TCWF 2012 Conference on the Health and Well-Being of Transition-Age Youth

October 17-18, 2012
Los Angeles, CA

CONFERENCE AGENDA

This year's conference aims to provide participants with opportunities to exchange knowledge and ideas, strengthen professional relationships, and explore strategies for advancing policy and practice involving runaway and homeless youth or youth who are exiting or have exited from foster care. This conference will highlight systemic changes, service delivery strategies, and programs and practices to improve the transition into adulthood for these youth.

Click here to view the final conference agenda.

PRE-CONFERENCE INTENSIVE SESSIONS

The pre-conference, half-day intensive sessions enable a limited number of participants to engage in a “deeper dive” into a specific topic area. A separate registration is required to participate in either one of the intensive sessions. As these sessions run concurrently, please register for only one.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Concurrent Pre-Conference Intensive Sessions
2 - 5:30 p.m.
Check-in for the Pre-Conference Intensive Sessions will begin at 1:30 p.m.

Helping TAY Heal: How to Embed Recovery from Trauma into Practice
We’ve been hearing for years about the brain biology of trauma and its long-term impact on young
people’s emotional, social, and physical health and well-being. How do we take the next step and help
TAY to heal?

This interactive session is designed for executive directors, program directors, and senior managers
who already have a basic understanding of the brain biology of trauma. We will start with a brief
overview of trauma-informed care, review how trauma affects children and youth, and what kinds of
challenges and opportunities this presents for agencies serving TAY. Then we’ll hear from experienced
panelists about how they have integrated trauma-informed care into their agency practices and
organizational cultures. Where are they seeing success in these efforts? Where are they struggling?
How do we ensure that kids who are the most traumatized aren’t always getting kicked out of our
programs? How do we support staff in applying and maintaining a trauma-informed perspective? We’ll
include time for your questions.

The session will also provide an opportunity to break out into small groups and discuss your own
experiences and questions around integrating trauma-informed care into your work. We’ll hear how
one agency used the Trauma-Informed Organizational Self-Assessment to change the way they provided
and organized their services, and talk about your own responses to the assessment tool. You will leave
this workshop with solid ideas on how to improve your organization’s processes and practices.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:
As part of the session curriculum, we are asking all participants in this session to take the Trauma-Informed Organizational Self-Assessment prepared by the National Center on Family Homelessness: www.familyhomelessness.org/media/90.pdf. The self-assessment takes 15-20 minutes to complete and is designed to help programs evaluate their practices and adapt their programming to support recovery and healing among their clients. This tool comes recommended by your peers in the field who have found it useful.

PLEASE BRING HARD COPY OF YOUR COMPLETED SELF-ASSESSMENT WITH YOU TO THE PRE-CONFERENCE INTENSIVE SESSION. We will not be collecting them but will be discussing the tool, your findings, and your agency’s questions and challenges in implementing trauma-informed care during the intensive.

Confirmed Presenters:
Aimee Armata, Larkin Street Youth Services
Daniel Ballin, Covenant House
Stephen Carroll, San Diego Youth Services
Rob Gitin, At the Crossroads
Steven Jella, San Diego Youth Services

To register for this intensive session, please complete the online registration form at: www.surveymonkey.com/s/TCWF2012TAYIntensiveHelpingTAYHeal

Realignment - What It Is, How It Could Affect the Youth You Serve, and What You Can Do About It.

This session will: (1) empower executive and program directors, direct service providers, and youth advocates to understand realignment of child welfare and mental health programs and how it might affect your programs; (2) teach you how to monitor the impact of realignment in your own county an advocate with county governments to protect youth programs from budget cuts and other negative outcomes; and (3) connect you with other allies in your county/region to coordinate advocacy efforts.

In 2013, transitional housing, mental health, social services, and child welfare programs in every California county will start experiencing the effects of a dramatic shift in program responsibility and fiscal authority from the state to the counties. Statewide advocacy organizations will have less ability to protect youth programs. The future of these programs will depend on organizing and advocacy at the county level. This means you!

Come to this session to learn what realignment is, how it could affect funding for your program, and
be empowered to advocate effectively in your own county. The session will include:
• an explanation of realignment of child welfare and EPSDT/mental health and its potential impact on youth programs
• an overview of the structure of county government and key advocacy strategies at the county level
• examples of effective post-realignment advocacy in large and smaller counties
• resources for advocacy and organizing
• a breakout session to connect and strategize with other participants from your county or region.

Confirmed Presenters:
Patrick Gardner, Young Minds Advocacy Project
Amy Lemley, John Burton Foundation
Martha Matthews, Public Counsel
Angie Schwartz, Alliance for Children’s Rights

To register for this intensive session, please complete the online registration form at: www.surveymonkey.com/s/TCWF2012TAYIntensiveRealignment

Should you have any questions, please contact Pia Bañez of Community Partners at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or (213) 346-3213.


HOME TRAVEL & ACCOMMODATIONS REGISTRATION CONFERENCE AGENDA RESOURCES