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A pilot project to demonstrate the power of the arts to heal is recruiting participants. Healing Through Art is open to six to eight individuals between the ages of 18 and 29 who want to improve their mental health and will commit to 16 weeks of sessions. “We’ve seen the impact of expressive arts so many times through our community Art Hive,” says Green Wood Executive Director David Sheffield. “People often tell us they’ve tapped into something, found a way to shut off the other noises in their lives. Our approach is that everyone has this creativity in them. Our work is about healing first and art second.” For years, Green Wood has wanted to compile data to prove the efficacy of art as a low-cost, non-clinical approach to healing for individuals who have experienced trauma, mental illness and substance dependency. Through this pilot, funded by Cameco’s Step Up For Mental Health, participant feedback will make this possible, opening the door for others to model the Green Wood experience. “People suffering with mental illness and substance dependency are among the most isolated and disconnected individuals in our community,” Sheffield says. “The cost of their unmet needs is shared across various emergency services. There’s a place for preventive options.” Art Therapist Edward Hagedorn, who is advising Green Wood on the project, says creating a safe place to explore self-expression without fear of judgment or criticism can offer people a sense of human connection and accomplishment they may have never experienced before. “If you want to deepen the relationship in the group, art will do that. If you create safety and someone has the courage to do art for the first time and expose themselves in a group that holds them in safety... it’s like being held by a caring person." To participate in this free program contact [email protected].  Love a good story? Join us for a Virtual Book Club featuring Denise Davy's recent book, 'Her Name was Margaret: Life and Death on the Streets'. Award-winning journalist, Denise Davy, brings a compassionate and very personal lens to to homelessness and mental illness through the true story of Margaret Jacobson. Denise Davy was no stranger to investigating tough stories, but when she met Margaret Jacobson, the girl's heartbreaking story stood out to her. Once a happy and healthy young woman, Jacobson suffered a psychotic break in her teens. By the time Davy met her, Jacobson had been in and out of countless institutions, before her life ended following a period of homelessness. Struck by how the system had failed Jacobson, Davy set out to tell her story. Pick up a copy of 'Her Name was Margaret' at Furby House Books in Port Hope or Let's Talk Books in Cobourg, or just join us for the discussion. Click here for Zoom Link. Thursday, March 24, 7:00 PM  Coldest Night of the Year is a national (local walks support local charities), family-friendly walk that fuels the community outreach work of Green Wood. It's our biggest fundraiser of the year. If you'd like to register to walk or support a walker, click on the link below--and thank you! https://cnoy.org/location/porthope Possibly the biggest untold news story of the year is the local housing emergency and the wider housing crisis in this country. Northumberland journalist, Robert Washburn recently invited Green Wood's Executive Director, David Sheffield, and Meaghan McDonald, Executive Director at Habitat For Humanity Northumberland, for a longer form radio interview to wrestle through this housing issue and explore possible solutions. [You can follow Robert's stories at consider-this.ca or on 89.7 Truly Local Radio] We’d like to wish our friends and neighbours a wonderful Christmas and holiday season. Through the realities of grief and loss, this is a difficult day for many, but please know that we are thinking of you and holding hope for better days. To all who are with us on this journey, thank you for keeping faith. [Thanks to Domnie Doig for this illustration]
 It's time to reconnect!It feels like a long time since we've been able to gather to share a meal and encourage each other in person, so we're excited to welcome Community Dinner friends back to the table on Sunday, December 12. This dinner will feel a little different, and there are limitations in place but we look forward to seeing our friends at the Port Hope Rec Centre (at the fairgrounds on McCaul St. Port Hope). The meal will be provided by Lisa's Catering. Numbers are limited to 150 people.
If you can join us, the Rec Centre/Health Unit require the following: 1. Register for a free ticket (click on the button below) before Dec. 12 2. Bring your proof of double vaccination (printed or on your smartphone) 3. Bring a piece of ID (must have your name and birth date on it) Doors will open at 4:30 PM as the check in process may take some extra time. The Rec Centre requires that masks are required except while eating. Thanks to everyone who has taken a part of the work to organize this Community Dinner so that we can celebrate together!  A talented knitter who designed his own patterns, Jeff O'Neill knitted when he was in a good mental space "He reminded me how important it was to be human first and love and In the month following their son’s death, Ken and Yvonne O’Neill, and older son, Mark, reached out to Green Wood, “Tell us how we can give back to the Coalition through a gift that honours Jeff’s memory”.  Ken and Yvonne O'Neill with the new shed at Green Wood's Community Garden Bullied and rejected in high school, Jeff turned to drugs to escape the loneliness. Over more than 20 years, he was in and out of counselling, addiction treatment and the justice system. He moved around Southern Ontario but always returned home to ground himself in his parents’ love and putter in the family garden, ready to make a fresh start. The O’Neills learned about Green Wood through their role as managers of the Port Hope food bank. Green Wood’s Community Dinners took place next door, when the food bank was open, so they talked regularly with David Sheffield. Yvonne and Ken soon embraced Green Wood’s radically different philosophy toward caring for people.  Jeff was a familiar face at Green Wood's garden. His first connection came over coffee with outreach worker Nicole Whitmore. “He was knitting away. I just said, ‘What do you want in your life?’ and his eyes filled up with tears, and he said, ‘I don’t know, can you ask me that another day?’ I think we were able to see each others’ pain but understand that there’s healing, there’s kindness, and it’s gentle without judgment.”
