Angela Hutchinson—Program Manager, Brenda‘s House Leads Training at November General Meeting

Angela Hutchinson, Program Manager, Brenda‘s House, Children‘s Cottage Society, was our guest speaker at the November General Meeting.  Brenda‘s House is a re-housing program with a sheltering component aimed at moving families toward independence and their own sustainable housing. The JLC is partnered with the Children‘s Cottage Society to provide developmentally appropriate activities for the children in residence at Brenda‘s House through our
'Treasure Trunk" activities, which target nutrition and healthy eating, literacy, music and movement and the arts.

Angela spoke to JLC members about Brenda‘s House and its goal of providing developmentally appropriate activities to their children and modeling for parents on how to deliver these activities. She stressed the important role that the JLC "Treasure Trunk" program plays in helping Brenda‘s House achieve its goals and how it is helping to nurture and enrich the development of the children.

In the second part of her presentation, Angela provided members with sensitivity training and trauma informed practice. The training was aimed at helping volunteers understand the children at Brenda‘s House and how their parent and family backgrounds are the context for their behaviour. She provided examples of interpersonal and external personal trauma and discussed complex trauma.

JLC members learned about the common signs of trauma in children, the triggers that can cause outward manifestation of trauma-induced behaviour, and helpful hints on how to deal with the children. Angela further outlined the impact of working with trauma survivors and stressed the importance of self-care in one‘s personal responses to working with trauma survivors.

(Angela earned her BA degree in International Development from the University of Guelph and her Masters of Social Work from the University of Calgary.)