York Hills Centre for Children, Youth and Families

Your Voice Matters Community Consultation and Feedback
2025-05-05 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Toronto)
Designing a Mental Health Centre Rooted in Belonging -Hosted by: Health Commons and York Hills Family Advisory Committee

Your Voice Matters Community Consultation and Feedback: Designing a Mental Health Centre Rooted in BelongingHosted by: Health Commons and York Hills Family Advisory Committee
This community meeting is open to residents of York Region and South Simcoe.
The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) York Region and South Simcoe is leading the development of a Community Mental Health Centre – a 24/7 resource for people experiencing a mental health or addictions crisis. The Centre is intended to be a safe transition space, a moment in time to de-escalate and to support individuals and families experiencing a crisis, and to refer them to external services following their stay at the Centre. People may be referred to the Centre by primary care practitioners, emergency responders, by a community organization, or they may self-refer (walk-in). We would like to invite you to participate in a conversation about the service design and experience at this Centre, especially what it means to you for this Centre to be a place that inspires a sense of belonging for clients and their caregivers. This session will be hosted in collaboration with Health Commons. In addition to the group conversation, you will be invited to complete a questionnaire about your identity and experiences by phone so we can accurately describe who contributed their input to the process.

Teen Triple P Seminar #2 - Raising Competent Teenagers
2025-05-01 18:30 - 20:30, 2025-02-03 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
Teen Triple P Seminar #2 – Raising Competent Teenagers

Presented by: Positive Parenting Association Ontario
The Triple P Teen Seminar series targets everyday concerns, such as how to encourage responsible and independent behaviour, improve family relationships, and manage concerns at school and/or with friends. Your youth is almost an adult, or at least that’s how they feel, and this can make life at home a little strained. Maybe your 13-year-old son grunts instead of speaking to you. Or your 14-year-old daughter wants to go to parties with people you don’t even know. It’s not the you’ve got a “wild” kid, but you want to make sure that you plan ahead and continue to connect with them during this important time in their lives.
Seminar # 2 – Raising Competent Teenagers
Set your teenager up for life with the strategies in this seminar which focuses on helping your child get the most out of their school years. Find out how to help them communicate well, develop self-discipline and good routines, follow rules and solve problems.
**This is a 3-part seminar. Participation in all 3 dates is strongly recommended.**

Teen Triple P Seminar #1 - Raising Responsible Teenagers
2025-04-24 18:30 - 20:30, 2025-01-27 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
Teen Triple P Seminar #1 – Raising Responsible Teenagers

Presented by: Positive Parenting Association Ontario
The Triple P Teen Seminar series targets everyday concerns, such as how to encourage responsible and independent behaviour, improve family relationships, and manage concerns at school and/or with friends. Your youth is almost an adult, or at least that’s how they feel, and this can make life at home a little strained. Maybe your 13-year-old son grunts instead of speaking to you. Or your 14-year-old daughter wants to go to parties with people you don’t even know. It’s not the you’ve got a “wild” kid, but you want to make sure that you plan ahead and continue to connect with them during this important time in their lives.
Seminar # 1 – Raising Responsible Teenagers
Find out what makes teenagers tick! You’ll come away with new ideas to encourage your teenager to make good decisions, be respectful, considerate, reliable and involved in family life.
**This is a 3-part seminar. Participation in all 3 dates is strongly recommended.**

Understanding and Managing Sensory Sensitivity with ASD
2025-04-22 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
Understanding and Managing Sensory Sensitivity in Children/Youth Living with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Presented by: Neil Walker (Autism Consultant)
Sensory sensitivity is recognized as a significant diagnostic criterion for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Hyper or hypo reactivity to sensory experiences can produce severe challenges in coping with sensory aspects of the environment for persons with ASD. This webinar will review sensory differences in senses such as hearing, smell, taste, vision and touch. It will also explore specific senses such as vestibular (inner ear and balance related), proprioception (self management of body in space) and interoception (internal state of body such as heart beat, hunger etc.) and the resulting impacts on external behaviour. Behaviour intervention strategies that accommodate sensory needs will be shared.

