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Located in the western region of the Greater Toronto Area, Woodview Mental Health & Autism Services offers a number of services for children and youth facing mental health challenges and for those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Originally known as St. Mary’s Asylum for girls and Mount St. Joseph for boys, the history of the facility dates back to 1853 and only officially became known as Woodview in the late 1970s. While a number of changes have taken place over the years, the goal remains the same today at Woodview, which has expanded to multiple locations providing community-based programs in the Burlington, Brantford, Halton and Hamilton regions.

Many school boards across both Canada and the United States are recognizing their responsibility to provide safe and supportive learning and working environments for all faculty members and students. Often referred to as calming rooms, de-escalation rooms, quiet areas, calming rooms or sensory rooms, these spaces are based on the concept of reducing both environmental and physical triggers as a coping strategy for those experiencing heightened or depressed states of arousal. Outside of educational facilities, these spaces are common in residences, therapeutic clinics and a variety of other healthcare facilities.

Ensuring that the use of these types of rooms and facilities are not used as punishment or seclusion, the use of these rooms is becoming more regulated by guidelines set out by school boards and other governing bodies.

Used to create an environment completely removed from outside distractions, sensory rooms have been proven to help students in schools across North America since becoming widely used over the past decade or so.

Used in other facilities such as special needs centres, respite centres, old age residences and a number of other locations, their effectiveness in the educational sector has provided students of all ages with a quick escape when required and are complete with both audio and visual aids to promote relaxation.

One of our more recent projects was brought to us by the esteemed team at Avron Distribution. As a leading supplier for a wide range of educational, multi-sensory resources intended for all ages and abilities, Avron has grown to be one of the most recognized suppliers in the industry. Their permanent and mobile solutions have helped promote learning, cognitive ability and physical development since the company’s inception in 1994.

As the topic of mental health continues to gain steam here in North America, schools across Canada and the United States are turning to safe rooms to help children deal with every day stress. While in some isolated cases, these rooms have come under fire because of blatant misuse by staff, the research suggests that when used properly, they are proven to calm students down in a safe and controlled manner.

While also used in a variety of other industries, schools in particular have taken notice of the advantages and importance of creating and constructing these types of spaces for their students.

Honouring current, past and present women whose lives exemplified the courage, resilience and independence that ultimately shaped the American West, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame is the only museum in the world dedicated to preserving their history.

Located in Fort Worth, Texas the museum is home to more than 4,000 artifacts and information regarding over 750 remarkable women, celebrating their decorated past and on-going contributions to American society today.

In 2015, the museum began the early stages of what would be a massive $5.5 million renovation that eventually made its way upstairs to the facility’s second floor. With much fanfare, the second floor was once again open to the public earlier this month and we were fortunate to have been involved with the redevelopment of one of the museum’s attractions.

When it comes to extreme sports, skateboarding and BMX riding provide the recipe for heart-pulsing excitement and thrills for both spectators and participants.

Naturally, in this type of environment, safety is a prime concern. No matter the skill level, the chances of a collision or crash are extremely high and for those operating these types of facilities, there are many areas that can be made safer.  

While we are used to working with traditional sports such as hockey, football, basketball and more we also do quite a bit of work in the extreme sports realm, even working closely with many Hollywood stunt teams.

Facilities that house extreme sports almost always require safety padding, which often comes customized, as each facility can be completely different.

Half-ice hockey has recently been declared as the new standard for youth hockey. In fact, both USA Hockey and Hockey Canada have ruled that novice leagues and players are now required to institute the half-ice playing style. If you’re a parent, or a student yourself, you likely have some questions about this change.

Parental Concerns

By far, one of the most common concerns parents have voiced since these changes have been announced is: “How is this real hockey? 

This is a question best answered by the studies that prove young children (8 and under) need to focus on having fun and developing key skills. They will be learning a range of valuable skills in half-ice hockey on a rink layout that’s better suited to their pace, size, and skill level.

Some game changes will promote more play time as well, fostering interest in the sport of hockey. 

Like any sporting venue, baseball fields hold certain safety standards in order to keep players and spectators safe during games. When it comes to a baseball diamond’s safety standards, certain padding placement is needed to maintain safe gameplay.

The Outfield

Probably one of the most key areas for padding to be placed is along outfield fences. Here, padding on the walls and fences is very much a necessity in order to keep players safe as they chase stray balls.

While the MLB doesn’t yet mandate outfield padding, many agree that they should and most smaller stadiums are already going the extra mile to ensure padding is present. Far too many professionals and amateurs have collided with the outfield fences and been injured as a result of insufficient padding.

As writer Adam Moss wrote, there has been a “history of painful encounters with a non-padded wall in baseball.” When it comes to your stadium, you should see outfield fence padding as an absolute must-have for the sake of your players.

Designed to offer students a place completely void of outside distractions, quiet rooms, sensory rooms and de-escalation rooms are now commonplace in many academic institutions across Canada and the United States.

Depending on their exact purpose, these types of rooms can be outfitted with equipment used to help stimulate the senses or can have nothing at all and simply serve as a quiet place for students who simply need some time alone. Constructed entirely using our custom padding department, these rooms often feature wall padding including custom cut-outs, door padding and customized floor padding to ensure the environment is also a safe one for those who use them.

There are plenty of gadgets out there today, all created with the goal of helping hockey players become the best on their team, but what’s really necessary?

Out of all the techniques and tactics being employed today to help young hockey players prove their worth in the rink, cross-ice hockey is among the most successful of them all.

Why Cross-Ice Hockey?

For younger players, cross-ice hockey came to the forefront back in the 1970s although it wasn’t adopted into American and Canadian hockey leagues until just recently. It sprouted from a study that realized for amateur youth hockey games, players had an average of .5 shots per game.