“Mind”ful Camps: Embracing Practices to Create Equity for Neurodiversity

“Mind”ful Camps: Embracing Practices to Create Equity for Neurodiversity

The term neurodiversity casts a wide net, so thinking about embracing practices at camp that create more equity may feel a bit daunting. How can we cater to every youth’s needs, right? Take a moment and think … what if creating these practices could help foster inclusivity, comfort, and a sense of belonging at camp? Aren’t those things we already strive for? Join us as we talk about the benefits of embracing practices that help support neurodiversity at camp. Let’s work together as we continue to learn about neurodiversity, shift our perspectives to see all of the unique opportunities our campers bring to our programs, and find creative ways forward to create equity and inclusivity.

 

members only iconThis playback is available to active NACG members only.

Members must be logged into the member portal to access the playback. Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

 

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals
Instructional Level: Intermediate – This best describes a topic or issue that the audience likely has a theoretical foundation for understanding and/or a working knowledge.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

 

 

Objectives:

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

  • Identify the importance of embracing practices to help neurodiverse campers.
  • Create a toolbox of neurodiverse-friendly  activities and outlets to be used in the camp setting.
  • Demonstrate communication skills to help caregivers identify neurodiverse needs their camper may have at camp.

 

Speaker Bio:

Kiri Meyer, MS, LPC, NCC, RYT, is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Wisconsin, a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC), and a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200). Kiri has spent over a decade helping to support individuals and families of all ages through individual/family counseling and camp-based programs. Kiri supports camp and other non-profit programs by acting as a Mental Health Professional throughout the camp program or as needed for other programs. She has conducted trainings in the areas of trauma and bereavement throughout her professional career and is now part of the Eluna Camp Erin team helping to support professionals in the Camp Erin network.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.

 

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:

Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.

The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.

The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.

The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.

National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers.  State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course.  ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 continuing education credits.

Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.

To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.

Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please make sure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event. 

CE Certificate retrieval request: The NACG maintains continuing education records for at least six years from the date of completion of the educational event which include: the name and curriculum vitae of the presenter, a record of attendance, an outline of the course, date, and location of the course, and the number of hours for completion of the course. If you attended a CE educational event and need a copy of your CE certificate, please complete this form to obtain a copy: https://nacg.wufoo.com/forms/qfsln7r1twqpty/. Please note if the education event was more than 90 days ago, and a required evaluation was not completed, a certificate cannot be provided per the policy.

Grievance policy:  To view the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy, you can find it HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.

In Today’s World: Cultivating Collective Intercultural Wellbeing and a Sense of Belonging in the Community

In today’s multiple pandemics of oppression, mass trauma, forced migration, COVID-19, and climate change, there is sustained traumatic stress with corresponding opportunities to heal. Historic, collective, and intergenerational trauma have spread dis-ease throughout human nature. Humanity has experienced more and more fragmentation, collective violence, and isolation.

In this workshop attendees will begin to understand the effects of collective loss due to war, persecution, and terrorism, its impact on children and families, as well as healing through the re-establishment of belonging. “Humans sitting within trauma from war, persecution, and terrorism tell us over and over again how much the systems of oppression need to change for healing to occur. In fact, they state that the first step in healing is not so much about revealing the darkest traumatic memories. The greatest healing, they report, is having a sense of belonging in the community.” (St. Thomas, Sheffield and Johnson. (2024) Collective Trauma and Human Suffering.)

Participants will learn the growing pains and evolution of a 25 year old bereavement and intercultural program. We will share a documentary film on collective loss produced by the Intercultural Advisory Council at the Center for Grieving Children in Maine. This documentary shares the added complexities of cross cultural definitions of collective loss, grief, as well as acculturative stress. We will explore inhibitors of cross-cultural communication and the five essentials of collective healing towards belonging.

members only iconThis playback is available to active NACG members only.

Members must be logged into the member portal to access the playback. Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

 

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

 

Objectives:

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

  • Identify at least three strategies in bringing belonging to intercultural settings.
  • Identify the top three inhibitors to cross-cultural communication.
  • Learn the five essentials to collective healing.
  • Explore and identify at least one initiative in implementing collective healing into their organization.
  • Identify at least two added barriers to healing when resettling from war and persecution.

 

Speaker Bios:

Marie Sheffield, MA, LCPC, is a clinical counselor, art therapist, co-author and interculturalist, working in the field of mass trauma, intercultural communication and collective healing. In addition to being an adjunct professor at University of Southern Maine, she has spent two decades enhancing and implementing a collective healing and intercultural model with those resettling from war and persecution. Additionally, over the course of ten years, Marie was one of two mental health consultants for America’s Camp, a six day overnight camp supporting children who lost a parent(s) on 9.11, or in the course of duty. At the Center for Grieving Children, while developing intercultural and diversity training curriculum, she established an Intercultural Advisory Council producing documentary films and community conversations across differences. Marie also completed a fellowship with the Intercultural Communication Institute. Since then, Marie has become a senior facilitator of Personal Leadership (plseminars.com) and incorporates this model in all of her work. As co-founder of Bridge to Belong Consulting (bridge2belong.com), her training and consultations are focused on bringing skills of collective healing support into the healthcare, education and community systems.

