You're invited to attend the August 2024 Institute for Strengthening Families!
Please visit https://august2024isf.my-trs.com/ or click HERE to begin your registration.
Early Bird Registration until August 1 will be $65 per person! Registration increases to $85 per person on August 1.
Save the Date: This virtual event will take place August 13-15, 2024
Speaker Highlights:
Arlene Vassell
Arlene Vassell will present two sessions, Roots, Equity and Liberation: Creating Inclusive & Welcoming Environments for All on August 14, and Healing Together: Supporting Children, Youth and Families Impacted by Domestic Violence on August 15. Arlene has devoted her entire career to ending and preventing gender-based violence, disrupting systems and structures of inequalities and oppression, promoting leadership advancement of people of color, and developing equity centered, trauma-informed, culturally relevant programming. For over 25 years, she has worked alongside and on behalf of individuals whose lives have been impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, homelessness, human trafficking, substance use, poverty, and other life altering situations. She currently serves as the Founding Director at the TooREL Institute for Social Change. She leads the strategic direction of the organization and supports a dynamic team of content area experts, strategists, healers and thought leaders to accomplish the organization’s mission, vision, and goals.
Debra Cady
Debra Cady, LCSW, will present Trauma Informed Supervision: Practical Strategies to Support Staff with Lived Experience on Tuesday, August 13. Debra Cady is the visionary founder and CEO of Silver Linings International, LLC, a certified woman-owned small business specializing in catalyzing positive transformations for individuals and organizations through targeted training and consultation. Debra combines her 35+ year career in behavioral health, specifically her experience as a trauma-informed manager and a certified Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator, to deliver virtual training courses. Her Trauma-informed Supervisor training has given hundreds of people the tools they need to create better engagement and authentic connections with staff (especially those with lived experience) and promote healing-centered energy in their workplaces.
Cendie Stanford
Cendie Stanford will be presenting Beyond the Blueprint: Unraveling the Impact of ACEs & Epigenetics on Thursday, August 15.
Cendie, an advocate for understanding and preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), leverages her personal and ancestral history of trauma to educate and inspire. With dual Master's Degrees and a business certificate from Rice University, she founded 'Adverse Childhood Experiences Matter' to make ACE research accessible to all. Cendie is dedicated to demystifying complex scientific concepts, ensuring that learning about ACEs is seen as a fundamental human right. Through public speaking and educational workshops, she aims to heal the "invisible mental wounds" of trauma, empowering communities towards recovery and resilience.
Dr. Gina Cook and Dr. Kere Belding
Dr. Gina Cook and Dr. Kere Belding with Sarana Consulting will present on Drawing the Line: How and Why to Set Healthy Boundaries in Home Visits on Wednesday, August 14. Gina and Kere both have over 20 years of experience in home visiting programs!
Dr. Ira Chasnoff
Dr. Chasnoff, an award-winning author, researcher and lecturer, is president of NTI Upstream and a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago. He is one of the nation’s leading researchers in the field of child development and the effects of maternal alcohol and drug use on the newborn infant, child, and adolescent. His research projects include multiple studies of the long-term cognitive, behavioral and educational developmental effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol, marijuana, and illicit drugs; strategies for screening pregnant women for substance use; the effects on birth outcome of prenatal treatment and counseling for pregnant women who misuse or abuse alcohol and other drugs; innovative treatment approaches for children affected by prenatal exposure to alcohol or illicit drugs, and effective policy development that benefits children, families, and society as a whole. Dr. Chasnoff led the development and operation of a laboratory preschool classroom to develop specific interventions for children prenatally exposed to alcohol and other drugs and developed a model Head Start Family Service Center for children and their families at risk from drugs and the drug-seeking environment. In addition, Dr. Chasnoff directed one of five national sites conducting research into the integration of behavioral health interventions into primary health care services for high-risk children and their families, and through this project studied the impact of concurrent planning on permanency placement for children in the foster care system. Since 2002, Dr. Chasnoff has been leading cutting edge research into innovative treatment for children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) and served as principal investigator for the development of a treatment intervention that has been recognized as an evidence-based model of therapy for children with FASD.
Brittany Johnson
Brittany Johnson, LMHC, is back, and she’s joined by our very own Missy Smith presenting Crossing the Threshold: A Deep Dive into Race, Privilege, and Microaggressions.
Other topics include: