Rural Mental Health
Micro Grant 

In 2022, the Learning Centre staff were trained as Rural Mental Health Animators. As part of this training, we were provided with a small grant to get our work in mental health started. We chose to use these funds to host a Community Engagement in September 2022. The intent of the event was to gain a better understanding of our community's needs in relation to mental health. A variety of community members were in attendance including schools, healthcare, adult learning, business, government, community organizations and local residents. 

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Participants were separated into groups, where they did a SWOT Analysis focused on Strengths (S), Weaknesses (W), and Opportunities (O) for what we can do to improve the mental health services and supports in Consort. In the end the group did a Dotmocracy where they were given a set of 5 stickers and they were to place them next to their top 5 priorities from the list of opportunities. From this exercise, the group determined their priorities as:

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*Awareness Campaign

*Mental health training for individuals working with youth (i.e. coaches, teachers, etc.).

*Availability of a Full-Time Therapist

*Accessible transportation

*Interest Groups (dog, car, Book Club, quilting, crafting, cards, crib, Weight Watchers, TOPS, walking group)

*Buddy System

*Community Socials (Street Dance, family-friendly and safe events)

*Rally with other Rural Mental Health Projects

*Create a safe place for people to talk

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To learn more about this work, please read the full report found at the link below.