Northern Recharge 2020

Whether you know it or not, many youth in your afterschool programs have in the past or are currently experiencing some kind of trauma. It could be domestic violence or abuse at home, death or incarceration of a parent, or poverty and homelessness. Sometimes, we don't realize that many behavioral issues and choices kids make are a direct result of the trauma they've faced earlier in life. In this presentation, we will discuss both the causes and effects trauma has on youth, as well as how to deal with them in a trauma-informed way.

This session will help you teach soft skill topics, such as character education, mental wellness, leadership, resilience, and conflict resolution, organically. Educators will learn best practices for sustainable learning objectives and will receive take-home digital and offline resources. This session will help you recognize how useful digital resources can be, how to use them for ultimate impact, and how to make sure that experiential opportunities are infused into digital use.

A growing number of studies show a link between hidden biases and actual behavior. In other words, hidden biases can reveal themselves in action, especially when a person's efforts to control behavior consciously flags under stress, distraction, relaxation, or competition. If people are aware of their hidden biases, they can monitor and attempt to ameliorate hidden attitudes before they are expressed through behavior. Such efforts may, over time, reduce the strength of unconscious biases.

As discovered in Gary Chapman’s book "The Five Love Languages," each child has a special love language that fills up their reservoir the quickest. We will discover how to find the love language for yourself and for your students so that you can find greater connection and have the ability to nurture kids with love. Behavior will improve and your connections with the student will impact them for a life time.

The first step for creating a positive environment is making sure all youth feel safe and welcomed. We talk a lot about the importance of having trauma-informed and inclusive programs, but what does that look like? In this session, participants will learn the 6 components of a trauma-informed approach, reflect on what it means to have a trauma-informed and inclusive classroom, and develop concrete ways to practice inclusive and trauma-informed programming. Participants will walk away with inclusive and trauma-informed language, examples of how to empower and support their youth, and solutions of how to overcome barriers to creating a safe and inclusive classroom.

Social and emotional skills play a fundamental role in the attainment of academic goals. These skills help to channel attention to productive tasks, sustain motivation when work becomes demanding, and handle the frustrations of sharing and learning within a peer group. All of these skills depend upon the ability to understand and manage emotions. This is where mindfulness can be beneficial! Learning to Breathe is a mindfulness-based curriculum for youth. Mindfulness offers the opportunity to develop resilience in the face of uncomfortable feelings that otherwise might provoke a response that could be harmful.

This games-based workshop builds upon our fall session from Jump Start, explores the benefits play has on the social and emotional development of children, and includes opportunities to build game-play into a well-rounded program.

Attendees will learn and discuss Basic American Disability Act (ADA) laws, share situations and solutions in afterschool programming, and learn new skills to create an inclusive environment.