The Volunteer Dental Outreach opened, and like other programs and services started and divested by SIRCH, continued to impact the community in very important ways. SIRCH and HHHS formally collaborated to pilot a new model of “residential” Hospice area in the hospital. A room was designated as a Hospice room and was supported by teams […]
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SIRCH facilitated community planning around a model of “residential” Hospice that had SIRCH Hospice volunteers supporting Hospice beds at HHHS. Hike for Hospice and ‘In SIRCH of a Perfect Christmas’ fundraisers were focused on raising money for Community Hospice.
SIRCH collaborated with a group of dental professionals and others to incubate the Volunteer Dental Outreach, which provided free dental care to low income adults in Haliburton County.
SIRCH piloted a cottage craft industry, called “Sew Resourceful” which increased employability skills and gave trainees a way to increase their income.
A research report, done as part of the Central East Hospice and Palliative Care Network, recommended an innovative model of residential hospice care for Haliburton. This model had SIRCH delivering Community Hospice as well as provided volunteers to four designated Hospice Rooms at HHHS. Plans began.
School’s Cool was divested from SIRCH October 1, 2009 and School’s Cool became its own business. A distribution agreement with an international distributor, FlagHouse Inc., was signed with School’s Cool Inc. moving more to training and product development, and FlagHouse taking on marketing and sales across North America. Unfortunately, FlagHouse was based in the U.S. and the recession forced it to pull back its resources shortly after the agreement is signed.
SIRCH dropped the “and Consulting” from its name and became SIRCH Community Services once again.
The Healthy Children Program was created under the CAPC umbrella in response to concerns about nutrition and food security. It included several innovative activities: a Chef of the Month Challenge (where chefs tried to cook for a family of four for a day on $6.99 – the amount that many CAPC families had to live on); and a highly successful Community Kitchen where volunteers made nutritious meals that were given out free.
Hundreds of people from every province and territory had been trained as School’s Cool Instructors! The training had always needed to be done on-site, which meant considerable time and travel. For the first time, SIRCH developed and piloted an online training program. Research, done by Dr. Susan Chuang of Guelph University, based on over 3,000 children who had taken the School’s Cool program (from various provinces), validated results which showed the program increased children’s development in math, language, self-help, social and psychological skills by an average of 50 weeks.
SIRCH co-sponsored a two day conference in Peterborough on Aboriginal issues with Nimlewaquom Learning Centre.
The Ministry of Education funded the translation of School’s Cool, which had been revised and updated, into French. Province-wide funding was received from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to assess the School’s Cool in Kindergarten model.
SIRCH Consulting developed and produced “Impact Statements” profiling CAPC & CPNP project issues (healthy weights, injury prevention, mental health etc), which were distributed nationally.
The Community Hospice Program received a much-needed infusion of funding. Hospice partnered with the Alzheimer Society of Peterborough and Area to provide dementia supports in the County. SIRCH helped to found and organize the Central East Hospice Network.
SIRCH Consulting developed a curriculum on Creating Resiliency in Vulnerable Children for a mental health agency in Muskoka. The Consulting Division was also asked to evaluate a CPNP program in Peterborough.
The SIRCH Executive Director, who was co-chair of the Ontario Coalition of CAPC & CPNP Projects helped co-found the National Network for CAPC and CPNP. This network allowed programs from all across the country to communicate, share best practices and raise the profile of the work of CAPC & CPNP. Previous to this there had been no mechanism in place.
The much anticipated Fourth Annual School’s Cool Conference was held, with Charles Coffey as our Keynote speaker.
School’s Cool was piloted as part of the kindergarten curriculum in the Trillium Lakelands District School Board. There were pros and cons to incorporating it as part of kindergarten rather than as a summer program – many teachers said it allowed them to know the children in their classroom by December at a level that they normally wouldn’t reach until June.
SIRCH authored “Raising the Bar,” a report for the Ontario Coalition of CAPC & CPNP Projects. The report was presented to the federal government.
The Telecare Distress Line finally closed as many other help lines were now available.
SIRCH Consulting also worked with Trillium Lakelands District School Board to develop and pilot a program to reduce girl bullying in Grade 8. Power, Popularity & Peers used positive local female role models throughout a semester to work with teams of girls as they prepared a presentation to younger girls on bullying.
SIRCH Consulting provided evaluation services for 52 School’s Cool programs across Ontario & Manitoba. The Third Annual School’s Cool Conference was held in Haliburton.
SIRCH also assisted an entrepreneur in Niagara to develop a board game to assist pre-teens and teens to understand the complicated factors that lead up to teen pregnancy.
More resources were developed in affiliation with CAPC: “Connect With Your Baby” (to help parents interact with and intellectually stimulate their infants, and “Getting Ready for K” (to help parents prepare children for the entry into kindergarten). SIRCH also provided these manuals and training to other organizations across Ontario.
SIRCH held the Second Annual School’s Cool Conference, attended by over 100 people who were interested in, or delivering School’s Cool programs in their own areas.