Ongoing Care and Wellbeing

Active Shooter Preparedness for Early Childhood Professionals

Andrew R Roszak, Executive Director, Institute for Childhood Preparedness

Target Audience: Administrators, Direct Service Providers, Directors, Teachers: New, Teachers: Experienced

Early childhood professionals need to plan for active shooter events just as they would fire, tornado, flood, or earthquake. This session will feature lectures, discussion, case studies, and videos to share evidence-based techniques and strategies on how to prepare for and respond to these incidents. This course is offered by the Institute for Childhood Preparedness and has been developed specifically for early childhood professionals.

Creating a Culture that Strengthens Health and Wellness through Community Collaboration

Becky Henderson, Nemours BrightStart! Intellectual Property; Kelly Rogers, Program & Policy Analyst II; and Natalina Zisa, Operations Manager, Nemours Children's Health System; Martha Fitzpatrick, Director, Early Head Start, Children's Home Society of Florida; Sonya Hill, Division Manager, Head Start Director, Orange County Head Start; and Bakari Burns, President & Chief Executive Officer, Orange Blossom Family Health System

Target Audience: Administration, Director's Family Support Staff, and Health/Wellness staff

In 2017, Nemours launched a Health Collaborative with Orange County Head Start (OCHS), Children's Home Society of Florida Early Head Start (CHS) and Orange Blossom Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Orlando, collectively striving to address physical health and mental wellness among underserved children and families in Central Florida. To date, the Collaborative has been instrumental in facilitating connections between Head Start and local community health-related resources that provide services for children and families in need. In this session, attendees will learn how to leverage with other health care systems and successfully bring together partners to provide services for children and families. The panel will discuss the benefits of a collaborative health model to meet annual Head Start requirements for medical home, dental home, dental care, follow-up dental care, and dental care for pregnant mothers. 

Building a Resilient Workforce: How to Get Started in Developing a Wellness & Wellbeing Initiative

Lily Cosico-Berge, PsyD, Sr. Associate VP/Clinical Psychologist and Damon Carson, JD, General Manager/Executive VP, Neighborhood House Association

Target Audience: Administrators, Director Service Providers, Directors, Family Support, Teachers: New, Teachers: Experienced, Training & Technical Staff

Our experience has shown us that meaningful and collaborative engagement with our workforce starts with the question, "What does wellness mean to you?" This launched our agency-wide "employee wellness survey," which provided robust data that we utilized to develop our "Wellness & Wellbeing Business Plan." Attendees will be provided survey and business plan templates that they can individualize for their use.

Trauma-Informed Child Care

Alina V. Soto, Statewide Quality Liaison, Florida Department of Children and Families, Office of Child Care Regulation

Target Audience: Directors, Family Support, Teachers: New, Teachers: Experienced

This interactive session raises awareness of trauma in early childhood. Participants will identify potential causes of trauma in early childhood, likely behavior as a result of trauma, how to address the child and the family, and how to create a trauma-informed child care setting.

Ages & Stages Tips for Children and Families 

Marisa Macy, Ph.D. University of Central Florida

Target Audience: Administrators, Director Service Providers, Directors, Family Support, Teachers: New, Teachers: Experienced, Training & Technical Staff

The presenter will share information about a widely used assessment and screening in early childhood classrooms. Participants will become familiar with details about developmental-behavioral screening and be able to identify methods for early identification of delay/disability.

ACEs Contribution to the Opioid Epidemic

Michael Harris, Director of Substance Abuse/Residential/Telehealth, Park Place Behavioral Healthcare

Target Audience: Administrators, Direct Service Providers, Directors, Family Support, Teachers: New, Teachers: Experience, Training & Technical Staff

Head Start supports families by providing a safe environment for children and connecting families to substance use treatment services and helping them access other essential services. This session will help participants learn the different Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) used to treat Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), best practices models, and up-to-date interventions utilized to combat the crisis. The presenter will review clinical scenarios and action steps to achieve the best positive outcomes from children and their families. Participants will leave empowered by gaining a new perspective on the opioid epidemic as it reveals a direct physiological connection between ACEs and opioid use later on in life.

Revisit, Rethink, Renew: The Art of Resiliency

Robin Hart, Trainer, Healthy Families Florida Training Institute

Target Audience: Administrators, Direct Service Providers, Directors, Family Support, Teachers: New, Teachers: Experienced, Training & Technical Staff

In the current economic climate reorganizing, downsizing and turnover are a reality for many programs. Existing research confirms a need to invest considerable energy in the staff that remains to "aid in recovery, fuel productivity, boost morale and minimize the damage to workplace trust." The "3 R's" training provides information and skill-building in areas to support supervisors and their staff as they revisit, rethink and renew their commitment while discovering how to do more with less after the shuffle. Team building exercises make this training a fun event!