children, modifying it as needed.

We suggest that adults who support safe, strong, and free children model positive action, respect the rights of children while seeking opportunities to share power with them, and recognize the capacity of a person to change. In our blogs, you will find many tools to support this approach. Here are 3 blogs about bullying that explain how to do this, step-by-step.

Intervene with the child who is being bullied

Intervene with the child who witnesses bullying

Intervene with the child who is bullying

The importance of community

The Child Assault Prevention curriculum (CAP) was originally developed in response to the need of a community to know how to prevent the tragedy of child sexual assault. Thus, the whole idea of CAP is community-based. We believe that trauma-informed work needs to consider a more holistic approach through community mobilization and capacity-building. We know it can be a powerful force for positive change when we create spaces in our communities and schools where marginalized people are seen and heard and have a voice – and where they can explore together how to take care of themselves and others.

Our belief is that anyone can learn our approach, and we pick and choose our own facilitators from the community, based on their perspectives and their communication skills, and not only their professional standing. We provide them with training in respectful and empowering approaches to facilitating discussions, and to supporting and listening to children and adults. We do not set ourselves up as the experts, rather we recognize the wisdom of children, trauma survivors, and community members.

One of the ways in which COPA National is unique is that we offer programming to kids, their parents and caregivers, and to educators – the whole circle of care surrounding a child. When everyone is equipped with tools and strategies, kids reap the benefits, as the adults in their lives are collaborating to enhance their well-being. When everyone shares a collective understanding, it is more likely that each child will be safe, strong, and free.

Another innovative aspect of how we approach trauma-informed programming, is through whole school interventions such as Change Our World and Our Power in Adversity. These programs align not only with trauma-informed principles of consultation, collaboration, and capacity building, but also with the current understanding of successful approaches to change management (Peter Block, 2011 & Edgar Schein, 1999). This systemic approach to individual and collective transformation through empowerment can have a profoundly healing and transformative effect when embedded in a system like a school or a community.

COPA National has been operating according to trauma-informed principles for almost 30 years now – since our inception. What has impelled us more than anything over the years is our wholehearted commitment to the PREVENTION of violence and child abuse. Our trauma-informed approach, and the underlying theory of who is vulnerable and why, is what makes our prevention programming effective. Recognizing the social roots of all forms of violence including child abuse, we seek to bring about the social change needed to ensure that all children, from whatever social group, are safe, strong and free. By eliciting the wisdom and participation of survivors, we have been able to develop programming, interventions, and resources that are powerful, engaging, and that really work.

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Thanks to our funders, COPA is able to offer five prevention programs free of charge to Francophone schools in Ontario in the 2021-2022 academic year. They are available on a first-come, first-serve basis, so please contact us right away to reserve. E-mail Lynn@infocopa.com or call us at 416-466-7490.

FOR STUDENTS:

Courage 7 & 8

A violence prevention program for students in grades 7-8, consisting of 3 interactive workshops with discussion, role play and a self-defense session, funded by the Ontario Ministry of Education.

Notre pouvoir dans l'adversité (Our Power in Adversity)

Fostering resilience in students through empowerment strategies. See the article below for a detailed description, or read our blog. Funded by the Ontario Ministry of Education.

FOR SUPPORTING ADULTS:

Communiqu'Action (Consent Culture)

A workshop about sexual and gender-based violence and harassment for educators, caseworkers, college and university students, and teachers-in-training, funded by the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services.

En route vers le consentement (En Route Toward Consent)

Empowering educators to have those difficult conversations about consent with students. Funded by the Ontario Ministry of Education.

WHOLE SCHOOL PROGRAMMING:

Change our World

A whole-school program designed to support an equitable and inclusive school culture

​Change our World targets gender-based and sexist violence against girls and women. It aims to foster a school culture that breaks down traditional gender norms and values the strengths and abilities of girls and women. This is a program that creates systemic change within schools. To achieve change of this magnitude, the participating school is accompanied by COPA through a system-wide process of training, reflection, planning, and action with the participation of staff, parents, guardians, and students. This process enables the entire school to create an action plan to implement an equitable and inclusive school infrastructure for girls and women.

The entire program, including all phases with ongoing support from COPA, takes between six and nine months.

