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smartCommunity

smartCOMMUNITY

SMART (Stress Management and Resiliency Techniques)
for Not-for-Profit Community Organizations involved in the Care of Vulnerable Populations

Let us know how we can help you help others. 

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"Workplaces can play an essential part in maintaining positive mental health. They can give people the opportunity to feel productive and be a strong contributor to employee wellbeing. Yet it can also be a stressful environment that contributes to the rise of mental health problems and illnesses. No workplace is immune from these risks and we cannot afford to limit our definition of occupational health and safety to only the physical." ~Mental Health Commission

Why Bring SMART to Your Community Organization?

Workplace Mental Health: What is the Issue?

Linking Wellbeing to Work: The connection between health and wellbeing, job performance, and employee satisfaction.

  • Employee productivity relies heavily on their health and wellbeing. True business success comes from recognizing that employees mirror the care and investment they receive from their employers.

Current Challenges in the Community Health Workforce

The community health workforce encompasses a range of essential health care roles, including nurses in primary care, addiction and social workers in mental health organizations, and personal support workers in home and community care, long-term care among others. These workers ensure patients can receive the right care in the right place and help to reduce the burden on acute care settings, such as hospitals and emergency departments.

Discover a program that:

  • Is Trauma-Sensitive and SEL-informed  (SEL = Social and Emotional Learning)
  • Fosters a deep sense of belonging and connection within your organization, setting the stage for improved employee well-being.
  • Develops Effective Strategies for Challenging Situations: Acquire strategies to relate effectively, ultimately improving your ability to engage with clients, customers and colleagues constructively. 
  • Manages Stress and Fosters Emotional Control: smarProfessional equips you with tools to manage stress through a greater understanding and control of emotions, empowering you to create a productive and efficient work environment. 
  • Prioritizes Self-Care and Builds Resilience: Learn self-care techniques that foster personal and professional resilience, enhancing your ability to handle the challenges of your job effectively. SMART practically and effectively delivers authentic self-care practices that enhance well-being.
  • Enhances Concentration and Executive Function: Gain insights and practices to help yourself enhance concentration and executive function, vital for efficient planning, decision-making, and impulse control. 
  • Revitalizes Purpose and Enhances Physical and Mental Well-being: Experience how SMART can rejuvenate your sense of purpose, both personally and professionally, promoting happiness through healthy habits of the mind while cultivating overall mental and physical well-being.

Aligns with 2024 Insights: Employee Health and Productivity Report (Personify Health)

  • Better Programs, Better Outcomes: Employees who say their employer has optimized their health and wellbeing program have better outcomes across the board, including fewer employee challenges, health having less impact on job performance, and less time wasted searching for answers about their benefits programs.
  • Wellbeing: The Unseen Priority: Only one in four employees believe their employer makes employee wellbeing a high priority, but the data indicates it should be. Half of employees report their health has impacted their ability to do the job, with mental and emotional health being the top issue.

smartCommunity™ – A 9-Session Resilience Program

Program Structure:

smartCommunity™ is a 9-session, 20-hour, evidence-based secular program, designed for organizations. Each session includes:

  • Presentations
  • Group discussion
  • Experiential practices in mindfulness >
  • 4-hour silent retreat
  • Weekly home practice
  • Engagement and Interactivity

Certification:

Successful participants receive a smartCommunity Certificate of Completion.

SMART Integrates the teachings, practices and research from:

  • Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
  • Mindful Self-Compassion
  • Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance
  • Mindful Movement
  • Kindness and Compassion training

Who Should Attend

Community leaders, administrators and staff, who are involved in service organzations, taking care of our most vulnerable populations under increasingly stressful situations.

Stress Management and Resiliency Techniques. An evidence-based, trauma-sensitive, SEL-informed program designed to address the needs of front-line care workers.

The 20-hour program is delivered in a workshop setting, consists of 8 x two- hour sessions, a 4-hour silent retreat and includes home practice.

Participants who have completed the requirements receive a smartCommunity Certificate of Completion.

Heidi Bornstein, Director, SMART Ontario
416 267-4707 | heidi@mindfulnesseveryday.org

SMART Participant Manual
Additional relevant resources: articles, books recommendations, websites, cds.

There is a manageable amount of home practice – between 15-20 minutes per day.

SMART facilitators have engaged in a 100+ comprehensive training pathway consisting of training programs (Foundations), practicums, mentoring and on-going professional development.
The facilitators each have a personal mindfulness practice, have educational and community experience and are supported by Mindfulness Everyday’s Community of Practice.

SMARTeducation Research
Thirty years of informed basic research and, more recently, neuroscience, offer compelling evidence to support the use of employing mindfulness practices in education. The application of mindfulness by students and teachers has the potential to improve academic achievement, mental health, and positive relationships. Scientific studies show that mindfulness training develops one’s concentration, attention, executive function.
Download Research Summary from UBC Here
More Smart Research
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Karen-Ragoonaden

Participants notice increased capacity to:
– befriend your emotions
– use deep self-care to maintain emotional balance, leading to a change of trait, not just a change of state
– manage challenging situations
– effectively improve concentration,
– decision making & wise action enhance purpose and joy in your work and personal life
– relate & respond more effectively to stress to avoid burnout feel better,
– physically and mentally feel connected and part of a like-minded community
– promote leadership develop effective communication skills
– promote positive relationships increase presence
– build on inner resilience

SMART is delivered both In-Person in Ontario and BC, and ONLINE, in a method that is highly participatory, engaging, and interactive.

The SMART Facilitator Training Pathway is a 100+ hour program that involves direct teacher training programs, practicums, mentoring and on-going professional development. More information HERE:

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