Learning To Pay Attention
2025-04-16 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Toronto)
Unwrapping the Gifts of a Distracted Mind – Part 1 Learning to Pay Attention

Presented by: Tracey Butt and Leah Levine (Path Workers)
Three-part series on ADHD

“Unwrapping the gifts of a distracted mind” a series of webinars to help you better understand the person you love. The more you know, the better able you will be equipped to build on the strengths and unique traits, as well as tackle areas of challenge or lagging skills in your child or adolescent.
Part 1 – Learning to Pay Attention. Come to this introductory webinar on what ADHD is and what it is not. Learn about the three pillars of ADHD and their potential outcomes, and how to respond to your neurodivergent child empathically.

Understanding Online Safety and Youth Exploitation
2025-03-26 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
Understanding Online Safety and Youth Exploitation

Presented by: Kaitlyn Ranasingh
This webinar will provide parents and caregivers with an understanding of the kinds of exploitation and sex trafficking that is happening for youth in our communities. Parents and caregivers will learn about human trafficking and exploitation- what it looks like, how to identify it, where it is happening, and who it is happening to. The new landscape of social media and online exploitation will also be discussed. You will learn what you can do to help keep your child safe. Parents and caregivers will be provided with concrete tips on what they can do and a list of resources in their community.

Parenting a Child with Attention Deficit Disorder
2025-03-19 18:30 - 20:00, 2024-06-19 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Toronto)
Unwrapping the Gifts of a Distracted Mind – Part 3 Parenting a Child with Attention Deficit Disorder

Presented by: Laurie Blow and Chantel Tan (PATH Workers)
Three-part series on ADHD

“Unwrapping the gifts of a distracted mind” a series of webinars to help you better understand the person you love. The more you know, the better able you will be equipped to build on the strengths and unique traits, as well as tackle areas of challenge or lagging skills in your child or adolescent.
Part 3 – Parenting a Child with Attention Deficit Disorder. Do you find yourself wavering on what to do in a given situation, and reverting back to extremes? This webinar will help bring back the balance of understanding and parenting from an attuned perspective.

Understanding and Managing Challenging Behaviours
2025-03-06 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
Understanding and Managing Challenging Behaviours

Presented by: Gabby Ondrade and Vanessa Biscardi (Child and Family Therapists)
Understanding challenging behaviours and where they stem from is the first step to being able to better manage them. This workshop is for parents/caregivers of youth 12 years and older, and will focus on how behaviours function in a teen’s brain. We will discuss and demonstrate the use of tools/strategies to manage challenging behaviours, and how to improve parent/teen relationships.

Many Faces of Anxiety
2025-02-27 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
Many Faces of Anxiety – Understanding and supporting children who live with worry

Presented by: Gina Degalas and Wei Wang (Child and Family Therapists)
The goal of this workshop is to provide valuable information to support caregivers of children and adolescents who experience anxiety. Topics include: Understanding different types of anxiety, causes, how the mind and brain are connected, coping strategies for caregivers; and what caregivers can do to help.

Exploring and Understanding the Inattentive Brain
2025-02-19 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Toronto)
Unwrapping the Gifts of a Distracted Mind – Part 2 Exploring and Understanding the Inattentive Brain

Presented by: Laurie Blow and Chantel Tan (PATH Workers)
Three-part series on ADHD
“Unwrapping the gifts of a distracted mind” a series of webinars to help you better understand the person you love. The more you know, the better able you will be equipped to build on the strengths and unique traits, as well as tackle areas of challenge or lagging skills in your child or adolescent.
Part 2 – Exploring and Understanding the Inattentive Brain. Join us to hear about the intricate working model of the ADHD brain, the benefits of choice and the importance of co-regulation to build self-regulation.

Understanding The Brain and Behaviour Development in Children with ASD
2025-02-18 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
Understanding The Brain and Behaviour Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Presented by: Neil Walker (Autism Consultant)
This webinar will assist in understanding the brain development of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and will explain the cause of behaviours commonly experienced. Participants will learn strategies that can be used to support and manage the challenges that children with ASD often face.