Please note that all our programs are available for purchase anywhere in Canada.

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Our Power in Adversity

Our Power in Adversity is a new program from COPA that is designed to increase collective and individual resilience post Covid-19. In this program we address the impact of the pandemic, cyberbullying, and wellness of self, family, and peers. It is targeted to elementary school students in grades 4-6 and secondary school students in grades 9-12.

This program aims to strengthen the individual and collective resilience of students and their community by encouraging self empowerment. Through awareness, exchanges with each other, and the acquiring of concrete tools, students will become better able to recognize the people and resources around them that can support their well-being and resilience. In designing Our Power in Adversity, COPA considered the changes that the pandemic has brought to the lives of youth such as isolation, increased use of social media and online platforms, and the restrictions of some necessary public health obligations. These conditions that were so suddenly imposed have led to an increase in mental health issues in youth. Indeed, according to Statistics Canada's Impact on Youth report, "Since COVID, those aged 15 to 24 reported the greatest declines in mental health – 20 percentage point reductions from 60% (2019, pre-COVID) to 40% (July 2020) of those reporting excellent or very good mental health."

For those already marginalized, these issues were only exacerbated by the pandemic. For example, Statistics Canada notes in its Impacts on Mental Health report that "since the pandemic, among respondents to a crowdsourcing survey, gender diverse individuals were… more likely to report fair/poor mental health (70%), compared with female (25.5%) and male participants (21.2%)".

In the virtual spaces where impunity reigns through anonymity, visible minorities and other marginalized groups were particularly affected by inequity and social exclusion. Our Power in Adversity is a program that equips students to identify and mitigate risks inherent in using social media. The focus is on developing strong and realistic self-esteem so that they can use these virtual platforms and remain safe, strong and free.

In the workshop we emphasize that resilience is a lifelong skill and that starting early to educate youth about this will facilitate their use of appropriate strategies and their capacity to access external support. Competencies that students will work toward in this workshop are active listening, respecting their instincts, pivoting toward positive vs. toxic stress, self-empowerment through wellness, building a strong sense of self, and strengthening their ability to seek help.

Our Power in Adversity is delivered to students in three x 75-minute in-person sessions. To ensure a comprehensive support network for youth, the program also includes a 3-hour virtual workshop for school personnel and a 2-hour virtual workshop specifically designed for parents and guardians. Thanks to funding from the Ministry of Education in Ontario, this program is currently being offered free of charge in French throughout Ontario. It will eventually be available in English and French across Canada.

If you are interested in more information about scheduling Our Power in Adversity in your school, or in any other program offered by COPA, please e-mail Lynn@infocopa.com or call us at 416-466-7490.

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COPA's new cyber-violence prevention program

Virtu-elles is COPA's new cyber-violence prevention program, created with the support of the Canadian Women's Foundation. It is a program for post-secondary students who identify as or are perceived as women. In this workshop, participants will gain a better understanding of cyber-violence; its impacts, the various forms it can take, the dynamics of power and control, misinformation, and the nature of gender-based violence. 

Clarification about the myth of the stranger is an example of what participants will learn in this workshop. Our commonly held belief is that strangers are the potential aggressors in gendered violence. However, in reality 80% of assaults are committed by people known to those who are assaulted. Online too, cyber-violence is very often committed by someone known to the person targeted by them. Violence against women and children is shrouded in secrecy and perpetuated by the silence and myths that surround it. In order to prevent this violence, it is crucial to break the silence and dispel these myths. 

Our society has many rules about how to avoid assault; these are the do’s and don'ts we have learned from our families, schools, and the media. We all know them. But in truth, these rules are not based on the reality of sexual assault, including the cyber-sexual assault that happens online, and thus they don't support us with real information about what we can do to keep ourselves safe. And a major problem with these rules is that although they may offer ways to avoid the assault (which are often ineffective), they do not instruct us as to what we can do if we do find ourselves in an assault situation. Participants of the Virtu-elles workshop will have the opportunity to acquire tools for prevention that are based on mutual aid and empowerment strategies, and they will develop the capacity to assess and respond appropriately when they find themselves in a situation of cyber-violence.

