🌟 October Learning & Development: Growing Our Skills, Strengthening Our Impact!

October is a great time to build new skills, explore fresh ideas, and invest in our professional growth. This month, Learning & Development is offering opportunities to strengthen our knowledge of mental health, build practical technology skills, and support our continued growth as individuals and teams.

Check out October’s Learning & Development offerings below and find an opportunity to learn something new!

💙 Severe and Persistent Mental Illness (SPMI) Webinar - Blue Cross Blue Shield

📅 October 21, 2026 | 🕐 1:00–2:30 PM

Supporting individuals living with severe and persistent mental illness requires understanding, compassion, and practical skills. This webinar will provide valuable insight into common mental health conditions and strategies for delivering effective, recovery-oriented care.

🌱 In this session, we'll explore:

• Understanding SPMI: An overview of Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, and Schizophrenia.

• Recognizing risk factors: Biological, psychosocial, and environmental influences.

• Reducing stigma: The impact of stigma and social determinants of health.

• Trauma-informed care: Approaches to screening, assessment, and individualized support.

• Supporting recovery: Evidence-based treatments, empathy, active listening, and connecting individuals to resources.

Whether you work directly with the people we serve or support our programs in another capacity, this session offers an opportunity to deepen your understanding and strengthen our person-centered approach.

To register, click on this link. Severe and Persistent Mental Illness Webinar for East House | Join meeting in Teams | Microsoft Teams 

💻 Microsoft Excel: Build Your Skills — A 4-Part Learning Series

📅 Beginning October 14 | 🕘 9:00–10:00 AM
📍 In Person — Papero Boardroom
👩‍💻 Presented by our very own Emma Beardsley

Ready to feel more confident using Excel? Join us for a hands-on, four-part Microsoft Excel series designed to build practical skills you can use in your everyday work.

💡 What You'll Learn:

📊 Part 1: Excel Essentials — October 14

• Navigating Excel, menus, and desktop vs. online

• Saving and sharing files, including Foothold exports and OneDrive

• Planning spreadsheets and using time-saving shortcuts

📈 Part 2: Working with Data — October 28

• Creating tables and formatting cells

• Finding, replacing, sorting, and filtering data

• Using conditional formatting and basic functions (SUM, COUNT, AVERAGE)

🖥️ A Hands-On Learning Experience!

Bring your laptop! These interactive sessions will give you the opportunity to follow along, practice new skills, and ask questions along the way.

Additional sessions in the four-part series will be announced soon.

To register: Contact Christine Staheli at cstaheli@easthouse.org