Mood Walks Summit — March 31, 2015

Mood Walks presents a one-day knowledge exchange and networking summit to share the exciting strides taken in its pilot year creating a province-wide program of greenspace walking groups for people living with mental health challenges. The Mood Walks Summit will enable dialogue among its community of practice, and map new partnership paths that support mental wellness through the “green lift” of nature-related programs.

Morning panels will present current program leaders, participants and our partners, Hike Ontario and Conservation Ontario, discussing how Mood Walks programs have been serving older adults living with mental health challenges. We will launch the Public Report and share evaluations of Mood Walks groups being run in both natural and urban greenspaces.

In an afternoon roundtable, we will widen the conversation to learn about related ecohealth initiatives, including the Back to Nature Network and the David Suzuki Foundation’s 30×30 Challenge. We will offer both a small-groups “Global Café” to troubleshoot barriers to running outdoor walking programs, and invite embodied participation in a workshop on noticing natural sound. By integrating varied perspectives on the vital health lifts of being in greenspaces, the Summit will be a networking opportunity among existing Mood Walk groups and an exciting knowledge generator for new Mood Walks programs focused on youth at risk, people with lived experience of mental illness, and marginalized communities in urban centres.

Morning refreshments and lunch — and afternoon trail mix! — are included in the $20 registration fee. Subsidized tickets are available.

For more information, contact:

Margaret Christakos
Event Coordinator
mchristakos@hotmail.com

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Date

Tuesday, March 31, 2015
8:30 am to 4:00 pm

Location

YWCA Elm Centre
87 Elm Street, Toronto

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Mood Walks Summit AGENDA

8:30 am	BREAKFAST, Registration, and Networking
9:00 am	MORNING SESSIONS
	Welcome and Introductions The Successes of Mood Walks’ Pilot Year Scott Mitchell, CMHA Ontario Partner Updates Tom Friesen, Hike Ontario Jayme Crittenden, Conservation Ontario Ontario Parks, Healthy Parks Healthy People Mood Walks Evaluation Results Andrea Town, CMHA Ontario BREAK: Coffee/Tea in the Auditorium Panel Discussion: Some Mood Walks Programs in Action Rebecca Thompson, Homewood Health Centre Melissa Moreau and Rose Kozai, Waypoint Bob Dhillon, CMHA Elgin Branch Breakout small group discussions to troubleshoot barriers to Mood Walks programs. Talk on traditional teachings about nature relatedness, food ingredients, land and health Johl Ringuette, chef/owner of NishDish Catering
12:00 pm	Traditional ABORIGINAL LUNCH served in the Reception Hall Networking, with casual Outdoor Walks (weather permitting)
1:00 pm	AFTERNOON SESSIONS
	Guest Speaker Panel Initiatives Connecting Mental Wellness and Nature’s Green Lift Bill Kilburn, Back to Nature Network Aryne Sheppard, 30 x 30 Challenge, David Suzuki Foundation Denise Pinto, Jane’s Walk Michael Richardson and Robert Wallis, Outward Bound Canada Followed by Roundtable including our panelists and Scott Mitchell, Tom Friesen, Jayme Crittenden and Andrea Town: Making nature-based programs more accessible, diverse and inclusive Cedar tea, sweetgrass tea, granola bars and cookies Nature Sounds and Deep Listening An Experiential Workshop with Anne Bourne, embodying the Mood Walks approach Wrap Up / Evaluations / Draw Prizes
4:00 pm	DAY FINISHES

Please note, agenda may be subject to change.

Presenter Biographies: Morning Sessions

Scott Mitchell
CMHA Ontario

Scott Mitchell is the Director of Knowledge Transfer at CMHA Ontario, where he has worked since 2002. He is the project lead on Mood Walks, Enabling Minds, and Minding Our Bodies: Healthy Eating and Physical Activity for Mental Health, among other initiatives. He is a Board member of the Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition, and a Coordinating Committee member of the Canadian Knowledge Transfer and Exchange Community of Practice.