 Violence against women has been exposed as a serious and widespread social problem for many years, however, there has been a real lack of information about how to prevent it. Cyber-violence is simply a new frontier of violence against women, an extension of this social problem and not a brand-new problem. The aggressor who seeks to control and dominate a woman has new tools at his disposal to do so, and this presents new issues and challenges.This program has its origins in a popular COPA program called Instincts, an assault prevention and self-defense program for women that aims to empower women by increasing their choices and their capacity to resist abuse.

 It is estimated that 73% of women are abused online worldwide (United Nations Commission on Broadband for Digital Development, 2015). And cyberviolence is always evolving. New websites, programs and bullying tactics are constantly emerging, and the expectation that women must learn on their ownto navigate these spaces is in and of itself oppressive. In developing Virtu-elles, COPA is responding to this need for women to be able to prevent and respond to cyberviolence. 

The objectives of these workshops are:

●      To gain a better understanding of the issue of cyber-violence: its impact, forms, dynamics of power and control, misinformation, and its gendered nature,

●      To develop a vision of cyber-violence prevention based on collective solidarity and empowerment of women in all their diversity,

●      To build the capacity to assess a situation of cyberviolence and choose how to respond to it in order to regain power, and to

●      Share and exchange in a safe space, recognize survivors if they choose to disclose, and facilitate access to appropriate services as needed.

 Virtual spaces offer incredible opportunities such as access to community, safe spaces, critical content about sexism and racism, positive content related to body image and sexuality, and tools to express oneself and develop as a digital media creator. COPA hopes that these workshops will empower women and uphold their right to be safe, strong, and free in virtual spaces.

 We ask that the tools we share in this workshop be kept confidential, as we would like to ensure that only those who identify or are perceived as women have access to this information. In this way, those who need them can use them without fear that potential aggressors may already be aware of these tactics.

 COPA is grateful to the Canadian Women's Foundation for not only funding the development of Virtu-elles, but also for allowing us to have offered it free of charge for a limited time to post-secondary institutions in Ontario. This program will eventually be available in English and French across Canada.

 If you are interested in more information about or scheduling Virtu-elles, Instincts, or any of our programs in your organization, please email us at info@infocopa.com or call 416-466-7490. Or visit https://www.nationalcopa.com/

 Reference

UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development. (2015). Cyber Violence against women and girls: A world-wide wake-up call. The Broadband Commission for Digital Development.

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Congratulations!

Happy Summertime, and congratulations to our 2021 graduates!!! It has been a hard year and we are all so very inspired by your dedication and courage in the face of a global pandemic. COPA will be closed for our annual holidays from July 19 - August 2. We wish all our allies and friends as much as possible a happy and carefree summer; surrounded by loved ones, and full of relaxation and fun. Although we will continue to offer the option of online programming to adults on an ongoing basis, we look forward to being back in-person in schools in the Fall. We know there is much work to do together to promote healing, well-being, and resilience in our communities, families, and students. COPA has designed new programs and received funding to offer them and existent programming in order to address the stress and ever-widening inequities resulting from time out of school during the pandemic. Please be sure to read the 3 articles below this one about what will be available to schedule and when. Please reserve these programs as soon as possible in order to ensure your space. You can e-mail us, or call us at (416) 466-7490.

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Extended Program Offerings

Consent Culture will be available free of charge in French in Ontario to educators, parents, post-secondary students, and frontline workers in community organizations until the 31st of March 2022, thanks to a fifth consecutive year of funding by the Office of Women’s Issues. It will be available both online and in person. Consent Culture is dedicated to the prevention of sexual violence and harassment. Participants will learn more about sexual violence, expand their capacity to provide appropriate support to young people who speak up about a sexual assault situation, and develop their ability to identify survivors of sexual violence. In the course of this workshop, they will acquire tools and strategies to support high-risk students and intervene successfully in sexual or gender-based harassment.

