-A Brief History of School-Based Wellness Centers -Overview of the initiation of the Wellness Program in SRCS -Challenges & Successes of building “a system within a system” -Cultural & Community reception and perception of mental health -Hopeful Future Goals for Wellness in Schools
Take-aways will include an overview of:
-How to manage funding challenges -How to navigate staffing challenges -How to respond to/manage staff, student & parent ideas about wellness/mental health -How to build a strong program that will last
● Participants will learn the background of Dynamic Mindfulness (DMind), a research-validated movement-based mindfulness practice. ● Participants will have the option to join in an experiential practice of Dynamic Mindfulness, which includes moving the body, breathing intentionally and centering the mind. ● Participants will learn how DMind is a trauma-informed practice and how to share it with others using trauma-informed delivery. ● Participants will learn strategies for how to integrate Dynamic Mindfulness into their workplace, school and classroom settings. ● Participants will walk away with a new set of tools to reduce stress in their personal and professional lives.
- Developing Sustainable Wellness Programs: Learn how to lead the creation and implementation of sustainable wellness programs by engrafting mental health interns, strengthening community partnerships with local universities, and fostering long-term mental health support structures in schools. - Leading Efforts to Address Racial Inequities: Understand the role of clinical supervisors in promoting mental health programming that addresses racial inequities and prioritizes culturally responsive care, creating an environment where all students feel supported and valued.
Mental Health continues to be a top priority for employers and employees across the country. Organizations have an opportunity to move toward a proactive approach to support teachers, administrators and staff by incorporating a mindset of mental fitness. Mental fitness is a combination of activities, habits, and attitudes that contribute to overall emotional health and wellness. Like physical fitness requires activity to get and stay fit and prevent health risks, mental fitness means actively doing things to manage and respond to stress and keep our emotions and mental state healthy. We will focus on how incorporating mental fitness into your organization’s culture can lead to greater workplace well-being, satisfaction and safety.
This Social Emotional Learning & the Arts Professional Development session explores how to use the arts as a vehicle for social-emotional learning (SEL). Participants will discover the five social-emotional learning competencies while integrating the arts with SEL. Participants will examine art lessons combined with SEL competencies conducive to a variety of instructional times.
Additionally, strategies and activities for arts-based SEL across visual and performing arts will be explored. At the culmination of the session, participants will be able to create or transform their own existing lessons to reflect SEL competencies taught through the arts.
Mentis is passionate about providing equitable, accessible, and effective mental health care to the youth in our valley. Our mission is based on educating, inspiring, and supporting the mental health needs of the community, including those with limited access to care. This presentation will focus on how our continuum of care is supporting the mental health needs of migrant youth and their families. The presenters will discuss the impacts of migration on mental health, barriers to accessing care, and share Mentis’ approach to supporting youth and families during this period of transition. Furthermore, the presenters will discuss the importance of caregiver engagement to create a culture of mental wellness across the family system. The primary takeaways for this presentation include raising awareness on the mental health needs of migrant youth, the importance of providing resources and engagement for caregivers, and the inclusion of bilingual/bicultural care to support youth with navigating this challenging life transition.
Session topic will cover best practices for teaching and supporting students who have experienced trauma, the impact of trauma on the brain and learning process, and the power of healing student/educator relationships in learner outcomes.
Building Community, showing empathy and a degree of self-disclosure is key to earning the trust of families to understand, see the benefits of and consent to counseling and mental health services for their students. Showing how at Cerritos we have used parent workshops, presentations, and Wellness Room visits we have seen great strides in getting parents on board with mental health services and helping to break the stigma of these important servives. We educate families by providing key facts and data about mental health, describe the response to intervention and 3 tiers of mental health supports at our site, we allow for open communication, address their concerns directly, highlight positive aspects of seeking help, and community engagement. We provide a tour of our Student Wellness Room so they parents can see what we are doing to help support mental health and social emotional learning. As a community school we have partnered with local mental health agencies to bring the mental health services to our student at our school site. We also link and refer tier three cases with wrap around services if needed.
In this session, participants will learn about Effective Classroom Practices to encourage equity and belonging within the classroom community. Participants will gain knowledge on the 18 Effective Classroom Practices and the concepts behind each, connections of the practices to student culture, current research behind the practices, and how to implement the practices within the classroom effectively. These Effective Classroom Practices will specifically facilitate equity, belonging and a stronger classroom community for historically marginalized groups.
This session will explore how schools can create nurturing learning environments that enhance student well-being and academic success. Participants will examine survey data trends from the Challenge Success Student Experience Survey, administered to over 350,000 middle and high school students and focused on student well-being, belonging, and engagement. They will gain valuable tools and strategies to improve student well-being and learn how schools across the country have used critical insights about the student experience to change policies and practices.
Participants will gain 1) A deeper connection between emotional balance, mindsets, and stress response. 2) Understanding how Protective and Cultural Patterns influence equity, cultural responsiveness, and bias. 3) Open Educational Resources (OER) that teach skills in Centering, Connection, and Collaboration.
In this session, participants will explore the essential components for establishing and maintaining effective, sustainable school-based wellness programs that support both students and staff. Using the Appreciative Inquiry framework, attendees will engage in a collaborative process to envision a wellness program implementation model, along with actionable best practices that can be tailored to any school community. This interactive session will guide participants through strategies for embedding wellness into the school culture, ensuring that mental health, well-being, and long-term support are prioritized for both educators and students. Participants will leave with a clear vision and concrete steps for fostering a school environment that promotes lasting wellness for all.
