Summer has been such a whirlwind at Nancy's House! For 9 weeks, we had Charis, a Community and Social Services Worker, with us. She was a wonderful addition to our team and worked closely with our residents.
We asked her to share with everyone about the adventures she participated in with residents from Nancy’s House. Here’s what she has to say!
Nancy's House Update from Charis
Hi everyone!
I have been really enjoying my time at Restorations this summer! A main part of my role has been to plan activities for the Nancy’s House residents. As Restorations seeks to provide holistic care, we wanted to plan a summer that helped support mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing—including plenty of time for fun and play!
Every week, we planned a fun activity to do on Fridays. Our Fun Friday activities included:
3 beach days, complete with kayaking, sand toys, lots of relaxing, and good food
A day with Hazel, my goldendoodle, including playing with a new ball and taking her to the beach
An outing to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, where we saw lots of beautiful plants and nature
A pottery class, where we were each able to handbuild a piece of pottery
An outing to Niagara Falls to visit the Butterfly Conservatory and see the falls (of course!)
A trip to Wild Waterworks to finish an amazing summer!
In addition to the Fun Fridays, I also facilitated weekly chats each Thursday afternoon covering topics related to mental health and wellbeing. We talked about stress management, focusing on simple tools and techniques to calm our bodies and remain grounded. We looked at how to challenge our negative thoughts and show ourselves self-compassion when those thoughts feel true, along with creating a self-soothing toolkit to help us treat ourselves with kindness in hard moments. We also spent time identifying our personal strengths and values and looking at goals and hopes for the future. I have been so blessed by my time this summer and am so thankful for this opportunity!
