Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health Launches S.H.E.D. Talks

by Bob Montgomery

The Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health is launching its first S.H.E.D. or Sustaining Healthy Farms Through Empowerment and Dedication Talks this Friday at the Brussels Four Winds Event Barn.

Gateway President Gwen Devereaux says they've had a few meetings with farmers over the last year to determine when and how they should launch the S.H.E.D. Program. She says a few farmers had offered to start the program with small gatherings in their barns but they ultimately decided to start it off with one big one. She says it looks like they've sold out this Friday at the Brussels Four Winds Event Barn.

Devereaux explains S.H.E.D. is an initiative for farmers to get together and form a network because increasingly as the farms keep getting larger, there's more isolation. She says the goal is that through this initiative farmers will get together in small groups, maybe once a month, at one of their sheds and create a support group that will help address some of the isolation they're seeing now. Devereaux says most of us dealt with it to some degree through COVID. So in a small way this encourages farmers to lean on each other.

Devereaux says the guest speaker on Friday will be Peter Johnson who is a leader in the agricultural community and he'll talk about his experience and the need for S.H.E.D. Talks. She says local farmers could invite guest speakers to their S.H.E.D. events as well or go to events as a group. She says what they do isn't really as important as the fact that they do it as a group. Devereaux says farmers deal with all of the problems most of us deal with as well as some unpredictable things like the weather and markets and they often deal with those things on their own. 

The S.H.E.D. Talks launch is from 10:00am till 1:00pm on Friday at the Brussels Four Winds Event Barn, with registration starting at 9:30am and Devereaux says they still have room for a few more people. More information can be found at gatewayruralhealth.ca