Soroptimist International of Central Alberta supports CASASC

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The Central Alberta Sexual Assault Support Centre (CASASC) recently received a donation from Soroptimist International of Central Alberta.

CASASC Communications Specialist Sarah Maetche (left) accepted the $2,150 donation from a Soroptimist representative along with other receiving organizations on Thursday, June 25.

The funds were generated from the Vagina Monologues event held in February. The Soroptimists raised a total of $17,200 and channeled the funds to seven organizations that support women and girls in the central Alberta region.

5th Annual Central Alberta Yogathon – the Virtual Experience

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Roll out your mat for a great cause May 23rd! FREE!

Sat, 23 May 2020
8:30 AM – 4:30 PM MDT
FREE

The Rotary Club of Red Deer Sunrise presents the 5th Annual Central Alberta Yogathon – the Virtual Experience, in support of the 35th Anniversary of Central Alberta Sexual Assault Support Centre providing education and support to individuals, families & communities throughout Central Alberta.

Connect with Central Albertans for a powerful day of mindful movement, wellness & rejuvenation. a Registration is FREE and open to people of all ages and abilities . Create your own experience as you choose from 10 different yoga & yoga-related sessions, led by certified instructors. The event also features short fitness demos, wellness tips and a virtual wellness trade show. The celebration kicks off at 8:30 AM, and closes with a sound bath meditation at 4:30 PM.

Here is how it will work:

Once the schedule is confirmed, you will be emailed with the link to choose your sessions. Sessions include Power Flow, Gentle Flow, Vinyasa, Hatha, Yin, Fusion and even some yoga for the little ones.

  1. Register
  2. Wait for the schedule choices link in your email to choose your Virtual Yogathon Experience
  3. Sign in on line May 23rd
  4. Enjoy!
REGISTER
 

Body Boundaries: No Secrets Mini-edu Session

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Today I am going to be talking about body boundaries; what it means and how to help yourself and others learn about yours and their body “bubble.”

  • A body boundary is an invisible and personal set of rules that define what is a ‘good’ touch and a ‘bad’ touch and the types and amount of touching the child is comfortable with. These boundaries are important because they help with defining the ‘self’.

We all have a body bubble and most of the time we are not aware how big out bubble is. Some people’s body bubble is big and if you’re across the room from them, we still may be in their space. Some people have smaller bubbles where you can come close to them and they are not bothered.

Your bubble changes with every situation that you are in. For example, when you are sitting in your desk at school, your bubble has to be a bit smaller to accommodate the class size and other desks. But when you are standing up and going to the library, your bubble will get a bit bigger. If someone in the hall runs up to you and gives you a hug without asking, they popped your bubble and you may have felt very uncomfortable that that person has broken your personal bubble. Sometimes we don’t even realize we have moved into someone’s space.

The great thing about this is if someone is looking uncomfortable around you, or you’re in their space but they haven’t said anything, their body may be telling you to leave their space. There are a few signals you can look for. They may be red in the face, make no eye contact, their body is moving away from you, they are quiet or nervous, maybe an awkward laugh comes out.

As humans, we have to take queues from people’s body language as well as their words. There are people out there that cannot communicate verbally, and they have to rely on their body language to get by. So, as teachers and parents, we have to teach students how to read body language

I want everyone to know, you have the right to your body and nobody else. You have the right to say no to someone coming into your personal space. You are allowed to explain that you have a body bubble. “My Body is My body and Nobody else’s”

This bring me back to our safe and unsafe touches. No one is allowed to touch you. Remember your body is your body.

Here at CASASC, we will always believe you. Call, text or webchat with us on our help line and we can help you.

Help line:
1-866-956-1099

Next week we will be talking body parts.

Safety Network: No Secrets Mini-edu Session

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Today I am going to be talking to you about what a safety network is and how we can have one in our circle. Everyone needs a safety network in their life. It may not make be obvious until we are in need of it and those people. Adults have them and kids of all ages need to have one too. Today I am going to teach you about how to build a safety network.

A safety network is a group of people that you can trust and go to, whatever the situation is. They will not judge you and they will get the help that you need right away.

I am going to give you three categories of safety networks. I say three because three is a good number to remember but if you have more, you can add them as you go.

What I like to do in my classroom is to have everyone close their eyes and put their heads down. First, I want everyone to take a big belly breath in and out and get relaxed. If there is nothing you take away from this, I would tell you this is what I want you to take away:

First, I want you to think of someone who is safe and trusted in your FAMILY.

This does not always mean mom and dad because sometimes mom and dad are not always our trusted person. Maybe it’s an older cousin, grandma or grandpa, an auntie or uncle or an older sibling. This person is someone who you can go to for anything.

Second, I want you to think of someone who is safe and trusted at SCHOOL. An adult at school that you can go to and they will believe you if you told them something uncomfortable. If you don’t have a trusted adult at school maybe, it’s your best friend BUT this friend has to be able to be brave and go and tell an adult for you. I say an adult because they can get you the proper help that you need.