Teen Triple P Seminar #3 - Getting Teenagers Connected
2025-02-10 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
Teen Triple P Seminar #3 – Getting Teenagers Connected

Presented by: Positive Parenting Association Ontario
The Triple P Teen Seminar series targets everyday concerns, such as how to encourage responsible and independent behaviour, improve family relationships, and manage concerns at school and/or with friends. Your youth is almost an adult, or at least that’s how they feel, and this can make life at home a little strained. Maybe your 13-year-old son grunts instead of speaking to you. Or your 14-year-old daughter wants to go to parties with people you don’t even know. It’s not the you’ve got a “wild” kid, but you want to make sure that you plan ahead and continue to connect with them during this important time in their lives.
Seminar #3 – Getting Teenagers Connected
Help your teenager develop good, supportive friendships. You’ll learn ways to build their confidence, encourage social skills, help them to plan and meet commitments and encourage them to take care of others.
**This is a 3-part seminar. Participation in all 3 dates is strongly recommended.**

Triple P Seminar #3 - Raising Resilient Children
2025-01-30 18:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Triple P Seminar #3 – Raising Resilient Children

Presented by: Positive Parenting Association Ontario
Power of Positive Parenting seminars are a series of three workshops for parents of children birth to 12 years of age. Kids don’t come with an instruction manual! Many familiar parenting problems have very simple solutions that can be applied with some effort and focus. Triple P’s easy-to-understand and practical strategies have been shown to help families in all types of situations.
Seminar #3 – Raising Resilient Children
This seminar focuses on learning strategies to help build positive feelings in your child and help your child recognize and accept feelings, deal with negative feelings and upsetting stressful life events.
**This is a 3-part seminar. Participation in all 3 dates is strongly recommended.**

Triple P Seminar #2 - Raising Confident Competent Children
2025-01-23 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
Triple P Seminar #2 – Raising Confident Competent Children

Presented by: Positive Parenting Association Ontario
Power of Positive Parenting seminars are a series of three workshops for parents of children birth to 12 years of age. Kids don’t come with an instruction manual! Many familiar parenting problems have very simple solutions that can be applied with some effort and focus. Triple P’s easy-to-understand and practical strategies have been shown to help families in all types of situations.
Seminar # 2 – Raising Confident and Competent Children
This seminar focuses on encouraging respect and cooperation, learning to be independent, developing healthy self esteem and learning how to be a good problem solver.
**This is a 3-part seminar. Participation in all 3 dates is strongly recommended.**

Learning To Pay Attention
2025-01-22 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Toronto)
Unwrapping the Gifts of a Distracted Mind – Part 1 Learning to Pay Attention

Presented by: Laurie Blow and Chantel Tan (PATH Workers)
Three-part series on ADHD

“Unwrapping the gifts of a distracted mind” a series of webinars to help you better understand the person you love. The more you know, the better able you will be equipped to build on the strengths and unique traits, as well as tackle areas of challenge or lagging skills in your child or adolescent.
Part 1 – Learning to Pay Attention. Come to this introductory webinar on what ADHD is and what it is not. Learn about the three pillars of ADHD and their potential outcomes, and how to respond to your neurodivergent child empathically.

Raising a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder
2025-01-21 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
A wholistic framework for family life

Presented by: Neil Walker (ASD Consultant)
This workshop will provide parents and other caregivers and the professionals who support them with a framework for helping children with ASD achieve their potential. Based on the F words of Child Development, created by CANCHILD Research Centre at McMaster University, the 6 F words: Function, Family, Fitness, Fun, Friends and Future, can help maintain focus on important wholistic aspects of support for their child with ASD and the whole family.

Triple P Seminar #1 - The Power of Positive Parenting
2025-01-16 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
The Power of Positive Parenting

Presented by: Positive Parenting Association Ontario
Power of Positive Parenting seminars are a series of three workshops for parents of children birth to 12 years of age. Kids don’t come with an instruction manual! Many familiar parenting problems have very simple solutions that can be applied with some effort and focus. Triple P’s easy-to-understand and practical strategies have been shown to help families in all types of situations.
Seminar # 1 – The Power of Positive Parenting
This seminar focuses on : ensuring a safe engaging environment for children by: creating a positive learning environment, using assertive discipline, having realistic expectations and taking care of yourself as a parent.
**This is a 3-part seminar. Participation in all 3 dates is strongly recommended.**

Understanding and Supporting Behaviour Challenges for Children with ASD
2024-12-10 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
Understanding and Supporting Behaviour Challenges for Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Presented by: Neil Walker (Autism Consultant)
Understanding the many possible underlying causes or functions of problematic behaviour is a critical step in helping children & youth with ASD change maladaptive behaviour. Effective behaviour analysis, which includes a review of communication, sensory, anxiety and other possible causes, will be discussed and positive behavior support (PBS) techniques will be presented.

