COVID-19 Update - Important Information
A micro-credential program in partnership with Humber College

The Excellence in Mental Health Leadership program is offered in partnership through SickKids CCMH Learning Institute with micro-credential recognition through Humber College. This program provides essential leadership skills and knowledge for new and emerging leaders in community mental health services.
Delivered by industry experts, the goal of the program is to equip and empower community mental health leaders for the challenges of service delivery during a time of unprecedented change. The programming provides in-demand and future-proof skills that are needed within Ontario’s community mental health sector.
Are you:
- transitioning into a manager role?
- in a leadership role but have received minimal formal training?
- wanting to update and improve your skills?
Then this program is for you!
The Excellence in Mental Health Leadership program includes two new micro-credential offerings: Excellence in Mental Health Organization and People Management (five-day program); and Excellence in Mental Health Data, Communication and Influence (three-day program). Participants can register for either program or both; the first is not a prerequisite for the second.
Why pursue a micro-credential?
How does it work?
Excellence in Mental Health Organization and People Management
Module 1: Becoming an exceptional leader (half-day)
At the end of the session, participants will be able to:
- Define the differences between management and leadership
- Discuss some of the challenges of transitioning to management and how to handle them
- Identify the various stakeholders involved in a complex situation and how to manage them
- Clarify who they want to be as a leader (their personal “why” as a leader)
- Discuss the strengths and challenges of different leadership styles
- Use a reflective practice to learn and grow as a manager
Facilitator: Dr. Lucas Dufour
Module 2: Achieving strategic impact through operational leadership (half-day)
At the end of this module, participants will be able to:
- Describe factors that affect growth and adaptation within social organizations
- Discuss how the changing needs of vulnerable populations served by mental health organizations in Ontario are driving change in the social sectors
- Identify the importance of strategic planning in guiding social organizations during this period of change
- Describe the role of front-line managers in successful implementation of strategic imperatives
- Explain how strategic focus contributes to effective leadership
Facilitator: Neill Carson
Module 3: Facilitating successful change (half-day)
At the end of this module, participants will be able to:
- Clarify the roles and responsibilities of executives, managers, and employees in the change process
- Define a compelling rationale and vision for change
- Identify and appreciate the different impacts that a change may have on staff
- Recognize transition phases, and how to engage staff in each phase
- Develop and implement a change management communication plan
Facilitator: Marion Langford
Module 4: Building financial acumen (half-day)
At the end of this module, participants will be able to:
- Read and interpret financial documents such as budgets and business proposals
- Become more familiar and comfortable with spreadsheets as the key tool in building financial documents
- Use day-to-day budget management to contribute to departmental success for their team and organization
- Describe key financial documents and their uses in day-to-day budget management
- Assess how various drivers can affect variable costs in the budget, and how to plan effectively for them
- Project costs into the future for diverse purposes such as forecasting, preparing a multi-year budget, and creating project proposals
Facilitator: Joel Clark
Module 5: Managing human resource accountabilities (half-day)
At the end of this module, participants will be able to:
- Identify areas of Human Resources that require legal compliance (employment standards, occupational health and safety, workplace harassment, human rights, workplace injury and illness, accessibility, and privacy)
- List key manager responsibilities in each of these areas
- Search and locate information sources to support decision-making and actions
- Use key steps to create effective recruitment and onboarding processes
- Explain the unique characteristics of managing a unionized team
Facilitator: Nives Malara
Module 6: Cultivating employee performance (full-day)
Morning
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Describe their role in cultivating employee performance
- Apply criteria for setting clear expectations
- Use appreciative listening to foster good communication
- Assess and leverage different factors that contribute to individual performance
- Create an agreement for giving/receiving feedback with employees
- Use a framework to productively lead coaching conversations
Afternoon
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Assess the implications of performance issues/behaviours on different parts of the organization and identify the most compelling reasons to request performance changes
- Define and clarify performance expectations
- Describe stages in the performance cycle and how to address employees at each stage
- Plan how to customize feedback to engage employees in implementing changes in their performance
- Conduct performance conversations that lead to clear agreements and accountability
Facilitator: Marion Langford
Module 7: Fostering inclusive, equitable and anti-racist organizations (full-day)
At the end of this module, participants will be able to:
- Describe the social determinants of health
- Detect oppressive systems within White supremacy
- Identify microaggressions as they relate to the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community and racialized communities (not mutually exclusive)
- Explore, reflect on and challenge perceptions and implicit biases
- Manage team dynamics and conflict from an inclusive multicultural lens
- Apply a modality to help employees interact better with marginalized clients and identify barriers that create treatment gaps
Part 1
Facilitator: Janelle Campbell
Part 2
Facilitators: Dr. Natalie Kalb with guest speaker Dwight Ballantyne
Module 8: Developing effective teams (half-day)
At the end of this module, participants will be able to:
- Support successful team formation and development
- Establish team alignment by creating shared purpose, norms, and commitments with team members
- Assess strengths and opportunities for an existing team through the lens of productivity and positivity (team culture)
- Create a plan for supporting a team in enhancing work practices and/or team culture
- Facilitate healthy and productive dialogue, conflict, and decision-making within inter-professional teams
- Adapt team practices for remote and hybrid teams
Facilitator: Carolynne Wintrip
Optional: Personal project assessment to earn a micro-credential
All participants will be expected to select and complete a project to apply and extend their learning to an individual, team, or organizational leadership issue; however, only those who apply for the micro-credential will have their projects formally assessed. Micro-credential project submissions will be due approximately three weeks after the final module. The projects will be assessed and scored. Participants who successfully meet the criteria will be awarded the micro-credential for Excellence in People and Organization Management.
