Supporting ADULTS so each YOUTH Thrives

Each Child Our Future, Ohio’s Strategic Plan for Education, hits the nail on the head with its whole child perspective.  We know more and more Ohio students are facing poverty and other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), which cause barriers to learning. In the last 10 years, Ohio has seen a 37% increase in childhood poverty.  In fact, more than half of all children in Ohio are economically disadvantaged. Unfortunately, Ohio has also become a national leader in heroin and synthetic drug overdoses, as well as infant mortality rates.

Dealing with and disrupting these trends pose challenges for our schools, after-school and summer learning programs, and any youth-serving organization. Collectively, we are charged with preparing each child for future success. With all of the rapidly changing technologies, we don’t really know what that future will entail, but we do know this will require educators and youth service providers to support youth in new ways.  Read on … for professional learning resources that will SUPPORT ADULTS so they can ensure #allkidsthrive. 

Miami University’s Center for School-Based Mental Health offers a wealth of resources and professional learning opportunities across Ohio.  Here are just a few options:

• Youth Mental Health First Aid – identify risk factors, learn about key topics including depression, anxiety, trauma and substance abuse; develop skills for intervening and supporting youth with mental health concerns or who are in crisis; and discover local resources to support your youth.
• Ohio’s Training Network for School Success – This is a great, one-stop resource where you can find tons of evidence and research informed prevention training.  The Miami team has already vetted the providers so that takes one less thing off your plate! 
• Success Conference – Mark your calendars for June 25-26, 2020.  The SUCCESS (Schools Understanding Critical Components Empowering Student Success) Conference will offer many creative sessions with concrete strategies you can use with kids and adults to support student success.  

EnvisionEdPlus also offers a variety of professional learning to address the mental health needs of youth and adults in  partnership with Jim Still-Pepper, one of Ohio’s premier mental health trainers. Here is a snippet of our offerings. Contact us to receive the full list of training options. 

• Brain Based Instructional Strategies for Supporting Trauma Impacted Youth. Develop an understanding of what is going on inside the brain when trauma is affecting it and how to identify the different filters youth use during the learning process.  Practical, hands on strategies adults can use in formal and informal learning settings to engage a student’s ‘thinking brain’ so instruction is more impactful and ensure learning ‘sticks’. 
• Learning Bridges Lab. Learning Bridges are hands-on, kid friendly, activities that teach youth important life skills and help create powerful heart to heart conversations between youth and adults.  This is a fast moving, hands-on lab experience based on Jim’s book, Learning Bridges. Participants learn to use and incorporate Learning Bridges into the work they do with youth.  This series offers nearly a dozen topics to personalize learning for educators or youth program staff. 
• “Do”-able Discipline–From A to Z.  Participants are asked to bring in their own real discipline problems, and throughout the day, we explore ways of creating a discipline system that works!  This workshop is driven completely by the needs/problems presented by the participants. No theory here—just practical, proven “stuff”.   
• Tug of War: Dealing with Power Struggles.  Whether it is an all-out battle of the wills, or button-pushing, or manipulation, “Tug of War” will explore the battles parents and kids often engage in.  We will look at ways of disengaging without creating more problems. Through this interactive workshop, participants will learn how to identify power sources, discover ways of disengaging and develop discipline authority.  

High Schools might also want to check out our Operation Graduation 2.0 Design Labs (OGDL 2.0) which are being held across Ohio to support high school teams in developing systems to support at-risk learners in meeting Ohio’s new graduation requirements.  Each of those events will highlight strategies for creating personalized graduation plans, processes for the early identification of at-risk learners, and partnership development to design or scale school- based wraparound service systems. 

Need funding to expand learning support PD?

AG’s Office School Safety Grants (Deadline: December 13). Every school (traditional public, community school, chartered non-public) is eligible to receive a minimum of $2,500 to address local needs on school safety and security. These funds can be used for training or equipment related to safety, mental health and healthy youth development.

ODE School Climate Grants (anticipated opening this month). These $5,000 grants target elementary schools (traditional public, community schools). Schools can use funds for training or resources to support school climate, healthy youth development and mental health for any school serving youth in grades K-3. While competitive, the most important thing to know about these funds is that they are based on date/time of submission. Plan NOW so that when grants open, you can submit right away.

Need advice? Want more information? Contact us and we are happy to assist!