Marymound Launches New Training Centre

30 May, 2023 | Marymound

After years of preparation and a pandemic-related delay, the Marymound Training Centre has launched and is already offering impactful education opportunities to folks working in the social services field.

“It’s very important for us to offer professional opportunities to our staff,” explains Deanne Edwards, Training/Human Resources Coordinator at Marymound. “We sent out a survey to staff asking them what they wanted to learn about and once we had the results, we dug deep on topics like addictions, suicide intervention and youth’s needs. Our programming is a direct reflection of what our staff need to thrive and serve youth best.”

While Marymound created the training centre to serve the needs of its’ staff, all the sessions being offered are available to the public. “The biggest piece of creating a centre like this is that it gives us the opportunity to train our own staff to a higher level,” Edwards explains. “We’re bringing in external trainers, and by opening it up to the public, we’re creating awareness about who we are and what we do, but also generating revenue so that more of our staff can attend this type of training at no charge.”

Marymound has been hosting annual conferences for nearly a decade and has found great success with their trauma-informed approaches. The training centre is building on that foundational work by creating more opportunities to learn throughout the year. “We’ll be offering lots of workshops that are designed for smaller groups,” continues Edwards. “Especially in our Indigenous Knowledge workshops, where our elders prefer smaller groups which offer a safer environment and more inclusion.”

Upcoming June workshops include Healing Trauma and Loss; Introduction to Harm Reduction and How Systems Create Harm; and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST). A total of six workshops were offered in May and June of 2023.

Those sessions are just the beginning for the training centre. “We have a training room available to be used and are able to customize training for folks if it’s requested,” shares Edwards. “We’re also looking to the future when we’ll hopefully be able to offer lunches and catering. There are a lot of possibilities ahead.”

Edwards shares that while many people who receive services at Marymound have deep levels of trauma, they’re not the only ones to be impacted. “Our staff, especially, need to learn about how trauma affects us all, even as service providers,” she says. “As an organisation, we’re forever evolving in terms of research and content for important areas of service. We want to keep doing better for staff and for our participants.”

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To learn more about the Training Centre, please click here.