Tom Friesen
Hike Ontario

Tom Friesen is the current president of Hike Ontario and a past president of the Thames Valley Trail Association. He was fortunate to grow up in a home where the Niagara Escarpment was his backyard. He has been able to hike on most of the world’s continents and to cross some small and medium-sized countries on foot. He enjoys leading hikes, maintaining trail and sharing his skills and enthusiasm for hiking.

Jayme Crittenden
Conservation Ontario

Jayme Crittenden is part of the marketing and communications team at Conservation Ontario, the organization that supports and represents Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities. She has been with Conservation Ontario for just over 4 years and has a total of 8 years’ experience as an environmental communications professional. At CO, Jayme is highly involved in projects which draw connections between human health and the health of the environment, specifically the Healthy Hikes campaign which she coordinates. Conservation Ontario was a partner on Mood Walks 2014 and Jayme acted as a member of the Steering Committee for that project.

Andrea Town

Andrea Town
CMHA Ontario

Andrea Town is an Occupational Therapist and the founding Project Manager of Mood Walks.

Rebecca Thompson
Homewood Health Centre

Rebecca Thompson is a Recreation Therapist and Professional Discipline Lead at Homewood Health Centre, where she has worked for the past 13 years. She is also the past President of Therapeutic Recreation Ontario. She has a passion for outdoor activity and has hiked many beautiful places across North America.

Melissa Moreau

Melissa Moreau
Waypoint Centre

Melissa Moreau is a Recreation Therapist at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care. She works in the community supporting outpatients residing in the Midland/Penetang area. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and French Studies from Trent University and a diploma in Therapeutic Recreation from Georgian College.

Rose Kozai

Rose Kozai
Waypoint Centre

Rose Kozai has been a participant in the Waypoint Centre Mood Walks program.

Bob Dhillon

Bob Dhillon
CMHA Elgin Branch

Bob Dhillon is a Crisis Outreach Worker with the Elgin Branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA). He also coordinates the local Mood Walks program and manages the agency’s Social Media presence. In his part-time career, Bob is a serving member of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Reserves where he holds the rank of Captain. In this role, Bob works primarily with 12 to 18 year-old youth in the Army Cadet program. Bob is an Instructor for Safe Hiker and Certified Hike Leader courses with Hike Ontario.

Colleen Spenard
CMHA Elgin Branch

Colleen Spenard is a Mental Health Worker at CMHA Elgin who has been involved in the Mood Walks program.

Melode Luce
CMHA Elgin Branch

Melode Luce has been a participant in the CMHA Elgin Mood Walks program.

Johl Ringuette
NishDish Catering

Traditional Chef Johl Ringuette, and the staff of RingFire Productions, have been providing delectable Aboriginal cuisine to the Toronto Native community and allies for several years. Raised in Northern Ontario, his knowledge of native food was provided by his father (a hunter), and inspired by the culinary wisdom of his mother. Yearning for the indigenous foods from his childhood such as wild game, freshwater fish, berries, and maple syrup, he set out to provide Aboriginal catering to the urban community. With almost thirty years experience in the foods industry, Chef Ringuette has been serving Traditional Anishnawbe foods since 2005.

Presenter Biographies: Afternoon Sessions

Bill Kilburn

Back to Nature Network


Bill Kilburn is the leader of Ontario’s Back to Nature Network. The network is a collaborative of organizations representing health, education, community planning, active living and conservation working to create opportunities for all children and families to connect with nature where they live. Among successes, Bill led the effort to create the Ontario Children’s Outdoor Charter, Canada’s first charter to state children have the right to explore in nature; co-chaired the creation of Ready…Set…Wonder! a guide to teaching outdoors for early years educators; and wrote Into Nature, a how-to K-8 resource for teaching outdoors. Bill is currently leading provincial initiatives to develop and deliver an accredited presentation on the positive relationship between nature and human health in partnership with the Ontario College of Family Physicians, and train-the-trainers certification in every Ontario school board to enable educators to teach all curriculum subjects outdoors.

Aryne Sheppard, M.A., M.Ed.
30 x 30 Nature Challenge

Working as an educator, trainer and facilitator for over twelve years, Aryne has a track record of producing high impact programs for diverse audiences. She is an adult educator with a professional background in community development, counseling, leadership training and environmental education. Aryne earned a Masters of Adult Education from OISE-University of Toronto and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Guelph.

