Guest Speaker:
Cara Cressman from Fostering Communication, which is a registered charity supported by the Rotary Club of Waterloo.
Cara’s team started by soliciting input on community needs in an effort to build capacity within the community itself.
The community is especially proud of their daycare. All the children of Pikwakanagan First Nation attend the daycare, which helps the children prepare for the transition to kindergarten in another school.
The daycare centre
The team learned that the staff in the daycare centre had limited access to professional development programs and the Internet. Cara and her team worked very closely with the staff to improve their training, with tremendous positive results. So much, in fact, that the parents of the community started to show an interest, for which Cara’s team helped them as well.
Key to effective communication is physical positioning – being “at the level” of others, rather than preaching, results in more positive communication, and often makes for a more light-hearted atmosphere.
Cara shared the story/video of a custodian at the centre who learned, through the training, how to “connect” with the kids, and took them on a magical trip to the moon. The children were fully engaged, and learned things that they couldn’t otherwise have known, such as space suits, rockets and gravity.
50/50- $790 Pot:
-lots of buyers, but no winner. Todd A, Marc E and guest Barb Wahl. Down to 2 marbles left!!
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