In the context of the project Respect for you and me, funded by the Ontario Ministry of Education, COPA is able to continue to offer the following 2 programs until the 30th of June, 2022; online for parents and educators, and in-person with students. Courage 7 & 8 Courage is an assault prevention program for grade 7 and 8 students. In this workshop, COPA’s facilitation team will educate youth about various types of assault, including bullying, cyberbullying, harassment, and dating violence. They will discuss the social causes at the root of violence, such as inequity and the traditional socialization of girls and boys. The objective is to equip young people so that they can recognize aggressive situations, avoid them, or put a stop to them as quickly as possible. Each workshop is interactive and includes discussions and role-playing. En Route Toward Consent for parents and educators Our adult programs provide staff and parents/guardians with an overview of COPA's approach and vision, and the content of the program for youth. We aim to equip adults so that they can offer respectful and effective support to young people. In this workshop, participants are equipped with tools to discuss with youth the complex topics of consent and rights. Please note that although they are available free of charge only in Ontario, these programs are also available for purchase in French anywhere else in Canada. En Route Toward Consent is available in English and French, and Courage 7 & 8 in French only - for now.

For more information or to reserve your space, you can e-mail us, or call us at (416) 466-7490.

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English Settlement Workers (SWIS)

In May and June 2021, the COPA team offered 5 of our key programs to English Settlement Workers in Schools (SWIS) and frontline workers in anglophone organizations across Ontario. We worked with a total of 8 agencies, sharing COPA’s unique vision and practical tools for positive social change. We presented: Change Our World, an anti-oppression workshop to 97 participants, Strategies for Change, a bullying prevention workshop for parents, families, and caregivers to 63 participants, The Power to Change, an empowerment-based approach to learning and violence prevention for educators to 64 participants, Resilient Communities, Healthy Communities, a capacity building workshop for organizations and communities building long term effective strategies for resilience, to 51 participants, and Consent Culture, a workshop about sexual and gender-based violence and harassment for educators, caseworkers, college and university students, and teachers-in-training, to 65 participants. COPA is grateful to the Ontario Ministry of Education for making this comprehensive project possible, and to the 8 agencies below for their openness to doing this important work with us. It was a rich participative experience. In August 2021 COPA will be offering workshops to the peer student leaders working with these settlement agencies to support newcomers within the schools. If you would like to book this type of training in your organization, or in your province, please e-mail us, or contact us at (416) 466-7490.

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Virtu-elles

Virtu-elles is COPA’s new cyber-violence prevention program for post-secondary people who identify as or are perceived as women (18-25 years old). In this workshop, participants will develop a deeper understanding of cyber-violence: its impact, what forms it can take, the dynamics of power and control, misinformation, and the gendered nature of violence. They will develop a vision of prevention based on strategies of mutual aid and empowerment and gain the capacity to evaluate a situation of cyber-violence and respond appropriately.

This program was piloted in June and will be available in September 2021, online. We are grateful to the Canadian Women’s Foundation for funding the development of Virtu-elles, as well as enabling us to offer it free of charge for a limited time to French post-secondary institutions in Ontario. It will be available for purchase outside of Ontario, and eventually in English as well.

Please reserve your spot as soon as possible by e-mailing us or calling (416) 466-7490

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Sustainable Happiness

What is Sustainable Happiness?

One of our co-workers at COPA, Anissah, is a recent graduate of Dawson College in Montreal (Congratulation Anissah!). Prior to graduating, they presented, along with 3 other students, a workshop on Achieving Sustainable Happiness for the faculty at Dawson. Sustainable Happiness (SH) is a theory and a practice that advocates intentionality in creating habits that will bring more well-being into our lives. Catherine O’ Brien, who developed the theory, defines SH as “happiness that contributes to individual, community and/or global well-being without exploiting other people, the environment or future generations”.

In today’s virtual reality, pursuing a sustainable happiness mindset can actually be lifesaving. The isolation of this constantly virtual, contact-less new world we live in is not a natural environment that is conducive to happiness, and this is why we are turning our attention (and yours!) to this helpful process.

I chatted a bit about SH with Anissah in order to better understand what it offers us. The way they see it is that SH is not just a theoretical construct but in fact a very practical and effective way of turning our attention to the well-being of ourselves in relation to the well-being of others (our community), and in relation to the well-being of the environment.

Anissah suggests that much of the dysfunction we currently live internally and in relationship with each other and with nature is a result of the way that success is measured in our world. SH advocates slowing down and stepping back within ourselves from the daily rush of this busy and constantly productive society in which we are always doing, doing, doing - in order to reflect on our lives; weighing and examining our individual values, capacities, and interconnectedness. We begin with ourselves (the first pillar of SH): with a pause, a moment of reflection, and a desire to explore where we find true and real satisfaction. We consider where instead of what matters deeply to us, we may have tied up our self-worth to only what we can accomplish, produce, or consume.