Understanding and Managing Challenging Behaviours
2024-11-27 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
Understanding and Managing Challenging Behaviours

Presented by: Hailey Marcus and Danielle St. John (Child and Family Therapists)
Understanding challenging behaviours and where they stem from is the first step to being able to better manage them. This workshop is for parents/caregivers of youth 12 years and older, and will focus on how behaviours function in a teen’s brain. We will discuss and demonstrate the use of tools/strategies to manage challenging behaviours, and how to improve parent/teen relationships.

Parenting a Child with Attention Deficit Disorder
2024-11-20 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Toronto)
Unwrapping the Gifts of a Distracted Mind – Part 3 Parenting a Child with Attention Deficit Disorder

Presented by: Laurie Blow and Erika Silveira (PATH Workers)
Three-part series on ADHD

“Unwrapping the gifts of a distracted mind” a series of webinars to help you better understand the person you love. The more you know, the better able you will be equipped to build on the strengths and unique traits, as well as tackle areas of challenge or lagging skills in your child or adolescent.
Part 3 – Parenting a Child with Attention Deficit Disorder. Do you find yourself wavering on what to do in a given situation, and reverting back to extremes? This webinar will help bring back the balance of understanding and parenting from an attuned perspective.

Supporting Communication Challenges in Autism Spectrum Disorder
2024-11-19 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
Supporting Communication Challenges in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Presented by: Neil Walker (Autism Consultant)
This seminar will provide participants with a comprehensive overview of the expressive & receptive communication challenges faced by children & youth across the Autism Spectrum. Effective communication systems for nonverbal children and techniques for enhancing communication skills for verbal individuals will be provided.

Consciously Parenting Our Teens
2024-11-06 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
Consciously Parenting Our Teens

Presented by: Terri Keay (Clinical Navigator) and TBD
This webinar focuses on what caregivers bring to the parent and teen relationship. Participants will have an opportunity to reflect mindfully on how their parenting style was formed, and how this influences their relationship with their teen. Participants will look at the advantages of having a strong attachment with their teen and how they can model the behaviours they want to see in their teenagers. In addition, we will explore the way your teens brain is developing and receives information and how this can affect the family as a whole. Sign up to learn more!

Triple P Seminar #3 - Raising Resilient Children
2024-10-24 18:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Triple P Seminar #3 – Raising Resilient Children

Presented by: Positive Parenting Association Ontario
Power of Positive Parenting seminars are a series of three workshops for parents of children birth to 12 years of age. Kids don’t come with an instruction manual! Many familiar parenting problems have very simple solutions that can be applied with some effort and focus. Triple P’s easy-to-understand and practical strategies have been shown to help families in all types of situations.
Seminar #3 – Raising Resilient Children
This seminar focuses of: learning strategies to help build positive feelings in your child and help your child recognize and accept feelings, deal with negative feelings and upsetting stressful life events.
**This is a 3-part seminar. Participation in all 3 dates is strongly recommended.**

Exploring and Understanding the Inattentive Brain
2024-10-23 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Toronto)
Unwrapping the Gifts of a Distracted Mind – Part 2 Exploring and Understanding the Inattentive Brain

Presented by: Laurie Blow and Erika Silveira (PATH Workers)
Three-part series on ADHD
“Unwrapping the gifts of a distracted mind” a series of webinars to help you better understand the person you love. The more you know, the better able you will be equipped to build on the strengths and unique traits, as well as tackle areas of challenge or lagging skills in your child or adolescent.
Part 2 – Exploring and Understanding the Inattentive Brain. Join us to hear about the intricate working model of the ADHD brain, the benefits of choice and the importance of co-regulation to build self-regulation.

Understanding and Managing Anxiety in Children/Youth Living with ASD
2024-06-25 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Toronto)
Understanding and Managing Anxiety in Children/Youth Living with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Presented by: Neil Walker (Autism Consultant)
Many children/youth living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience severe anxiety resulting in the development of challenging behaviours. This webinar will review the types and causes of anxiety in persons with ASD, and will introduce support strategies that can help to reduce anxiety and teach self management skills.
