College Council Showcases Health and Wellness Resources at Humber

An assembly of faculty, support staff, students, and administrators, Humber College Council (HCC) is Humber’s collective employee voice, making suggestions to Humber College’s President as it relates to long and short‐term priorities outlined in the institution’s Strategic Plan.

Acknowledging the impact of the last few years on Humber staff and employees around the world, HCC held its annual retreat for the 2021-2022 academic year on Thursday, June 2, 2022 focused on re-energizing members and showcasing the various wellness resources available to them at Humber.

Key information and teachings were shared on these topics by Jason Seright, Dean, Indigenous Education at Humber College and Paula Allen, Global Lead and Senior Vice President of Lifeworks.

• Jason Seright shared the teachings he was taught about the Ojibwe Medicine Wheel. With balance at its centre, the wheel is divided into four equal quadrants representing the North, East, South and West. These quadrants also represent seasons, colours, life stages, plants and the mental, spiritual, emotional and physical states/dimensions. Seright called on participants to envision it as a house with four rooms, and to imagine what happens when we ignore one of those rooms. He stressed the importance of visiting each of them.
• Paula Allen presented The Mental Health Index Report published in February 2021 by Morneau Shepell (now Lifeworks). It features pre-COVID data and data collected during the first year of the pandemic from approximately 3000 Canadians to demonstrate the impact of the pandemic on Canadian’s mental wellbeing. While a two-point drop (-2) on the index indicates a significant decline, levels during the first year of the pandemic were around 11. “An eleven-point decrease from the pre-COVID-19 benchmark reflects a population whose mental health is similar to the most distressed one per cent of the benchmark population.” (pg. 3). The report highlights the strain on managers during this time, faring well below non-managers (-10.9 non-management vs -12.2 management: p. 2), and the impact of the pandemic on full-time students who have the lowest mental health score (-27.8: p. 1).

The presentation was followed by wellness activities, and sharing many of Humber’s health-oriented offerings:

• Nature walks: Jimmy Vincent, Camp Director at the Humber Arboretum, provided tours of the Arboretum grounds.
• Traditional Chinese medicine: Humber’s Tzu Chi Clinic* provided members with assessments and treatments.
• Chair yoga: Humber’s Recreation and Fitness Coordinator Nathania Bron taught members to reduce stress with chair yoga.
• Cooking demo: Humber’s Chef Eric Deletroz taught participants how to prepare an easy and healthy snack using his special spice mixture.
• Spa services: The Humber Spa* showcased their various offerings to relax, refresh and recharge.

*Both the Tzu Chi Clinic and The Humber Spa engage students in their service provision, thereby providing the critical work integrated learning students need to prepare them for the workforce.

To connect health and wellbeing of people to that of the planet, Lindsay Walker, Associate Director, Office of Sustainability invited participants to be ambassadors of the O2GO Reusable Containers, a program at Humber that aims to provide a cost-effective alternative to single-use, throwaway containers and avert waste from landfills and oceans.

NEXT HCC MEETING

The next Humber College Council meeting will be in September when the fall academic term commences.

For questions or comments about HCC meeting highlights, contact regan.mancini@humber.ca. For supporting materials or opportunities to provide feedback, please visit the College Council website or contact shovani.samalia@humber.ca.

For National Indigenous History Month, Humber Libraries is collaborating with Indigenous Education & Engagement to highlight new and diverse Indigenous voices, histories and experiences across Turtle Island. Each Friday in June, a member of the IE&E community will recommend a book that has influenced, moved or inspired them. In turn, the Library will share a reading list complementing their selection of the week.

For this Friday's National Indigenous History Month feature, visit the Library Spotlight to read about Quazance Boissoneau's, manager, Indigenous Education & Engagement, selection, Jordin Tootoo's memoir, All The Way: My Life on Ice, and explore related books based on her selection.

The global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have abruptly shifted the Ontario Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) sector towards the use of online dispute resolution and virtual platforms for courts, tribunals, and other dispute resolution hearings and processes.  

To address the need for a database management system that can provide superior client relationship management and client-practitioner engagement, Humber College partnered with the ADR Institute of Ontario (ADRIO) and received the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Engage grant ($25,000) for the project Digital Transformation of Ontario’s ADR Sector. 

The research project has the potential to transform how ADR practitioners interact with their clients through analyzing and responding to the needs and challenges experienced by ADR practitioners. By identifying new evolving practices, the project will support both emerging and experienced professionals in their growth and development.  

The project is led by Mary Lee, Program Coordinator and Professor in the Faculty of Business, and Rameen Sabet, Professor in the Faculty of Business at Humber.  

Learn more about the Digital Transformation of Ontario’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Sector.

June is Pride Month. All month the 2SLGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group (ERG) will be putting out messages in Communiqué with reminders, information, and history relevant to Pride.  

While there are many versions of the terms and acronyms used within the 2SLGBTQ+ community, Humber uses 2SLGBTQ+ to lead with the recognition of Two-Spirit (2S) peoples and to honour Indigenous communities who came before all others. Below are just some of the terms usually represented in the acronym. For more, please reference Humber’s Gender Diversity Policy and the 519’s Glossary of Terms.  

Two-Spirit - An umbrella term encompassing gender and sexual diversity in Indigenous communities. Two Spirit people often serve integral and important roles in their communities, such as leaders and healers. There are many understandings the term Two Spirit – and this English term does not resonate for everyone. Two Spirit is a cultural term reserved for those who identify as Indigenous. 

Lesbian - A woman who is attracted to women. 

Gay - A person who is attracted to people of the same gender. Also, a man who is attracted to men.  

Bisexual - A person who is attracted to people of more than one gender. 

Trans - An umbrella term referring to people whose gender identities differ from the sex they were assigned at birth. Trans can mean transcending beyond, existing between, or crossing over the gender spectrum. It includes but is not limited to people who identify as transgender, transsexual, non-binary, or gender non-conforming (gender variant or genderqueer). 

Queer - An umbrella term used and reclaimed by some whose sexual orientations and/or gender identities fall outside of cisgender/straight norms. 

And/or 

Questioning - A period where a person explores their own sexual identity, orientation, and/or gender. 

Note: The + (plus) sign denotes the inclusion of the myriad other identities and terms within the 2SLGBTQ+ community. 

Stay tuned for more Pride Humber Communique posts throughout the month of June! 

More information about Humber Pride events is available on our website.

More information about the 2SLGBTQ+ ERG can be found on our website.