President Cathy Skene opened the meeting with the club's land acknowledgement and the singing of O'Canada led by Dave Morris.

Sarge Lyle introduced our guest, Hayley Edwards of Urban Stable.

Chair Announcements:

President Cathy described how club volunteers, Jack, LeeAnn, Jagdish, Caroline and herself met with city foresters to plant flowers at the Chalfont entrance to the Assiniboine Forest last Thursday. They planted about 130 plants, and the rain started just as they finished. And thus her new motto is: “If you are not dirty you are not playing hard enough”.

On Sunday Iain, Caroline and she attended the Prairie Strides fashion show at St. Mary’s Nursery. The adventure was in the travelling, as the St. Mary’s interchange is still a work in progress.

On November 11th, we will have the members of the Downtown Rotary Club join our meeting. GM, Cory of Breezy Bend has offered a delightful and tasty meal for $25.

September 30th is Orange Shirt Day which is a statutory holiday therefore there will be no meeting that day.

On October 7, a speaker from the Indigenous Affairs Secretariat will join us to talk about orange shirt day. The hope is all members wear an orange shirt to that meeting? Kind of like a white-out party, but orange. For more information on the speaker’s role see this link. In regards to Polio Plus our club raised $1000, which matches our matching donor, so $2,000 will go to Polio Plus, in addition to the $1,000 in the club budget. Bill Gates has a 2 for 1 match up to $50 million, so it may grow even more. Good job, everyone.

President Cathy reminds the club that we are in the process of forming a steering committee to plan an event to celebrate our club’s 40th anniversary. This is an exciting, once in a lifetime event, so let’s not let the opportunity slip by. We are a young club, but 40 years is worth a celebration. Please let her know if you would like to contribute to organising this.

Our club website is a resource for the club activities. www.charleswoodrotary.org.

After Dinner, Past President Iain Scott introduced the evening’s speaker.

Hayley Edwards is Executive Director for Urban Stable (www.urbanstable.ca). She specialises in assisting teams and individuals to overcome barriers, build confidence and strengthen connections to their education, organisation, and community through working with horses.

Hayley is a certified Canadian Therapeutic Riding Association (CanTRA) Senior Instructor, Equestrian Canada Instructor of Beginners and CanTRA instructor mentor. Hayley joined the Urban Stable team in 2014 and has over fifteen years experience in the therapeutic riding and equine facilitated learning industry. Hayley has worked in all areas of the organisation and emanates the heart of Urban Stable. It is her continuous enthusiasm and passionate belief in people that inspires individuals and teams to become prouder, stronger, and more valuable contributors in their school, organisation, and community connection, and personal discovery that individuals can gain from hands-on learning experiences with horses.

Hayley's presentation to the club was on Trauma Informed Care. Mental Health is “a state of mental well- being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realise their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community.”

Mental health conditions can include:

• Mental disorders (such as mood disorders)
• Psychosocial disabilities
• Other mental states associated with significant distress, impairment in functioning or risk of self-harm* *Just because someone has a mental health condition, doesn’t mean they experience lower levels of mental well-being

Urban Stable has made promoting child and adolescent mental health a priority!

Through Trauma Informed Care, Hayley explained Common types of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) include:

• Emotional abuse
• Physical abuse
• Sexual abuse
• Violence in the home
• Substance use problems in the home
• Mental health problems in the home
• Emotional neglect
• Physical neglect
• Divorce or separation of parents
• Having a household member go to prison

How does Urban Stable help with Adverse Childhood Experiences?

• Calm and predictable environment
• Consistency
• Affection and strengths-focused: show that you care
• Manage your own reactions to stress

CORE TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE PRINCIPLES

Relationships based on respect, trust, and safety

• Frame questions/statements with empathy – avoid being judgmental
• See behaviours as coping mechanisms and explore alternative ways to cope, if needed
• Respond to disclosure with belief and validation
• Help regulate difficult emotions
• Acknowledge that what happened to the person was bad; the person is not bad (shame, guilt are common results of trauma)
• Watch for and try to reduce triggers and trauma reactions. Include the individual in this wherever possible – sense of control is important!
• Celebrate strengths, abilities, and successes

Trauma-informed care is

• Being welcoming to those who may have experienced trauma
• Considering that any of the people we’re working with may have experienced trauma
• Recognizing signs and symptoms of trauma
• Recognizing that even people who haven’t been affected by trauma can still benefit from trauma- informed care!

Examples

• How to create a welcoming environment? (Quiet, calm, supportive, consistent, positive)
• Extend trauma-informed care to everyone (not just certain students)
• What are signs and symptoms? Flight, fight, freeze…
• We might not know if it is a “trauma response” or if someone is just having a bad day! They can still benefit from these approaches

After the presentation, Hayley explained some of the successes children have achieved from their teachers at school where children have gained confidence and engaged in classes.

The presentation ended with questions from members.

Past President Iain thanked Hayley for taking time out of her busy schedule to join us all. It is comforting to hear that local schools in Charleswood are benefitting from the programs offered by Urban Stable.

Sarge Lyle then asked the members to tell the club of any happy and significant events including birthdays, anniversaries of the previous week:

Rod: Enjoyed being part of the Magellan Aerospace team at the United Way fundraiser. Team Magellan proudly participated in the 17 Wing CFB Winnipeg '24 Plane Pull, an event to support #UnitedWayWinnipeg & #GCWCC. The team placed 1st in the civilian category of the sweeper & Dash-8 pulls, but the true success of the day was the generous support for the community!

Chuck: Had a very entertaining week at the cabin replacing a roof on his gazebo with his wife and daughters when they discovered dock spiders and no one was injured. (Dolomedes is a genus of large spiders of the family Pisauridae. They are also known as fishing spiders, raft spiders, dock spiders or wharf spiders) Chuck also is raising money for the Charleswood Historical Society (www.charleswoodhistoricalsociety.ca) by selling Grey Cup Draw Tickets.

President Cathy: Took her husband to the Misericordia for an eye appointment. She enjoyed the time by walking around Wolseley and taking in the flowers and tree foliage which are starting to change. She calls it the land of 10,000 book libraries. She was in her happy place and was “Zenned out”… (Merriam-Webster defines the term as “a state of calm attentiveness in which one's actions are guided by intuition rather than by conscious effort.” Sounds fancy, but a simplified definition of Zen is inner calm and mindfulness. Being zenned out means living a life without reactivity and minimal stress)

Glenn: His cottage is closed for the Winter and will be attending meetings till January. He ran the “Hilly Half” half marathon in Treherne. He won his age category. (www.trehernerun.com)

Jack W.: Celebrated his 19th wedding anniversary Lorraine: Celebrated her birthday and was happy to have the club members sign happy birthday.

Sarge Lyle finished the meeting with the draw but the lucky ticket holder was unsuccessful in finding the marble.

Next week is a new statutory holiday: Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and so we won’t meet. But the following week, we will welcome Hani Khalidi for the Northern and Indigenous Affairs Secretariat to speak on the topic of reconciliation, and the significance of Orange Shirt Day. President Cathy reminded everyone that you are all honorary members of the Program Committee. If you have ideas for a speaker please let me or Glenn know. As of now, we are booked through to November 11th.

Meeting adjourned.