Learning Goals and Takeaways: 1. Attendees will actively participate in using the Appreciative Inquiry framework to design a customized wellness program model for their school or district. 2. Participants will learn the essential elements needed to create effective, long-lasting wellness programs that support both students and staff. 3. Participants will leave with actionable best practices and strategies for embedding wellness into the fabric of their school culture, making it adaptable to their specific educational environment. 4. Attendees will be guided through creating a sustainable vision for wellness in their schools, with a focus on fostering mental health and well-being over the long term for both educators and students.
This presentation will focus on strategically building and sustaining effective school-based wellness programs prioritizing mental health, racial equity, and youth empowerment. By bringing together best practices from school-based clinicians and administrators, we will explore innovative strategies that schools can use to address both the emotional and social needs of their students, especially in marginalized communities affected by trauma. Attendees will also learn how to actively engage youth voices and tackle the mental health stigma among students of color while leveraging new methods to expand services that address the social determinants of health. Presenting bold, innovative strategies will inspire schools to re-imagine how they support the mental well-being of all students, creating more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable communities.
Our session will highlight and discuss how both a mental health clinician and district social worker have been able to partner with school sites to increase school attendance and navigate school refusal/truancy. Anticipated take-away will be an understanding of the intersection between mental health and it's impact on school attendance and concrete strategies for partnering with families, students and school sites.
1. Inspire Innovative Thinking: Encourage participants to question traditional methods and explore creative, out-of-the-box strategies for supporting students.
2. Understand TIC: Provide a comprehensive overview of Trauma-Informed Care, including its principles, benefits, and the crucial role it plays in the classroom.
3. Advocate for TIC Certification: Discuss the importance of TIC certification for educators, alongside first aid and CPR, and why it should be a priority in California and beyond.
4. Practical Application: Share actionable strategies for integrating TIC practices into daily routines, creating a safer and more supportive environment for all students.
5. Call to Action: Motivate educators to take the next steps in advocating for and obtaining TIC certification, thereby becoming champions for their students' well-being.
Friday March 7, 2025 10:45am - 12:00pm PST
Ballroom
Employees in community behavioral health and education settings are regularly exposed to traumatic material. Students and clients carry trauma exposure ranging from difficult school transitions, immigration traumas, and intrafamilial violence. This manifests in school and treatment settings in increased mental health struggles and often problematic behaviors including but not limited to violence. Holding space for students and clients amidst their trauma response undoubtedly affects the good people working with them. Witnessing matriculated struggles, managing to keep milieus safe, and witnessing treatment and/or education “failures” can be a heavy weight for professionals to carry. Many training courses in trauma exposure focus on defining compassion fatigue, secondary and vicarious trauma, and exploring elements of self-care. This interactive presentation will focus on building a community of care and developing intention in navigating trauma affected systems to a place of post traumatic growth.
Presentation objectives: • Understand what makes a trauma affected system • Understand the difference between sustained trauma exposure in systems and single incident trauma • Understand how trauma exposure effects professionals in trauma affected systems • Understand meaning making and post traumatic growth • Discuss and explore intentional strategies of self-care, and to build communities of care
Quality supervision leads to quality mental health services. Learn best practices for supervising school-based mental health staff who provide tiers II and III services. Gain tips and strategies for supporting staff growth, monitoring service fidelity, and maintaining quality supervision during the busy school year.
In this workshop, participants will engage in a social emotional arts and theatre-based approach to explore stress and its effect on the body, identify their own stressors, experience different ways to become aware of their stressors, and practice tools and exercises for regulating the nervous system.
• Utilizes theatre and social emotional arts and learning to give adults experiential learning and opportunities to practice regulating themselves and co-regulating others. • Promotes destigmatizing and understanding stress through theatrical, experiential, and social emotional learning. • Engages participants in regulation activities and practice teaching these activities to co-regulate young people or adults. All regulatory practices are grounded in science. • Explores our individual brains and bodies and how they react to stress to become aware of when self-regulation is needed.
This workshop utilizes group drumming for regulation and to build core strengths such as focusing and listening, team building, leadership, expressing feelings, managing anger/stress, empathy, and gratitude. These practices come from the evidence-based Beat the Odds® program.
Participants will learn about the importance of the peer-led model, hear from youth mental health advocates, and participate in a variety of wellness activities hosted by students. Participants will also learn about Bring Change to Mind (BC2M) and our resources for our mental health awareness clubs in high schools across the country, including Napa, CA.
This presentation will focus on strategically building and sustaining effective school-based wellness programs prioritizing mental health, racial equity, and youth empowerment. By bringing together best practices from school-based clinicians and administrators, we will explore innovative strategies that schools can use to address both the emotional and social needs of their students, especially in marginalized communities affected by trauma. Attendees will also learn how to actively engage youth voices and tackle the mental health stigma among students of color while leveraging new methods to expand services that address the social determinants of health. Presenting bold, innovative strategies will inspire schools to re-imagine how they support the mental well-being of all students, creating more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable communities.
Participants will: - Walk through the four steps to guide the implementation or improvement of staff relaxation zones at schools or across districts. (1)Set a goal, (2)make a plan, (3)take action, and (4)sustain and evaluate. - Learn best practices and see examples to inform their plans. - Receive tips to support equitable access to established relaxation zones.
Core Concept: Staff Relaxation Zone – a space like a staff lounge or break room that is boundaried and intentionally set up for all staff to relax, decompress and attend to their wellbeing.