 The Good Fight, a new graphic novel by Canadian Author and Green Wood community member, Ted Staunton [illustrated by Josh Rosen], has earned a spot on Toronto Life’s List of 21 Summer Reading Recommendations, CTV’s 'Ten Canadian graphic novels to add to your young readers’ bookshelf' and the 2021 Toronto Book Award long list. Ted talked with Green Wood about the book’s inspiration, creative process and relevance for young readers today. Green Wood: You’ve written over 40 books but never a graphic novel and never a work of historical fiction. Why now? Ted Staunton: For me, stories come from 10 or 12 different places. A while ago I read a story in the New Yorker about a guy who was a master pick pocket and fan of old pick pocketing lure. He had all the jargon, like whiz mob, and I thought, man, I so want to put this in a book. That means historical, 1930s, so if it was in Toronto, Christie Pits, a place where people could pick pockets... and the story sort of spun out of this. Green Wood: It sounds as if you knew where you wanted to take it. Ted Staunton: Yes. My parents lived through this time, and my grandfather was the mayor of Toronto for the bulk of the Great Depression, from 1931 to 1934. As I did research it became apparent that Toronto was a very, very different place in the 1930s, so British and so WASP... never mind the different ethnicities, if you weren’t Protestant you were out of luck. That suddenly brought home how not just anti-Semitism but how these kinds of attitudes could become so pervasive that we don’t even notice they’re there. The fact that my grandfather was involved was an interesting sideline. He had a huge sense of fair play and honour, and he wasn’t going to put up with what was going on in the city at that time. Grandpa did succeed in having the swastika banned. I’m proud of what he did. Green Wood: How did you land on the graphic novel as a literary form? Ted Staunton: I had the idea for the book, but historical novels are a tough sell, so I began to wonder if a graphic novel might be a good hook to hang something like that on. Graphic novels are a really good way to present historical fiction in that a lot of visual description is made unnecessary. We can plunge you into the ambience of that era right away. Especially for a young reader who has little or no concept of a time that is almost 100 years ago, you get this immersion right there. Green Wood: It’s true, The Good Fight is full of the slang, music and clothing of that era. How hard was it to capture that authenticity? Ted Staunton: The 1920s, 30s and into the 40s are my go-to era for music and other cultural things. I grew up with it, but Josh had to do a phenomenal amount of work. This was not his era at all. He ended up working from things like the 1934 Eaton’s Catalogue, and people were sending him photos of what hairstyles were like in the ‘30s, what clothes kids wore and what did a man’s suit look like. I was constantly teasing him about hats. I said, ‘Josh, everybody wears a hat. You’ve got bowlers, Fedoras, homburgs, newsboy hats. We need hats. We need hats!’ Green Wood: The collaboration between writer and illustrator feels seamless. Visually, you’re transported at warp speed to the 1930s while being carried along by the fast-paced storyline. Was that hard to pull off? Ted Staunton: First of all, it took a long time. The book has been in process for almost five years, and a good chunk of that came down to giving Josh enough time to do all these illustrations. There are 220 pages of drawings, and it’s a huge undertaking. Green Wood: What do you hope young readers will take away from the book? Ted Staunton: Sadly, this story is always going to be relevant. The riot at Christie Pits became a beacon for people in those communities because it said, ‘We can stand up for this,’ but given what was on the horizon and the engrained nature of bigotry in Canadian life at the time, Christie Pits didn’t change much. It did not make Toronto a kinder, gentler place in the short run. What it boils down to is, are there things that are worth fighting for? What does it mean to fight the good fight? How can we all quietly fight the good fight all of the time? [This interview has been edited and condensed]  The Good Fight is available locally at Let's Talk Books (Cobourg, ON) and Furby House Books (Port Hope, ON).
 Fresh out of an election, the time for partisan politics is over. “This situation was created by federal policy and will take federal leadership to reverse its devastating consequences.” -Open letter to all federal candidates from 17 mayors across Canada Whether our politicians know it or not, this federal election has depoliticized the issue of homelessness and housing affordability. Canadians are demanding urgent action across party lines to solve Canada’s housing crisis. How did it come to this?
This election saw Canada’s major political parties prioritize chronic homelessness and housing accessibility. Platforms featured new spending on affordable housing units, rental affordability assistance and tax credits for creative housing solutions like multi-general living housing. Vote Housing and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities advanced plans to solve the crisis, while polls show that 80% of Canadians support building new affordable housing as part of our pandemic recovery. Housing is a Human Right The Shift is an Ottawa-based organization working to provoke action to end homelessness, unaffordability and evictions globally by restoring the understanding of housing as a home, not a commodity. It challenges the ways financial actors undermine the right to housing and supports governments to implement human rights-based housing strategies and regulate the impact of the private market on housing. Could this financialization of housing impact us here? At last week’s All-Candidates meeting hosted by the Northumberland Affordable Housing Committee, candidates were asked how their parties will deal with “renoviction” - forcing out tenants by claiming a need for major repairs, clearing the way for rent hikes or resale in a hot real estate market. “Housing needs to be rethought to mean a ‘home,’ not a consumer commodity like gold or oil,” says David Sheffield, Green Wood Coalition Executive Director, who has watched gentrification in Cobourg and Port Hope push tenants out of their homes into homelessness. “Housing as a human right must be defined and affirmed
in policy and legislation. If individual municipalities don’t act on protecting their communities, it’s all going to be guided by this commodification.” -David Sheffield, Green Wood Coalition |
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