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COMMUNITY EDUCATION SERVICE
September 2025
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OPEN HERE for optimal viewing
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Hello!
We’re excited to reconnect with you through the CES newsletter! As always, our goal is to support families and caregivers with trusted, accessible mental health and wellness information.
Please help us spread the word - share our newsletter and presentation posters with your networks, schools, and communities. Your support helps us reach those who need it most.
CES presentations are FREE
They qualify as Cat B learning credits
Not all presentations are recorded or include handouts
Attendance certificates are always emailed within 3 days
Have a topic you’d like us to cover? We’d love to hear from you! Send your suggestions to ces@recoveryalberta.ca.
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Through your participation, you agree that you will not save content, record content, share, or post photos from any presentation without prior permission. Doing so will result in you being removed from the session.
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CASA Mental Health
(Child and Adolescent Services for All)
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Children and youth in the Calgary area are one step closer to receiving comprehensive trauma treatment.
CASA is officially accepting referrals for its Trauma program which launches Aug 11. The program treats symptoms by nurturing connection and safety in the caregiver-child relationship.
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At the P.A.I.N.S Lab, we focus on pediatric pain, anesthesia, imaging, and neurodevelopmental science.
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Led by Principal Investigator, Dr. Jillian Miller, the P.A.I.N.S lab uses state-of-the-art neuroimaging and experimental techniques to understand the effects of pain and anesthesia on the developing brain.
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If you missed it, check out this week's episode of Parents of the Year where my husband and I talk about all things parenting. (Warning: I cry a lot on this podcast!) Listen in on your favourite podcast channel!
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The Resilience Scale: A Tool for change
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Resilience is the ability to adapt and remain healthy in the face of adversity and can be strengthened or weakened over time in response to our experiences.
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The Resilience Scale tool developed by the Palix Foundation (Alberta Family Wellness Initiative) helps to illustrate how three factors interact to determine resilience: adversities, positive supports, and acquired skills and abilities.
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Thursday Sept 18
Noon - 1:30 pm
Big Feelings, Calm Tools: Emotion Regulation Across Ages: Helping Children and Teens Build Calm and Resilience
Shannon Kelly, Registered Psychologist (R. Psych.)
Creative Sky Psychology
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With Creative Sky Psychology, participants will gain an understanding of how emotion regulation develops in children and teens, and how parents and caregivers can best support each stage. Attendees will leave with practical strategies they can apply to help young people manage big feelings with confidence.
Participants will learn:
• The developmental differences in how children vs. teens regulate emotions
• Practical strategies for calming and co-regulating with children
• Autonomy-building tools to help teens take ownership of their coping skills
• How caregivers can model healthy emotional regulation at any age
• Simple, effective practices to strengthen emotional resilience at home
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Monday Sept 22
Noon - 1:30 pm
Collective Action to Prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) and Promoting Healing in Youth Growing up with Parental Substance Use Challenges
Agnes Chen, Registered Nurse, Founder and Executive Director, Starlings Community
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After this session, participants will be able to:
1. Understand ACEs in the context of parental substance use
2. Acknowledge structural and systemic contributors to adversity in youth
3. Identify ways the community can prevent ACEs and enable recovery and healing in youth
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Monday Sept 22
6:30 - 8:30 pm
Sexual Exploitation 101 for Natural Supports
Bree McClellan BCST, CYCC (Pronouns: She/Her) Coordinator, COPE Program
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Participants will
• Increase their awareness of sexual exploitation within Calgary and area while learning how to identify risks associated with sexual exploitation in the community and online.
• Explore risk factors and unmet needs of youth through developing a greater understanding of the Stages of Grooming.
• Engage in a discussion around prevention/early intervention-based safety strategies, resources and supports available to reduce and respond to sexual exploitation risk in our communities.
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Tues Sept 23
6:30 - 8 pm
Unmasking ADHD in Girls: Insights, Strategies, and Next Steps
Dr. Alethea Heudes, Registered Psychologist, Heudes Child Psychology and Consulting
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This presentation explores how ADHD can present differently in girls - often overlooked or misunderstood - and how it impacts their day-to-day lives. Participants will leave with strategies, tools, and guidance on next steps for seeking a diagnosis and/or accessing support.
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Wed Sept 24
1 - 3 pm
Can We Talk: Sexual Health and Parenting
Diana Wark (She/Her), Parent Program Coordinator for Centre for Sexuality
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Join us for an interactive workshop to learn how to navigate those sometimes awkward but essential conversations that foster well-being, healthy relationships and informed decision-making. We empower parents with knowledge, skills and confidence to engage in open, honest and supportive conversations about sexuality and sexual health with their children.
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This session provides tools to clarify and talk about family values around sexuality and sexual health, explore the role of parents and schools in sexual health education and discuss the concept of sexuality wholistically.
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Thurs Sept 25
Noon - 1:30 pm
Navigating Technology with our Youth
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Andrea Halwas, BA, MFA, PhD, REACE, Registered Expressive Arts Therapy Consultant, Associate Therapist & Educational Coordinator at Juno House
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In this 1.5 hour presentation, we will discuss the role of technology and today’s youth. The message of this presentation is not only based on technology, but also about a child’s healthy brain development and the necessary parenting/caregiver role in creating healthy, emotional, regulated, and integrated brains. This presentation will address the underpinning of a child’s emotional brain development and how to grow it, as well as how technology can dangerously hijack this.
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We believe that talking does not grow neurons; experience grows neurons.
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This workshop is designed to give attendees the skills to become their child’s emotional coach. The workshop will provide participants with:
• An understanding of the basic neuroscience behind healthy brain development,
• The dangers of technology for healthy brain development,
• Technology use rules that will help your child
• When building healthy brains, how to identify emotions in your child/student, and
• How to become your child’s/student’s emotional coach in only five steps and in that, build a resilient child.
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The presentation is facilitated by a therapist from Juno House who has years of both clinical and facilitating experience. Juno House was founded in 2008 as a Centre of Excellence for adolescent girls and young women who are experiencing anxiety-based mental health issues of self harm, obsessive compulsive disorders, depression and eating disorders.
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Researchers at the P.A.I.N.S lab located at the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary want to understand how the brain responds to pain RESEARCH IS ALWAYS VOLUNTARY!This study might be a good fit for you if:- you are between the ages of 14 to 18 years- you are healthy and fluent in English.
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Contact: Dr. Jillian Miller at 403-955-5768 or info@painslab.ca
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Community Health Promotion Services (CHPS) aims to prevent and reduce harms related to substance misuse and mental health disorders by maximizing the well-being of children, adolescents and families. Our team works in the Calgary Zone as a part of Recovery Alberta's Child & Adolescent Addiction, Mental Health & Psychiatry Programs (CAAMHPP).
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