Strive

Episode 86 of Leading Inspired Learning is now available! 🎙✨

In this episode, Ally, Strive Manager, hosts Strive’s Resource Centre Specialists, Liz Gannon and Lena Haider, to discuss using food in sensory play. They reflect on our Food for Thought professional learning session, things they’ve learned about using food and natural materials in sensory play for child care, and share tips for creating sustainable practices that may or may not include food. Listen, learn, reflect, enjoy!

Listen now at www.striveswo.ca/podcast-posts/ep-86 (or wherever you get your favourite podcasts)! This episode is also available in video format via the link above, on Spotify, or on our YouTube channel!

Don’t forget to subscribe, like, and review! ✨

As a community built on care, it's hardly surprising how we've come together to help create period equity! Fill the Truck is this Saturday, meaning it's your final week to donate if you want to help our team during the Period Equity Olympics! 💪

If you're visiting Strive's Professional Resoruce Centre to borrow materials, attending a meeting at Strive's offices, joining us for professional learning (either at Strive or elsewhere in the community), or visiting La Ribambelle downstairs for play group, consider dropping off a donation of pads or tampons to help us FILL THE TRUCK!

Opened boxes and individually packaged products are welcome. Every product donated helps create period equity in our community! Visit Fairy Godparents-London And Area to learn more about this initiative!

Indigenous Solidarity Day is coming up on June 21 and this year marks the 30th anniversary! Today, some of our team joined the festivities at Victoria Park to celebrate and honour the rich heritage, cultures, and contributions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities across Canada. It was so wonderful to come together with community and share this experience together! ❤️

Thank you to all of the educators who joined us this week for Métis Beadwork Inspired Dot Art. This was a fantastic evening spent learning the history of Métis in Ontario and the storytelling tradition of Métis dot art as we created our own art inspired by traditional beadwork.

A special thank you to Angie Coture, RECE for sharing this history and tradition with us! We appreciate you taking the time to help us learn and grow together!

Be Well: Campfire Stories invites early years professionals to gather around a real campfire for an evening of connection, reflection, and community. In a profession rooted in relationships, care, and emotional presence, this is a space created just for you.

Storytelling has always been a way humans make meaning, build empathy, and strengthen community. This evening honours that tradition. You can share a personal story, something playful and imaginative, or simply listen and soak in the experience. There is no pressure and no agenda, just connection.

📅 Thurs. July 16
🕡 6:30 - 8:00 PM
📍 Scouts Canada - Bryson Centre, Oakridge Fire Fit (531 Windermere Rd., London)

This session is currently SOLD OUT - email us to join the waitlist! Learn more at www.striveswo.ca/event-posts/be-well-campfire-stories

If you answered D... you're correct!

Not only will Social Fitness & The Art of Presence be an engaging hands-on evening with fellow educators, but you'll also learn how to actively listen and genuinely respond as we explore how improv techniques can be used to build and foster relationships. What better way to fill our cups and build in-person connection in an age of digital disconnect?

Join us on Wed. July 8 from 6:30 - 8 PM at Civic Gardens Complex in the Birch Room for this session facilitated by Railway City Improv. Don't worry, you won't be doing comedy, just exploring how these techniques can be brought into an early years setting to change how we think about our practice.

Registration closes Tuesday. July 7 at noon. Register at www.striveswo.ca/event-posts/social-fitness