Community Care Centre to focus on health and well being of students
The Community Action Centre is transforming its structure and mission and a whole new service will be beginning in this fall semester for the students of George Brown College.
A new Student Association service called the Community Care Centre will focus on the health and well-being of students while the Community Action Centre (CAC) will focus on campaigns, research, lobbying and advocacy that affect students.
Some examples of the Community Action Centre’s plans are the campaign for free education and highlighting student issues in the upcoming federal election this fall.
The Dialog is also published by the Student Association.
“The CAC still exists, it remains the same but the scale might look different,” said Community Action Centre Co-ordinator Michelle Pettis. “The grand scale of things we might be able to do or the number of campaigns we launch, all that still exists but it will be scaled accordingly to the funding.”
This fall the fee that funds the Community Action Centre is optional due to new regulations from the provincial government.
The Community Care Centre offers peer support, cereal bar parties, book groups and care days which may help students break their social isolation.
The Community Care Centre is also a physical space that helps students see the college in a different way, a place where your needs are addressed and your identities are celebrated said Pettis.
“Our space may be the first space they use their chosen name or pronouns or express their gender in whatever ways they want,” they said. “Those are beautiful moments to know the people can access our spaces in those ways.”
If members of marginalized groups want to seek emotional support, they can access the Community Care Centre at Casa Loma, and St. James campus during the school week. Students can also connect with the staff in a variety of ways to get help or advice.
“If you need a space that’s different from the rest of the college where the walls are vibrating with colour and art, or if you just need a sense of quiet refuge, find our physical spaces,” said Pettis.
They said that students can carry around their struggles before they even get to the college.
“Students are overburdened with emotional fatigue or burnouts, it’s micro-aggressions and racism that they face every day,” said Pettis. “When they come into our space, they can talk about it, be listened to and believed in their experiences.”
For the fall term, the Community Care Centre is planning workshops focusing on consent, harm reduction, self-care, mutual-care and collective-care. They are also providing suicide intervention training for students.
The centre has also menstrual supplies, pregnancy tests and testosterone kits to make their days a lot easier by providing them.
“We are glad that we are a magical spot to for them to tap into,” said Pettis. “Come, tap into the magic early and often!”
