Program Planning with a Purpose: From Youth Leadership Summits to Celebrations

• Description: Participants will have an in-depth look into programming with skills they can directly apply to their program planning. An online toolkit will be available during and after the session, the participants can access all the tools and templates mentioned in the presentation. Join us to attract a new audience of youth to an educational, celebratory and/or participatory event! 

• Presenter: Shatoyia Moss (she, her) 

• Presenter Bio: Shatoyia Moss is the Safe and Civil City Director for the City of Bloomington and services the Bloomington Community through resources, community education, programs and outreach. 

• Session Resources: Program Planning with Purpose

A Critical Look at Our Hiring

• Description: Over the two years that our community has navigated COVID, we have had significant space to reflect on the privileges that offer one safety, access to resources, and stability. Mother Hubbard's Cupboard has used this period to deepen our work unpacking biases and barriers that prevent us from being a truly equitable team and community space. While these have included staff trainings and critical reflection, we are thankful it has also included gaining the insight of Ellise Smith of Mindful DEI, a consultant who addresses diversity, equity, and inclusion. This session will bring Smith and several of the Hub's recent hiring committee members together to share their experiences as the Hub aimed to refine policies and practices at our agency as we prepare for a new hire. We will share our experience collaboratively revising staff policies to increase equity and build trust, learning with a consultant to refine our hiring practice, and how we are preparing to onboard a new team member--as well as the continued challenges of being an predominantly white, able bodied staff and what this means for our ongoing work.

• Presenters: Annalise Halderman (they/them), Alissa Weiss (they/she), Yvonne Hensley (she/her), Eavan Barbieux (she/her), and Ellise Smith (she/her)

• Presenter Bios:  Click here for full presenter biography list

 

Upstanding in Moments of Bias: Empowering Youth Action Through Skill-Sharing

• Description: Youth often find themselves in situations where they are privy to biased communication or hate speech. How can we assist youth in developing their skills to confront these difficult, unsafe situations in order to increase school and community belonging?  In this presentation, members of BHS South's Community Leadership Building club will describe how they uncovered a need, through participatory action research, for bystander/up-stander training in their community. CLB students will share what they learned through training with Monroe County Youth Services, as well as their own work in skill-sharing and skill development.

• Presenters: Kirstin Milks (she/they) and the South Community Leadership Building club

• Session Resources:  Upstanding in moments of bias slides
   

Collective Care

• Description: In our rapidly changing and fast-paced culture, self-care is often framed as the solution to burnout, anxiety, depression, and stress. However, self-care is not equitably distributed to all of us; in fact, we and the youth we work with need a broad and supportive community in order to access care. Join us to explore frameworks that encourage a culture of care for all.

• Presenters: Stephanie Solomon (she, her) 

• Presenter Bio: Stephanie Solomon (she/her) is the Youth Programs Coordinator working in Primary Prevention with the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She spent over 3 years as Prevention Coordinator with the Youth Services Bureau of Monroe County, with a focus on promoting safe, inclusive, and equitable environments. She spent a decade working in food justice at the community food resource center, Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard. She is a graduate of Indiana University with 19 years of experience working for social change and holds a Master’s in Public Health from Indiana University. Solomon is passionate about co-building spaces that promote social justice and belonging. She likes to sing Barbra Streisand songs, read novels, and grow vegetables in her free time.​

• Session Resources: Collective Care slides 

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Developing Conflict Resolution & Interpersonal Problem Solving Skills

• Description: In this session, participants will learn how to help youth develop healthy conflict resolution and interpersonal problem solving skills. We will focus on fundamental skills that can be used by youth of practically any age, and discuss how youth can develop healthier ways of thinking and behaving toward conflict. In particular, we will discuss how to improve people's abilities to: recognize their own needs and interests, and communicate these effectively with others, understand and respond to others' perspectives and needs in healthy ways, be accountable to others and hold others accountable, choose healthy practices to solve conflicts and social problem. Participants will leave the session with ready-to-use evidence-based techniques related to: communication skills for youth, developing youth perspective-taking skills, making amends and apologies, forgiveness (making informed decisions based on benefits, risks, and limitations)

• Presenters: Nick Philbeck (he, him) 

• Presenter Bio: Nick has lived in Monroe County almost all of his life, and has seen the impact youth workers can have on childhood conditions and the lives of families throughout our county. He is a member of BTCC, works at Community Justice and Mediation Center (CJAM) and with the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI). He is also on the City of Bloomington Council for Community Accessibility, and is a member of the IU African American Choral Ensemble. 
   

