Building Bridges of Hope through Trauma-Informed Caregiver-School Partnerships: Supporting Children and Youth with High Emotional and Behavioral Health Needs
A two-part intensive learning Institute and accompanying Community of Practice for Institute participants
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Supporting children and youth with high emotional and behavioral needs is often lonely, overwhelming, complex, and not well-understood. As a caregiver, how do you navigate school services, child welfare, and other involved systems to get the support you need for your child? As school providers, how might we learn with families through their advocacy journeys?
Let’s come together to listen and learn from family advocates and colleagues in the field to deepen our practice, student-center our services, and make this work less lonely and more connected.
The National Training & Technical Assistance Center for Child, Youth, & Family Mental Health is excited to offer the “Building Bridges of Hope” Institute and accompanying community of practice. We invite parents, caregivers, providers, and educators to join us as we strategize how to support each other while supporting our students with emotional and behavioral health needs. Together, we engage in interactive discussions regarding what is working, concerning challenges, and rising promising practices and services nationwide.
Join us as we create space to dream and hope together to find new ways of
being, learning, and partnering.
This series is facilitated by Lara Kain, a national trauma-informed education consultant, idea guru, and parent of a child that has high-needs, and Melissa Merin, an advocate, education consultant, Early Childhood Educator, and parent of a high-needs child in a non-traditional family. We are supported in learning by Jane Walker, a mother with a lifetime of caregiver experience and systems navigation, founder of multiple national family and caregiver advocacy organizations aimed to improve services for children with mental health needs and their families. Our series features several caregiver and district guest speakers.
PRIMARY AUDIENCE
Educators, administrators, classroom support aides, librarians, school and community-based social workers, school counselors, school psychologists, nurses, coaches, club sponsors, caregivers of students with emotional and behavioral health needs, bus drivers, cafeteria staff, McKinney-Vento Coordinators, school attendance coordinators, family and student advocates, and other school-based mental health providers.
All are welcome: This program benefits all members of the education community because care is not limited to one department
or Special Education faculty alone.
Register for the Institute and the Community of Practice or the Institutes separately here:
LEARNING INSTITUTE DATES AND TOPICS
What have we built together? Shared learning from Community of Practice series
Tuesday, July 20:
4-6 p.m. ET / 3-5 p.m. CT / 2-4 p.m. MT / 1-3 p.m. PT
Wednesday, July 21:
6-8 a.m. ChST
COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE DATES AND TOPICS
Session 1: Language Matters: We Are All People, First
Tuesday, April 27:
4:00-5:15 p.m. ET / 3:00-4:15 p.m. CT / 2:00-3:15 p.m. MT / 1:00-2:15 p.m. PT / 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Wednesday, April 28:
7:00-8:15 a.m. ChST
Session 2: Building Restorative Classrooms
Tuesday, May 11:
4:00-5:15 p.m. ET / 3:00-4:15 p.m. CT / 2:00-3:15 p.m. MT / 1:00-2:15 p.m. PT / 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Wednesday, May 12:
7:00-8:15 a.m. ChST
Session 3: Building Health Partnerships in an Education Setting
Tuesday, May 25:
4:00-5:15 p.m. ET / 3:00-4:15 p.m. CT / 2:00-3:15 p.m. MT / 1:00-2:15 p.m. PT / 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Wednesday, May 26:
7:00-8:15 a.m. ChST
Session 4: Building Relationships with Caregivers
Tuesday, June 8:
4:00-5:15 p.m. ET / 3:00-4:15 p.m. CT / 2:00-3:15 p.m. MT / 1:00-2:15 p.m. PT / 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Wednesday, June 9:
7:00-8:15 a.m. ChST
Session 5: Building Hope & Repairing Harm
Tuesday, June 22:
4:00-5:15 p.m. ET / 3:00-4:15 p.m. CT / 2:00-3:15 p.m. MT / 1:00-2:15 p.m. PT / 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Wednesday, June 23:
7:00-8:15 a.m. ChST
Session 6: Exploring Intersectionality of Caregiver and Student Experience
Tuesday, July 6:
4:00-5:15 p.m. ET / 3:00-4:15 p.m. CT / 2:00-3:15 p.m. MT / 1:00-2:15 p.m. PT / 10:00-11:15 a.m.
Wednesday, July 7:
7:00-8:15 a.m. ChST
MEET OUR FACULTY
LARA KAIN is an experienced educator, consultant, and national speaker on implementing trauma-informed practices into schools and building holistic trauma-responsive systems. She brings over two decades of experience at the local, state, and national level which informs my work. Her experience ranges widely from supporting individual teachers in the classroom to designing a trauma-informed schools pilot currently being implemented in 20 schools across the country. As a trauma survivor, a youth “of promise” herself, and then an educator for youth ”of promise” in Washington State, this work is deeply personal to Lara. She understands what schools can and should look like to benefit ALL children. She is a mom to two adopted boys, greatly personalizing her understanding of developmental trauma and what it takes to overcome.
MELISSA MERIN is an educator, facilitator and restorative justice practitioner based in the Bay. Her work with children, families and educators spans more than 20 years. At the heart of Melissa’s work is desire to contribute to community self-determination and empowerment, which sometimes means nudging past comfort zones to explore the interconnectedness of race, class, genders, and ability in our educational and institutional contexts. Her work emphasizes developing processes and curricula with a focus on critical thinking and restorative and transformative justice. Melissa’s work is informed as much by her formal education as by the lived experiences from her professional and personal life, and is grounded in the principles of positive, proactive discipline, and restorative and transformative justice.
JANE A. WALKER is a licensed social worker and the mother of five children. Ms. Walker’s second oldest daughter, Cathy, developed mental health needs as a young child and was sent out of state to residential care at age 12 because, at the time, services were not available in Maryland. As a result of that experience, Ms. Walker has devoted her life to improving services for children with mental health needs and their families. She was a founding member of the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health in 1989 and served as President of the Federation Board of Directors for two years. In 1999, she founded the Maryland Coalition of Families for Children’s Mental Health and served as Executive Director for 14 years. Ms. Walker served as the first Executive Director of FREDLA from January of 2014 through December of 2018. Ms. Walker is the recipient of numerous awards for her advocacy and leadership in children’s mental health.
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