Speaking Topics:
• Manage your Stress with Humour!
• I do it my Way! - Learning strategies for work and school.
• Is your Message Clear?
• The Art of Juggling Partnerships - Community Partnerships are Work, but Boy do they Work!

Manage your Stress with Humour!
Stress is a part of our lives and is needed to activate growth and learning. How we handle the stress is what determines the effects on our health and how we react to people and events in our lives. Each individual has strategies they use to handle the stressors, which can include juggling, jumping out of airplanes or running 5k a day. These activities, however, are not for everyone. Humour has many flavours and all of us can tap into one or all of those flavours as a strategy to good health and creating a healthy work or personal environment. Sue will lead participants through a session that deals with the etiquette of humour, beginner and advanced humour skills and strategies and the benefits of humour to individuals or groups. A combination of lecture and interactive activities is used to build on the learning strengths of the participant and to make it relevant to the members of the group. A practical handout is included.
Available in seminar format, ½ day

I do it my Way! Learning strategies for work and school.
How we learn has major impact on our success in a given environment. Many qualified employees are hired to work in a particular situation and end up failing. They are unable to learn the material or can not keep up to the job demands. This translates into unnecessary job turnover, unhappy employees and unhappy employers. Each of us has strengths and we have preferences to how we learn. This workshop will look at learning preferences and how an employer can use this information to help them retain, motivate and train employees, provide better customer service and a safer work environment. This workshop can be adapted to look at learning in the home, school and other environments. The information is presented in a variety of interactive activities, presentation and discussion. A practical handout is included with the presentation.
Time Required: full day, half day – Tailored meet audience need.

Is Your Message Clear?
The written and oral word is used to sell, persuade, educate and entertain but without the research and care that is needed to ensure the message is understood; a business or organization can face conflict, poor customer service and unsafe work environments. Sue’s workshop introduces the concept and value of plain language, and practical tips to implement this concept in personal and organizational communications. Many professional and business people use language and methods that are ineffective because the people they are trying to reach can not read the information or do not understand the words. “ 3 million adult Canadians lack the very basic skills needed to adequately meet the demands of the workplace, and another 4 million have some difficulty with everyday reading tasks.” The workshops can be designed to look at plain language in general and how it relates to good communication or specific tools used by an organization can be examined and improved. A practical handout is included with the presentation.
Testimonials
- It is a lot harder to write then I thought. Using plain language is not simple.
- Now I know why I didn’t get those forms back. I’ll definitely change some of my ways when talking to my clients.

The Art of Juggling Partnerships
Learn how to juggle the pieces of a partnership through the actual act of juggling. Sue learned to juggle during her time as a clown and uses this technique to relate it to the community development process of creating partnerships. Collaboration is often a requirement from funders when accessing funding and resources. The team work developed through collaboration can provide credibility, greater financial and human resources and emotional support to staff and volunteers, which can lead to quality programs/projects and a stronger community. It can also be an agency or client’s worst nightmare unless a process is followed that ensures a plan is in place with communication lines open. Sue shares first hand knowledge and experience that will lead participants through a method to first determine which partnerships are viable and needed to proceed with a project. And secondly once the partners are identified how to create and sustain the partnership. Sue uses a combination of lecture and interactive activities that build on the learning strengths of the participant and are relevant to the members of the group. A practical handout is included.

Available in seminar or workshop format, ½ day to a full day.

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Clients Have Said:

"Very dynamic presentation. Thanks for the resource books that were present. Also the handouts were wonderful."

"Fun . . . excellent sharing."

"Thank you for the ideas and knowledge. I will definitely change some of the things I do in the classroom."

"Great exercise in creative thinking and learning. Far more then I expected. (more then juggling)"

"Thank you for incorporating many activities in your presentation. It sure makes it more fun, and it is easier to sustain learner's attention."

"The juggling was fun and I really enjoyed this session."

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Sample Client List:

• Centre for Family Literacy
• Oilfields Hospital
• Headwaters Health Authority
• First Nations Conference
• Public Health Association

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