Please note: There is an additional registration fee for personal project assessment and obtaining the micro-credentials. Upon registration in the program, you will be contacted by Humber College to learn how to register for the optional personal project assessment to earn the micro-credential.
Dates
Future program dates to be announced
Location
Delivered through an interactive virtual classroom experience
Participant profile
- New managers and team leaders who need support
- Experienced managers who have received little formal training for leading a team or who want to update and improve their skills
- Individuals looking to move into a managerial role
Fees
Registration fee: $1,250
Optional assessment fee for Humber Micro-credential: $300
Excellence in Mental Health Data, Communication and Influence
Module 1: Mastering data-informed decision making (full-day)
At the end of this module, participants will be able to:
- Confidently leverage data to accelerate impact by identifying trends, issues, technologies and standards that may impact delivery of health care and management of health
- Implement data and analytics strategies to support continuous improvement in a complex, health care environment
- Recognize opportunities to enhance decision-making, performance and client outcomes
- Gain fluency in health-care data and analytics, to be better equipped to ask the right questions
- Describe how various performance indicators, standards and benchmarks are used
- Explain the relationship between outcome measurement and quality management initiatives to support data analysis and data presentation for decision-making purposes
Facilitator: Nicole Burford
Module 2: Transforming experiences through journey mapping (half-day)
At the end of this module, participants will be able to:
- Gain insight into the client experience and how to co-design (with the client and other stakeholders) improvements to service offerings
- Use co-design tools and a facilitated approach to produce empathy maps and client journey maps
- Leverage the experience and underlying needs and emotions of clients when designing improvements and innovations in programs and services
- Assess the client experience through empathy mapping, a process that involves developing awareness of what clients think, feel, hear, say, and do during the service experience
Facilitators: Erika Espinoza and Celia Espinoza
Module 3: Creating strategic partnerships (half-day)
By the end of this module, participants will be able to:
- List guiding principles for effective stakeholder and client engagement
- Describe key elements of a partnership agreement
- Identify priority target populations for stakeholder engagement
- Identify opportunities for forming strategic partnerships with other community organizations
- Use practical tools and strategies for defining key stakeholders, engaging clients, and others with lived experience, capturing client needs and experiences, and enhancing stakeholder engagement
- Describe the benefits of various models of partnership (cooperative, collaborative, integrated) and how to structure and evaluate formal partnerships
Facilitator: Erika Espinoza
Module 4: Leading and communicating with impact (full-day)
By the end of this module, participants will be able to:
- Use a comprehensive process to identify, refine and enhance key areas in their presentation skills, leadership presence and communication thereby enriching their interactions with team members, leadership, and clients
- Apply the elements of effective presentation skills to engage/re-engage virtual, in-person and hybrid audiences
- Define their personal value statement
- Use specific tactics and techniques to identify and understand their audience
- Exude charisma as an agent of influence
- Apply a change model to facilitate adoption of change in their audience
- Persuasively communicate change vision to motivate support and commitment from stakeholders
Facilitator: Christine Felgueiras
Optional: Knowledge application assessment to earn a micro-credential
All participants will be encouraged to apply their learning to assess and enhance their agency’s programs and services; however, only those who apply for the micro-credential will have their work formally assessed. Micro-credential assignment submissions will be due approximately two weeks after the final module. Participants will be expected to select and complete two situation-based application activities for assessment and scoring. Participants who successfully meet the criteria will be awarded the micro-credential for Excellence in mental health data, communication and influence.
Please note: There is an additional registration fee for the knowledge application assessment and obtaining the micro-credential. Upon registration in the program, you will be contacted by Humber College to learn how to register for the optional knowledge application assessment to earn the micro-credential.

Dates
Future program dates to be announced
Location
Delivered through an interactive virtual classroom experience
Participant profile
- New managers who want to develop their leadership presence
- Experienced managers who have received little formal training in data-informed decision-making
- Individuals looking to lead with impact
Fees
Registration fee for three-day program: $750
Optional assessment fee for Humber Micro-credential: $200
More information
Questions?
Email training@sickkidscmhlearning.ca
Discounts
SickKids CCMH LI is pleased to offer 20% off for groups of four or more from the same organization. Contact Mary Anne Van Rooyen for information.
Financial assistance
Your organization may be eligible for the Canadian Ontario Job Grant, which can be applied to this program. Please contact Angela Kaushal for inquiries.