Lastly, I want you to think of someone who is safe and trusted in your COMMUNITY. Remember this person needs to be trusted to you and to others. Think of community helpers like the police, fire, ambulance, coaches or doctors.

With a safety network, it’s important to remember that sometimes the person we choose for one, may not always believe us. For example, if you choose your grandpa and he did not believe you, do you stop telling? No, you go to the next person and if that person does not believe you, you keep going in your network until someone believes you. Sometimes you have to tell your story more than once for someone to believe you. I promise you that where I work, we will always believe you if you tell us someone is hurting you or someone around you.

Please make sure in your safety network that the people that you have are trusted and will help in any way they can. You can have more than one person in each category to make sure if you need to go back to that categories you have someone else to tell.

Here at CASASC, we will always believe you. Call, text or webchat with us on our help line and we can help you.

Help line:
1-866-956-1099

Next week we will be talking about body boundaries.

Safe and Unsafe Secrets: No Secrets Mini-edu Session

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What is a secret: Something that is kept or meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others.

You never keep a secret about an ouch touch or a private touch, even if the person tells me they will hurt me, or someone close to me. I still need to tell someone close to me who can help me stay safe.

There are two types secrets: a safe secret and an unsafe secret.

Example of a safe secret: If I told your teacher I was baking your class chocolate chip cookies and asked them to keep it a secret. This is a safe secret because no one is getting hurt in the scenario. It’s safe for your teacher to keep and if the teacher wants to tell she can, and it won’t hurt anyone.

Example of an unsafe secret: If you were having a shower and a family member comes into the bathroom and strips naked and comes into the shower with you. Maybe they start touching your bathing suit area. They then tell you that it’s our little secret and if you tell, I will take away your phone and I will hurt you if you tell. This is an unsafe secret for many reasons.

First of all, no one should be touching you anywhere, especially in your bathing suit area. No one should be saying it’s our secret when they touch you like that, and you have the right to say no and the right to your privacy. This type of secret you need to tell, no matter what the person says. Most likely they will not hurt you if you tell the right people right away.

I know and I understand that it’s hard to tell an adult that someone has touched you and gave you an unsafe secret, but in this kind of situation, you need to tell right away. Sometimes we might not be able to tell right away. You may need to take a couple days to get the courage to tell, but you need to tell sooner rather than later so that we can help you.

Make sure you find someone who will believe you and who can get you help. Here at CASASC, we will always believe you. Call, text or webchat with us on our help line and we can help you.

Help line:
1-866-956-1099

Next week we will be talking about our safety network, the people that you trust and who you can tell.

 

Safe and Unsafe Touches: No Secrets Mini-edu Session

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This is a weekly educational series we are launching for parents, educators + caregivers to help keep our kids safe. The following info is provided from Bailey of our No Secrets education team. While this would be typically be presented in the classroom, we have adapted it for social media purposes:

Safe and Unsafe Touches

Today we are going talk about safe and unsafe touches.
You’re the boss of your body and you can decide who and when someone can or cannot touch you. Your body is your body and no body’s else.

There are three types of touches that I am going to be talking about today:
-Safe touch
-Ouch touch
-Private touch

Safe Touch: A safe touch is a touch that is wanted and fun. We like to give and receive these types of touches. Even with these types of touches, we still need to ask first.

Examples of safe touches:
o High five
o Fist pump
o Hug
o Handshake

Ouch Touch: An ouch touch is a touch that is unwanted and hurts. Unfortunately everyone has received an ouch touch at some point in their life. Think before you act.

Examples of Ouch touches:
o Slapping
o Pushing
o Biting
o Hair pulling

Private Touch: A private touch are touches to your private parts (Bathing suit area). This touch is unwanted and is bad. No one should be touching your private parts.

Examples of private touch:
o Breast
o Vagina
o Penis

The only person that is allowed to look and or touch to keep you healthy is your doctor. Your doctor has to ask first to look and to touch. If you are younger than 16 sometimes you have to have an older adult in the room with you. But its ok to ask for privacy.

Three-word rule:
No one should look at
No one should touch
and
No one should take a picture of your private parts.

Remember your body is your body and no one else’s. No one should come up to you and touch you unsafely without your consent. Even when someone wants a hug they still have to ask or their body language will ask for them. Please respect your body and everyone else’s body around you.

Next week we are going to talk about safe and unsafe secrets.

*Images from book Bailey uses in the classroom

No Secrets program receives grant from Urban Spirits

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The Rotary Club of Red Deer Urban Spirits has granted $1,000 to the No Secrets education program.

CASASC Executive Director Patricia Arango accepted the grant from Rotary representatives along with other receiving organizations on Feb. 4.

No Secrets is a personal safety program for children Kindergarten to Grade 8 with a focus on child sexual abuse prevention. No Secrets provides a forum from which children can discuss safe and unsafe touching, body parts including private areas, feelings and who you can tell.

In 2019 No Secrets was presented to 13,781 students across Central Alberta. It was presented in 39 schools across 20 unique communities.