Currently, Aryne serves as the Senior Public Engagement Specialist at the David Suzuki Foundation where she has been developing innovative community initiatives since 2008. Her current campaigns focus on human health and nature connection, and in 2012, she co-created the Foundation’s national 30×30 Nature Challenge.

Aryne’s greatest passion is simplicity. Since 2000, she has facilitated voluntary simplicity circles, informal workshops that support individuals hoping to slow down and simplify their lives. In her spare time Aryne loves being outside, watching wildlife and following their tracks!

Denise Pinto
Jane’s Walk

Denise is the Executive Director of Jane’s Walk, a movement of free, citizen-led walking tours inspired by Jane Jacobs. She is also an Advisory Board member for Open Streets Toronto and a Steering Committee member for Walk Toronto. Denise has nearly a decade of experience with charrette facilitation for a variety of clients across the private and not-for-profit sectors. She is adept at extracting insight through open dialogue, connecting disconnected ideas, prompting empathic and personal visions of city life and tackling wicked problems worth solving. Denise has exhibited widely and participated in a host of place-making activities including, most recently, The Transportation Expo at Evergreen Brickworks. She is the former Chair of the Editorial Board for Ground Magazine (the quarterly publication of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects) where she also frequently contributes. In 2012, she won a Medal of Excellence at the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Urban Design Awards for a project on urban agriculture.



Michael Richardson
Outward Bound Canada

Michael Richardson is the Toronto Centre Program Director for Outward Bound Canada. With over 15 years of leadership experience, Michael has held various teaching, management, risk consultation and facilitation roles throughout Ontario. After completing his Diploma in Recreation Leisure Services Co-op, he sought higher education through Lakehead University’s Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism (graduating with honours), prior to completing his Bachelor of Education. Michael’s love of the environment and outdoor education is evident in all areas of his professional and personal life. In his spare time, he can be found rock climbing, ice climbing, telemark skiing, canoeing and camping.



Robert Wallis
Outward Bound Canada

Robert Wallis is Principal and Education Co-ordinator at Outward Bound Canada (OBC). He came to work in the outdoor industry relatively late in life, after completing a PhD. in Genetics from Oxford University and working at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto as a Post-doctoral Fellow. Pursuing his passion for biology and science, Robert gained his Bachelor of Education to become a High School teacher. Wishing to put his love for the outdoors into his teaching, he joined Outward Bound Canada to help grow their High School Credit program. Robert now teaches such things as the Kreb’s Cycle and DNA replication in the outdoors with rope and carabiners. He also oversees all High School Credits for Outward Bound Canada nationally, whether on Wilderness courses in the Rocky Mountains, Algonquin Park, and the Bay of Fundy, or at the OBC urban centres in Vancouver and Toronto. He is kept busy with 3yr old twins and a 1yr old, and his greatest pleasure is watching them explore and discover their natural world.

Anne Bourne
Deep Listening Workshop Leader, Composer and Musician

Drawing from her foundation as an energy healer, composer and musician Anne Bourne composed Meditation 4: on loss and desire, for choreographer Andrea Nann and Michael Ondaatje, receiving a 2005 Golden Sheaf Award. Anne met composer Pauline Oliveros in 1994 performing in concert in NYC. Anne began sojourns to the Deep Listening Retreat on Rose Mountain, in New Mexico to work with Oliveros, and therapeutic dream specialist Ione, becoming one of the first Deep Listening Certificate holders. Anne performed in the 1998 premier of Oliveros’ composition Primordial/Lift, all subsequent recordings, and presented this score at Art and Science of Deep Listening, NY, 2014. Recent performances include an ephemeral duet with Oliveros at TIES, 2014. Amid a field of international concert touring experiences with songwriters including Loreena McKennit, Anne began composing. For transdisciplinary contexts, Anne improvises streams of extended cello and voice. Anne is interested in each musical expression being a compassionate resolution of difference tones.
www.annebournemusic.com