State of the Child Forum, May 2017 On May 5th, 2017, key community stakeholders, including local agencies, school systems, the medical and behavioral health communities, political figures, media and others came together to learn about childhood trauma and to brainstorm more effective ways of preventing, identifying and treating childhood trauma. Action planning groups brainstormed ideas for community change. A steering committee will meet monthly for at least the year after the Forum to provide vision and direction for implementing the changes.
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Click photo to view forum recording.
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Lunch at Mt.Vernon for the 2018 States of the Child/ State of the Community Forum. (no recording) |
State of the Child/State of the Community Forum, April 2018The 2018 conference held in Boone on Tuesday, April 17, was a huge success as evidenced by a crowd of 300-plus people filling Mount Vernon Baptist Church for the day-long event. Multiple breakout sessions led by area professionals — representing healthcare, law enforcement, education and others — focused on a variety of related topics that proved helpful to all in attendance. Those session topics included everything from early childhood development, love and logic, advocacy, law enforcement interventions for building and maintaining trust in the community, to becoming a compassionate school, positive parenting, self-care, stress management, every day trauma support, community health, effects of domestic violence on children— and so much more. (Sherrie Norris)
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WCCI Conference, May 2019On Saturday, May 4, 585 people convened for the third annual event to raise community awareness about trauma and to build resilience to recover from its impacts. This year’s conference featured nearly 100 presenters and four breakout sessions with dozens of classes and presentations from which to choose. The opening and closing speakers were two local women, Jessi Resendiz and Mary McKinney, who shared their personal stories of trauma and how they worked to overcome the impacts of those experiences. After three years of the initiative, its leaders are hearing about the ways it is impacting Watauga community members, who feel it has opened their eyes and given them permission to both acknowledge their past and be hopeful about the future, Presnell said. And although there will always be more work to do, the initiative is exploring ways to assess its progress toward becoming a “trauma-informed community.” (Anna Oakes)
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