Building Relationships and Connection Through Intergenerational Programs

• Description: Jill’s House is an intergenerational facility in Bloomington, Indiana housing a memory care facility and a childcare program serving toddlers and preschoolers. Every week children and memory care residents participate in playful activities intentionally planned to bring the generations together for beneficial social engagement and meaningful interactions. In this workshop we will provide a peek into our intergenerational gatherings before sharing practices and methods that benefit participants by fostering joy, playfulness, and well-being. We will present examples of other intergenerational programming that span other age groups, inviting participants to share their experiences. We will discuss the process and considerations made when creating an intergenerational program like that found at Jill’s House, and will invite participants to discuss  ideas and roadblocks for including intergenerational programming in other care facilities. The topic area that we will be focusing on is building connections and relationships and the benefits for our children and community.

• Presenters: Cecilia Maron- Puntarelli and Elizabeth Stelle

• Presenter Bios: Ceci and Elizabeth are both former directors of Monroe County Early Childhood programs. Ceci was the director of St. Mark's Nursery School and Kindergarten and Elizabeth is the Founder and former director of Jill's House Intergenerational Preschool. Ceci is now a doctoral candidate and Elizabeth is a doctoral student at Indiana University Bloomington in Curriculum and Instruction and areas of Early Childhood Education. Both Elizabeth and Ceci are passionate about educating pre-service educators and current educators about quality care for the children in our community. We believe that it takes a village to raise a child and that building relationships with children and families help to strengthen our village. Currently we are doing work around the importance of intergenerational relationships and the benefits of that relationship not only to elders, but to the children in intergenerational programs. ​

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How Do We Build Back Community Post-Virtual World?

• Description: Join WonderLab Science Museum's Education Manager, Jessica McKinney, as she discusses the steps that have been taken to bring back in-museum programming and rebuild an in-person community. This session will be interactive and full of brainstorming among participants.  

• Presenter: Jessica McKinney (she/her) 

• Presenter Bio: Jessica is the Education Manager at WonderLab Science Museum, where she has been employed for a little over a year. She runs internal and external science programming and started right when we were moving from virtual to in-person. 

• Session Resources: Creating Community Post Virtual World slides
   

Sustainable Employment: Connecting Employment and Relationships

• Description:  Join this session to explore a local, grassroots framework for discussing employment issues that affect the 1 in 4 Monroe Countians living at or near the federal poverty guidelines, as well as youth entering the workforce. Thriving Connections (TC) is an intentional community consisting of 10 families, 25 youth, 30 volunteers, and 3 staff.  Sustainable Employment is a framework developed by the TC community to address topics that are relevant to families that are moving from surviving to thriving. As our TC teens and young adults begin looking towards graduation and entering the workforce, we are using the TC Sustainable Employment framework to prepare them for successful workplace relationships.

• Presenter: Katie Hopkins

• Presenter Bio: Kate is a Community Support Coordinator for SCCAP Thriving Connections. She began her journey with “TC” in 2009 as a participant and in 2022 come aboard as staff. She is passionate about bringing people together to build intentional community by doing fun stuff like cookouts and dismantling systems of oppression.​

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Moving with the Brain in Mind

• Description:  This session will focus on early brain development and how it functions. We will also discuss the importance of brain functioning, how playing can be educational, and other the value in early learning activities  all of which  support and stimulate brain development in young children.

• Presenters:  Ody Ekwonwa 

• Presenter Bio: Ody (pronounced Odd-dee) is a Nigerian American with a Master’s in Public Health from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. She is the County Extension Director and Health and Human Science Educator for Purdue Extension in Monroe County located in Bloomington. Her programming efforts focus around the topics of family, food, health, and money thereby aiming to increase the overall well being of residents in Monroe County. 
   

Authentic Support for Youth Engagement in Social Justice

• Description: Youth engagement has remained an important part of programming. However, adults often hold onto strategies of control that can diminish youth opinions and thoughts; ultimately leaving youth to question the authenticity of those who claim to support their needs. In this session, we will discuss the importance of authentic support for youth engagement in social justice. We propose that adult support in youth programming relies on the understanding that youth are experts in their experiences. Further, adult support of youth engagement in social justice is a collective effort that builds a space for youth to commit to "doing the work" that has significant implications on their developing lives. Tennisha Riley (IUB) will discuss the use of youth participatory action research (YPAR) to create a community of support and collective engagement in issues that are most important to children and youth. Stephanie Serriere (IUPUC) will discuss how youth describe the types of support that are most helpful for their efforts toward social justice. Finally, youth co-presenters from MCCSC high schools will discuss their engagement in YPAR and experiences working toward building an inclusive and just learning environment. Q&A with youth co-presenters will follow the discussion of the session topic.

• Presenters: Tennisha Riley, Stephanie Serriere (she/her), Youth Participatory Action Research students 

• Presenter Bios: Tennisha is an assistant professor of human development in the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology - IU School of Education. She was trained as a developmental psychologist, with expertise in adolescent development and community-based research. Stephanie is a professor of education at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC) and instructor in the IU Political and Civic Engagement (PACE) program with expertise in youth civic engagement. 

• Session Resources: Authentic Support for Youth slides

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