Blog Archives

Catherine MacLellan's Pie-Off

10/20/2017

Green Wood Coalition and Cultivate Festival of Food & Drink are thrilled to announce that our good friend, and Juno-winning singer/songwriter, Catherine MacLellan, is coming to Port Hope to host another Pie-Off mashup--that's a pie-baking contest, concert and community gathering all rolled into one.

Catherine MacLellan's Pie-Off
Friday, November 10, 7:00 PM
Port Hope United Church
34 South St., Port Hope, ON

There will be serious competition for best sweet pie and best savoury pie, as well as a special award, sponsored by Cultivate Festival, for the best "Hundred Mile Pie". Time to pull out your best pie recipe and make plans to join us for an amazing evening of great food and music. Admission by donation.
[Artwork courtesy of Katie Flindall]

“To me, pie has become a symbol for togetherness,” says Catherine, “these events have turned into true community builders and I’ve been able to bring a little east coast, down home goodness to my growing group of friends in Ontario. Pie is something you never make without plans of sharing it.”

Coming up at GWC

10/18/2017

Saturday, October 28:
Join us for Green Wood in the Woods, a community gathering held once each
season to spend time connecting with nature. All are welcome.
We'll have a warm fire, share some food, explore the maple woods at their autumn peak, do some food-foraging, and have a great time.
Place: 7814 Richardson’s Road
Time: 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Let us know if you need a ride or if you're able to offer rides to others!

Throughout October: Coffee Public is home to an art display by Green WoodCoalition members Graeme Lawson and Victoria Hepburn. Drop by any time the coffee house is open to enjoy artwork in a range of media by Graeme and Victoria.
Place: 66 Walton Street, Port Hope
Time: Opening hours, 6:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Monday, October 30: A reconciliation conversation is the Community 101 topic of discussion with Alderville First Nation Councillor Julie Bothwell. Please join us to learn about the healing efforts being made here at home, and to think about ways to be a better ally for Indigenous communities.
Place: Green Wood Coalition, 18 Ontario Street, Port Hope
Time: 7:00 p.m.
No charge. Everyone is welcome.

Friday, November 10: It’s a Pie-Off, and what could be better than pie with music, hosted once again by PEI Singer/Songwriter Catherine MacLellan!
You won’t want to leave without eating at least one slice of pie, and we’ll auction off the winning pie with proceeds going to Green Wood’s programs. Please pay what you can at the door. Check our website for further details as available.

November 24 & 25: While downtown Port Hope is bustling well into the night for its annual Moonlight Madness, our doors will be open to celebrate GreenWood’s creative spirit. Our Art Hive will host a pop-up Arts and Crafts Sale. This art pop-up will continue the next day for the Santa Claus Parade. Drop by for camaraderie, gift ideas, and a warm mug of hot chocolate.
Place: Green Wood Coalition, 18 Ontario Street
Time: Friday, 4:00 to 10:00 p.m.; Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

WrapAround to Transform Lives

10/15/2017

Now recruiting WrapAround Facilitators – you can volunteer and have an impact.

A single Mom with an 11-year- old son with Asperger’s phones the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) in desperation – she needs help coping.

But the CAS can’t help her, because the child doesn’t need protection; she’s a good mother.
The worker suggests she call Children’s Mental Health Services, but Asperger’s doesn’t fall within its care mandate, so she’s redirected to Developmental Services. Developmental Services refuses her; the child’s IQ is too high. She reaches out to her son’s pediatrician, but he can’t provide ongoing support. Nor can the school system, whose resources are stretched to capacity.

All too frequently this is the end of the story for people like this Mom, who has fallen through the cracks of Ontario’s child welfare system. But, more and more, here in Northumberland County, we are rewriting this narrative.

As Green Wood Coalition prepares to expand the WrapAround services it has offered to single adults for the last few years, and WrapAround Northumberland continues its work with families, the two will work symbiotically, providing compassionate and empowering care to our community’s most vulnerable.

About 20 people gathered on September 25 at Green Wood Coalition in Port Hope for a Community 101 presentation on Wrap Around. Family therapist Mark Vander Vennen, who leads an active, volunteer-run WrapAround program in Hamilton, and WrapAround Northumberland Coordinator Jane Ashmore walked the group through a better way to serve individuals and families with complex needs.

“WrapAround, by definition, is a multi-sector approach,” Mark said. “It is about strengths, not deficits. It is a different paradigm.

"As a society, over the decades, we have offloaded the care of the most vulnerable to the professionals.But they are overburdened, and it has disempowered communities. If professional services and communities could work together in a different way and leverage each other’s strengths, the results could be better. That’s what WrapAround is – a different way of working together."

So how does it work? A facilitator-led team wraps around the individual participant who remains in control of the process from beginning to end. The facilitator and participant forge a relationship and build a team from among people the individual trusts. The facilitator leads what will begin as monthly team meetings where enduring, transformative solutions to the participant’s full spectrum of needs are sought. Over the next year to 18 months – the expected duration of a WrapAround team – the solutions are put into practice and the individual eventually transitions out.

In Northumberland County, in Hamilton where Mark coaches Wrap Around teams, and in parts of
Western Canada where WrapAround is taking hold, he has seen its success with single adults, children and families.

“Nothing about us without us, no shame no blame. When WrapAround is practised with those values, research show there is nothing more effective.”

For more information contact Jenn McGuire [email protected]