What do parents want and need to raise children who grow into healthy, happy, caring and confident adults? According to the organizers of the fifth annual Strengthening Families Conference, parents and child and family welfare professionals who support them need evidence-based strategies for managing the overload of social and economic pressures they encounter today.
A gathering of parents and service providers
The virtual Strengthening Families Conference, hosted by Olympia-based Family Education and Support Services Regional Resilience Center (FESS) will be held Nov. 3 and is open to parents and professionals. So, if you have children, work with children, or you just simply care about kids, mark your calendar. Parents, foster parents and kinship caregivers, along with members of service organizations and daycare providers, also are encouraged to attend.
“This is a great opportunity for many families and for those who work with them to communicate with each other, share ideas and make new contacts,” FESS Executive Director Shelly Willis said in a recent release.
Nationally recognized speakers
Keynoting the conference will be two nationally recognized speakers: Ana Homayoun, academic advisor and early career development expert, and Mac Bledsoe, founder and president of the Parenting With Dignity Program.
A recent guest on ABC’s “Good Morning, America,” Homayoun is founder of Silicon Valley-based Green Ivy Educational Consulting and Luminaria Learning Solutions. Her work with tweens, teens and their parents has led to her authoring four books, including, “Erasing the Finish Line: The New Blueprint for Success Beyond Grades and College Admission.” The book advocates for a new approach from the restrictive measures used to prepare students for the “finish line” – landing successfully at college. She focuses instead on giving students a framework of skills for lifelong success – such as planning and multi-tasking, building close connections with others, being adaptable in the face of setbacks and expanding perspectives.
Bledsoe, a former teacher and coach, is also an author. Father of former pro football quarterback Drew Bledsoe, he wrote “Parenting With Dignity” and is founder of the program by the same name. The program is built on effective strategies for raising responsible, independent children by teaching parents and caregivers to rethink their approach to discipline, punishment and empowerment.
Evidence-based strategies
Conference sessions will revolve around the five “protective factors” that lead child and family health and well-being and provide participants with cutting-edge evidence-based resources and information, ideas and strategies for helping kids and families thrive, especially in the aftermath of trauma. Although the event was created for people whose work or advocacy efforts center around the lives of children and families, the training event is open to all parents, foster parents, kinship caregivers, members of service organizations, and daycare providers. interested in growing the five “protective factors” that lead child and family health and well-being.
Those five factors are parental resilience, social connections, knowledge of parenting and child development, concrete support in times of need and social and emotional competence in children.
FESS Program Director Scott Hanauer said in a release that the value of having parents, caregivers and professionals with varied backgrounds talking to each other is highly important, especially in a post-Covid world where “extraordinary stressors” have been observed in both parents and children. Their collaboration sends the message “they must care about me,” to children, he said. The virtual conference will reach beyond Washington to a national audience.
Registration details
A free pre-conference training session on the Question, Persuade, Refer virtual suicide prevention program will begin the day 8 to 9:30 a.m.
Cost to attend the conference is $50 per person, $450 per organization (up to 10 attendees) is registered before October 13. After that date, costs are $65 per person and $600 per organization. Continuing education credits in several disciplines are available.
To register or for more information, go to the Strengthening Families Conference webpage on the FESS website – or call FESS, 360-754-7629.
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