The converging crises of our time also include a mental health crisis. This workshop will explore the intersection of mental wellness and community wellness by exploring the complexities of moving through the climate emergency and other crises while maintaining mental health.

In the first part of the workshop, Jodi Lammiman and Amy Spark from Refugia Retreats will build on a nature-as-mentor framework and invite participants to explore topics such as eco-grief, climate anxiety, community resilience, complicated grief and wellness-based education. Through group conversations, discussion in pairs, meditation and guided reflection participants will discover how approaching these topics head-on can form the basis of Covid-19 recovery plans. Refugia is a volunteer-led initiative in Alberta with the mission to create life- sustaining communities where we connect to ourselves, each other, and the wider web of life. The facilitators’ work often draws on activities from the Work That Reconnects framework by Joanna Macy and Emergent Strategy framework by adrienne maree brown.

In the second part of the workshop, this discussion of resilience to the community level will expand through a case study from Dawson College in Montreal. Chris Adam, Sustainability Office Coordinator, will provide an overview of Dawson’s Living Campus approach and Sustainable Happiness program.

Participants will gain language to describe and process the complex emotions associated with change work, as well as activities and discussion ideas they can take back and enact at their campuses. The goal of this workshop is to support the wellbeing of those that attend and help them support their campus on a journey of wellbeing.

Facilitators

Amy Spark, Co-founder, Refugia Retreats
Amy Spark is an environmental scientist and advocate focused on the intersection between ecological and mental health. Her research in the Ghost River Valley in Alberta, Canada highlighted patterns of ecological grief – the emotional experience after the loss of cherished natural spaces. She works as the Sustainability Coordinator at Bow Valley College in Calgary and Co-founded Refugia Retreats in 2016.

Jodi Lammiman, Co-founder, Refugia Retreats
Jodi Lammiman has worked as a community educator, campus wellness coordinator, retreat facilitator, and artist. Her work explores the intersections between individual and systemic resilience. Jodi facilitates dialogue that examines alternatives to the traditionally accepted narratives of wellness culture, productivity culture, and capitalism. These counter-narratives are informed by the natural world and its rhythms of rest, germination, and balance.

Chris Adam, Sustainability Office Coordinator, Dawson College
Chris directs the sustainability and Living Campus office at Dawson College in Montreal, Canada. He has been recognized nationally and internationally for designing and implementing sustainability-related projects and leadership in education. His background in wildlife management, leadership training and entrepreneurship provides a holistic filter through which he works. His passion is developing Living Schools that reconnect people, community and Nature.

Any questions about the workshop?
Please contact Daita Serghi, education@aashe.org