Thank you to Rotary Urban Spirits for supporting this important prevention-based program in our community

Photo credit: The Rotary Club of Red Deer Urban Spirits

 

Highland Green Shoppers Drug Mart campaign raises funds for CASASC

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A Red Deer area Shoppers Drug Mart store raised over $1,500 in support of the Central Alberta Sexual Assault Support Centre (CASASC).

Part of the Growing Women’s Health campaign, throughout the fall, customers could donate to the campaign in store, with donations going directly to CASASC to support those affected by sexual violence.

Each fall, the campaign provides customers with the opportunity to purchase and personalize a Growing Women’s Health icon, which are prominently displayed on the Growing Women’s Health tree in all participating stores.

The Growing Women’s Health campaign is held across Canada and is one of the leading partnership programs of the SHOPPERS LOVE. YOU. platform. National in scope, yet locally-based, the annual Growing Women’s Health campaign offers patients, customers and employees the opportunity to donate directly to the organizations that make a difference in their own communities.

Shoppers Drug Mart Highland Green, located in north Red Deer, raised $1,598 in donations for CASASC.

Since 2002, the Growing Women’s Health campaign has raised more than $35 million for Canadian health charities. In 2019, over 500 women’s health charities across Canada will benefit from the campaign’s proceeds with 100 per cent of funds staying in the community where they are raised.

The importance of self-care

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CASASC is your safe place. No matter where you are in your healing journey, we are here to support you along the way. Our goal – to empower you on your journey towards healing.

Self-care is an important part of the healing process and can help make the impacts of trauma more manageable. According to Raphailia Michael “self-care is any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health. Although it’s a simple concept in theory, it’s something we very often overlook. Good self-care is key to improved mood and reduced anxiety. It’s also key to a good relationship with oneself and others.”

In this, we would like to introduce a new series – #Theimportanceofselfcare

Over the next month, we will be featuring a daily self-care tip on our social media channels. This is to support all our journeys toward healing.

NEW group – Intro to mentalization

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Join us for this psycho-educational group that offers an introduction to mentalization.

This mentalization-based group is designed for individuals that come from broken attachments, are in unhealthy peer attachments and have a history of trauma, sexual abuse and a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD).

Mentalization-based therapy (MBT) is a specific type of psychotherapy designed to help people with BPD. Its focus is helping people to differentiate and separate out their own thoughts and feelings from those around them.

 

What are the aims of MBT?

-MBT aims to improve a person’s ability to mentalize in close relationships.

-Having improved mentalizing ability means:

-Experiencing a more stable sense of who you feel you are

-Being less likely to let emotions get the better of you

-When emotions do get the better of you, you are able to regain your composure more quickly

This should mean that you become stronger emotionally, engage in harmful behaviours less, are less likely to get into interpersonal conflicts, and are better able to deal with any conflicts that do arise.

 

How does MBT help you improve your mentalizing?

To be good at something, you need to practice it. In the MBT program, participants can practice mentalizing skills together with the therapist and other group members.

 

How is MBT structured?

The MBT program consists of:

  1. Mentalization-based problem formulation
  2. Crisis plans
  3. Psychoeducational group therapy: 12 weekly sessions, each 1.5 hours-long
  4. Individual therapy: once a week for around 18 months
  5. Group therapy: weekly sessions of 1.5 hours for around 18 months
  6. Possible addition of art therapy
  7. Appointment(s) with psychiatrist for relevant prescriptions if needed
  8. Collaboration with other agencies on work-related support

 

What does the therapist do in MBT?

MBT therapists may provide advice directly, but they mainly try to think and reflect with you about problems to help you gradually develop your own solutions. This means taking on a curious and ‘not-knowing’ attitude about yourself and others – other patients in the group and people in your everyday life – particularly about experiences, thoughts and feelings.

 

What does the patient do in MBT?

-To make good use of treatment, patients are encouraged to:

-Talk about events from their own lives, especially recent events that have been stressful

-Try to understand more about these events, using a curious, open and ‘not-knowing’ attitude

-Allow other group members to take part in this process by exploring their own problems and other people’s problems in the same way

-Work with the therapist and the other group members in the same way, to understand events that happen within the group

-Try to develop a constructive relationship with the group members and the therapist

As part of the program, patients are encouraged not to have contact between each other outside of the therapy sessions. If they do so, they should try to talk about these contacts in the therapy sessions.

 

What else do I need to know?

The individual and group therapists meet regularly and discuss how therapy is going.

The group therapist does not usually mention in the group anything he or she has discussed with patients in individual sessions. You, the patient, get to choose what you want to talk about, and when.

However, sometimes the group therapist can address specific serious topics directly, even if the patient does not want to talk about them. For instance, these may relate to violence or threats, serious breaches of the treatment contract, or suicide attempts.

 

The group is facilitated by Michelle Moger and CASASC therapists.

Find out more info and/or to reserve your spot email casasc@casasc.ca or call 403-340-1124.