This article is an excerpt from professionally speaking: The Magazine of The Ontario College of Teachers, December 2010 issue...... read more :  Healthy Minds

Distinguished Speaker, Julie Brown, ROCK Clinical Therapist

Thursday, June 10, 2010 - 7:00 pm

Halton Regional Centre, Auditorium, 1151 Bronte Road, Oakville ON

When it comes to raising children we are bombarded with endless amounts of information in the form of guaranteed strategies, miracle solutions, and step-by-step recipes to deal with difficult behaviours. Books, television programs and the Internet make most of the information readily available but pull parents in multiple directions.  Many of these approaches are appealing in the ease of their application but very often lead to disappointing results.

Challenging behaviours such as temper tantrums, defiance, anxiety and aggression, are all ways children are in fact communicating with us. The way they communicate however leaves adults struggling to understand and respond in the way they need.  As a result many parents end up feeling frustrated, ineffective, hopeless or distanced from their child.  The most powerful parenting tool you have is often the most ignored, minimized or forgotten one: your day-to-day interactions with your child.

Understanding your child, impacts your parenting in a big way.  Learn how these day-to-day interactions can have an impact on your child’s behaviours.

Click here to view Parenting in Today's World - ROCK 2010

Please register by email at  CLOAKING

Before Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Submitted by Kirsten Dougherty, Director of Foundation Operations, May 27, 2010

The Youth Aiding Youth program at ROCK is currently involved with a provincial initiative called The New Mentality. It is a youth driven initiative, created through Children’s Mental Health Ontario and The Centre of Excellence at CHEO. Several youth led initiatives have been developed in different communities throughout the province of Ontario. The purpose of the project is to have youth create, plan and implement projects that would reduce stigma and increase awareness of child and youth mental health issues.

Youth Aiding Youth has been with the project since it began and we are now entering our third year of involvement with The New Mentality. In the past, the youth in Halton developed a magazine. The magazine had articles, written by teens in our community who had mental health concerns. It showed the struggles and fears that these people had to deal with in the past and how they have learned to deal with their mental health issues today. This year the youth have decided that they would like to develop a conference for youth in Halton. At the conference the main theme will be to encourage the youth to start their own mental health awareness projects in their high schools. This conference is still in the planning stages, however we are very excited to get this off the ground in the Spring of 2010.

If you would like to have more information about this project, please feel free to contact Kelly Giuliani at 905-639-2800 ext 224 or at CLOAKING or contact The New Mentality Halton

Submitted by Kelly Giuliani, Supervisor Youth Aiding Youth, ROCK March 4, 2010