 

Justine Mugabo, BS, is the Intercultural Program Coordinator at the Center for Grieving Children. She works with facilitators in social and educational institutions to provide collective healing support and growth for children resettling from war and persecution. She states that her passion is to “help people in achieving their dreams and goals.” According to Justine, “Our goal at the Center is to help children and families to find hope and love and increase belonging in order to express feelings safely relative to the grief and loss. Such building of community resilience is a resource to persevere in the World.”

Justine is a Board Member for In Her Presence, an immigrant owned non-profit supporting asylum seeking women in navigating pathways forward. She collaborates in developing policy, programming, and resources and provides direct support. She also spends her time on the board of Double Hope Children, an immigrant owned non-profit working to support the needs of children resettling from war and persecution.

Before resettling into the United States herself, Justine worked in customer service management with the Mobile Telephone Network of Rwanda. With her lived experience, training and leadership position Justine has developed effective skills in intercultural communication, collective healing support and knowledge.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.

Starting a Spanish Program Guide

Interpersonal Loss and Bereavement Among Refugees

The world is experiencing the highest volume of displaced people due to reasons ranging from natural disasters to political unrest. In 2019, there were 26 million refugees worldwide (UNHCR, 2021). The United Nations (2021) defines refugees as “persons who are outside their country of origin for reasons of feared persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or other circumstances that have seriously disturbed public order and, as a result, require international protection” (para. 1).

Refugees’ experiences are dangerous and often traumatic, such as living in a war zone, witnessing violence, torture, murder or disappearance of family members or friends, and confinement, as well as traveling treacherous journeys in horrible conditions, often without food or water, and sometimes having to separate from family members.  Therefore, refugees may be at risk of experiencing a complicated form of bereavement. Scholars have urged the importance of humanizing refugees and creating welcoming communities among nations that welcome refugees. The presenter will introduce the unique aspects of refugee loss and bereavement. The presenter will discuss strategies and interventions for providing services to youth from refugee backgrounds. The presenter will also share practical considerations for community collaboration and advocacy to support refugee youth. Attendees will gain knowledge on how to provide culturally responsive services for refugee youth and their families.

members only iconThis playback is available to active NACG members only.

Members must be logged into the member portal to access the playback. Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

 

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals
Instructional Level: Intermediate – This best describes a topic or issue that the audience likely has a theoretical foundation for understanding and/or a working knowledge.

 

Objectives:

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

  • Identify and describe the unique aspects of refugee loss and bereavement.
  • Identify and describe special considerations in working with refugee youth.
  • Discuss specific strategies and interventions for providing services to youth from refugee backgrounds.
  • Discuss community collaboration and advocacy efforts for supporting youth from refugee backgrounds.

 

Speaker Bio:

Dana T. Isawi, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of counseling at Northern Illinois University. She joined NIU in the fall of 2017. Isawi has experience in teaching a variety of graduate courses in mental health counseling, school counseling and play therapy as well as providing supervision for graduate students. Isawi has clinical experience in the school and community settings both locally and internationally. Her professional experience also includes counseling intervention development, implementation and evaluation.

Isawi’s research and presentations focus on multicultural issues in counseling, especially on the traumatic experiences of refugees and counselors working with trauma survivors. Her presentations also focus on cultural considerations in play therapy and in working with families from diverse backgrounds.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.

 

Peer Deaths: Supporting Students Grieving within the context of Racial Trauma & during COVID-19

*This playback is available to active NACG Members Only.

Black Youth and Family Bereavement: A Strengths Perspective

*This playback is available to active NACG Members Only.

Working with Grieving Immigrant Youth

Gender & Sexuality: Awareness & Responsiveness

 

This training provides healthcare professionals with the necessary skills to offer more mindful, resourceful, and inclusive support to their clients. There is a focus on the intersectionality of biological sex, gender, and sexuality as it pertains to identity development. We will also explore the necessity of trauma-informed care as it relates to the clinical implications of marginalization, and how we can utilize our positions to create safer spaces for our clients.

Exploring Día de los Muertos as a Way to Support Bereavement Programming

*This playback is available to active NACG Members only.

Bereavement and Collective Loss in Serving Intercultural Children and Youth

*This playback is available to active NACG Members Only.