A1 - “Sesame Street Parental Addiction Initiative: A New Look”

Jerry Moe, MA, MAC Senior Clinical Advisor, National Association for Children of Addiction, National Director of Children’s Programs, Emeritus, Hazelden Betty Ford

Sesame Street in Communities launched the Parental Addiction Initiative in October 2019. Come and learn about new resources that teachers, counselors, prevention specialists, doctors, nurses, law enforcement, faith leaders, and caring adults can use to help and support children. These proven resources can also guide kids and families through difficult challenges about addiction in their families.

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A2 - “Illinois Bias Free Child Removal Pilot Program Overview”

Dagené Z Brown Director, Office of Racial Equity Practice, Illinois Department of Children & Family Services

Dr. Tamara Fuller Director, University of Illinois Children & Family Research Center

Removing a child from their family is a traumatic experience for everyone involved, not only for the child, but for the parent(s) and any other family members. Black children in Illinois are significantly overrepresented in the child welfare system relative to their base population. This workshop will provide a high-level overview of disproportionality in the Illinois Child Welfare System and the efforts of DCFS to mitigate the overrepresentation of Black children in care.

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A3 - “Combating Child Abuse with Canva”

Stephanie Jewett Director of Community Education and Training, McLean County Children’s Advocacy Center

Have you ever wondered how you can take your agency’s social media presence or branding to the next level with little to no budget? I’m going to show you how! This workshop will teach you how to use Canva, a graphic design platform that allows you to create professional-looking graphics presentations, and other visual content without any design experience.

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◊◊ A4 - “Addressing Barriers to Nurturing Fathering”

Jon Eck Parent Educator & Family Mediator, The Parent Place

Information will be provided on current American Academy of Pediatrics and the Academy of Join us for a discussion on addressing barriers to nurturing fathering, from a personal and professional perspective, highlighting the importance of engaging fathers in opportunities to learn to practice emotional competence, empathy, accountability, healthy self-care, and other nurturing parenting practices. This session will also explore the influence of intergenerational cycles of parenting attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors on individual resilience and fathers’ ability to overcome barriers to nurturing parenting.

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++ A5 - “Implementing Active Listening Skills to Enhance Safety”

Mark Benson Therapist, NSE Solutions, LLC

This session will focus on the impact of nonverbal and verbal communication to better enhance safety in the field. This session will include interactive group activities to demonstrate the influence these skills can have.

 

++ A6 - “The COFI Way of Building Parent Leadership in Early Learning Programs”

Jesse Rojo Organizer, Community Organizing and Family Issues

This workshop is an introduction to the Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) model for organizing and strengthening parent voices to advocate for matters that affect our families. Parents must be an integral part of decision making: they are the experts on their own families.