Once we begin to discover what brings us lasting joy and fulfillment in life, then we can move step by step, and in our own time, to develop daily practices that increase personal well-being and move us closer to those sources of joy and fulfillment. Anissah stresses that this begins with understanding our capacity, being compassionate with ourselves and our limits, and then finding the simplest of ways to move ahead. Sometimes even just the intention or desire to begin this process is an important first step, and enough to change how we think about and see things. We notice, for example, that having more and consuming more may not really bring us more happiness.

The second pillar of Sustainable Happiness is a recognition of our profound interconnectedness with each other and the necessity of it for our individual well-being. Often we tend to measure our value to others in the same limited way we measure our value to ourselves – by how busy and productive we are. SH encourages us to slow dow and connect with each other on a regular basis more deeply and intentionally, and in ways that nurture us as individuals and as communities. In our new virtual reality, this can be challenging, but Anissah suggests considering what we did pre-COVID and then adapting it to our new virtual reality. At work, this can look like sharing good news with each other and having stretching breaks during online meetings, diving into impromptu dance parties, and planning regularly scheduled informal get-togethers with each other outside work meetings. For example, the intensity of the work we do at COPA, and the accountability and reflection required of us on a daily basis in this work can be balanced and healed by moments of fun and relaxation together that we carve out intentionally – even online.

With our families and friends, we can plan regular visits, online card and trivia games, etc. Some families have actually become closer during the pandemic as they discovered the joys of regular Zoom reunions with each other.

The third pillar of Sustainable Happiness is our connection to the natural world and our responsibility as guardians of the environment. We can make choices that are good for us and also good for the planet. Some of the active practices of SH involve plogging (jogging and picking up trash) and walking or cycling whenever we can, as opposed to using cars. Another practice is around making sustainable choices when buying food, coffee, or chocolate for example - not denying ourselves these little pleasures in life, but partaking of them in a way that is good for us and also for the health of the environment (and thus good for the community too). And again, in interrogating (gently and with compassion) our attachment to materialism, we reflect on what we really need to be happy and how much of it we actually need.

At the end of our conversation, Anissah shared some of their intentional practices for Sustainable Happiness:

Journaling

Creating a stable and established routine to take care of themselves emotionally, spiritually, and physically

Taking the time to regularly and intentionally connect with family members, friends, and roommates, organizing family reunions

Biophilia! Since nature regulates our nervous systems, Anissah intentionally increases their well-being by cultivating a pocket of nature in their apartment in the city. Speaking with Anissah was wonderful not only because of this intriguing subject but also because the room around them was full of beautiful green plants!

After this conversation, I thought of what my own intentional practices would be for Sustainable Happiness, and here is what I came up with:

A morning routine that includes walking, yoga, and meditation (and self-compassion when I skip days here and there!)

Having my dog around and underfoot all the time

Speaking often with my sisters, sons, and friends

Buying food from local growers

Take a moment and consider: what would be some of your intentional practices?

Applying Sustainable Happiness to our Work

During the COVID-19 pandemic, students everywhere have experienced increased stress and isolation due to security measures such as school closures and online learning. COPA’s newly developed workshop on resilience in youth (Stimuler et favoriser la resilience chez les jeunes in French) was designed to address this, and is centred around the practices of Sustainable Happiness.

In this workshop, we explore the challenges that students are presently facing. They will have the opportunity to share their experiences with each other and also the strategies and resources that have helped them to get through the pandemic so far. We will discuss the difference between positive and toxic stress, and identify strategies to manage both. In addition, we will explore the concepts of well-being, and of individual and collective resilience. Students will acquire additional strategies, skills, and resources to help build their resilience and find support during stressful times.

This new workshop is funded by the Ministry of Education, and we hope to make it available in September 2021. For the moment it will be offered free of charge in French only in Ontario, and available for purchase outside of Ontario.

COPA would like to thank Catherine O’Brien, who developed the theory of Sustainable Happiness, and Jennifer De Vera who inspired the presentation of the workshop Anissah and others did at Dawson College.