Learn about the upcoming 7th Annual Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools Conference.

Learn about the upcoming 7th Annual Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools Conference.

Learn about the largest gathering of trauma-informed educators in the United States with Ginger Healy and Kimberly Smathers. The 7th Annual Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools Conference is dedicated to building trauma-reformed schools. It is being held in Dallas, Texas, on February 18-23, 2024. Registration is now OPEN.

Feb 18th Academy Day Preconference
Feb 19-20 In-Person Conference
Feb 22-23 Virtual Conference Online

https://www.attachmenttraumanetwork.org/conference/

Join us live to learn more about this amazing upcoming event.

Ginger Healy MSW, LCSW, is a clinical social worker who began her career as a non-profit case manager and child abuse investigator. She then became a hospital social worker and spent 15 years as the social service supervisor at an international adoption agency and was able to travel to provide support for orphanages all over the world. This job continues to inform her work on attachment and trauma needs in children. After serving in that capacity, she worked as a school therapist and served on the charter school board. She is currently the director of programs for the Attachment & Trauma Network. She co-anchors the podcast “Regulated and Relational” and speaks nationwide on trauma-informed schools, therapeutic parenting, and community engagement. Ginger is also the author of Regulation and Co-Regulation: Accessible Neuroscience that Brings Calm into the Classroom.
Kimberly Smathers brings over two decades of experience in strategy, research, system design, policy, and communications across the health and human service, education, and nonprofit sectors. As Principal and Owner of Flourishing Spark LLC, she collaborates with organizations striving to create supportive systems and environments for human flourishing, especially for those whose experiences are shaped by sociodemographic disparities, trauma and toxic stress, neurodiversity, complex health conditions, and functional limitations.

Kimberly serves as the Vice President of the Attachment and Trauma Network Board of Directors and as the Parent Education Programming Chair for the Family Association at Bennett Day School. She holds an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and a human-centered design certificate from Ideo U. She resides in Chicago with her husband and son.

Transcript

Guy Stephens: 0:12

Well, hello and welcome and you're not imagining things. It is a Tuesday and we are here we are not usually here on Tuesdays. We're usually here on Thursdays. But we are here for a special as our Live. My name, of course, is guy Stevens. I'm the founder and executive director of the alliance against seclusion and restraint. And we're here today to talk about something pretty special and exciting, which we'll get to in a second. Those of you that may not be familiar with the Alliance, started the Alliance about four and a half years ago. And we were really formed to raise awareness about the use of restraint and seclusion. But beyond that suspension, expulsion, corporal punishment, all the things that are often done to kids very often, and then it will behavior and the kind of the negative outcomes of those things can lead to and we're really here to advocate for changes, we want to move away from punitive discipline and behavioral approaches into better approaches that better support teachers, students, and staff, really excited today to come to you and share with you some exciting news. I have with me today, Ginger Healy and Kimberly Smothers, and we're going to talk about the seventh annual creating trauma sensitive schools Conference, which is an event I've been to for the last two years now. And we'll be going back to this year. And it's something that you may want to put on your calendar as well. So we'll tell you more about that in a second. I do want to let you know that. As always, even though this is a special session, it is being recorded. So you can go back and watch this or listen to it later. If you're not able to watch the whole thing now. And it's available on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. You can also listen to it as an audio only podcast, if you want to listen on the go, you can do that. And you can get it on Spotify or Apple music wherever you might listen to podcasts. We'll just say one quick special thing before we get to introduce our guests. And that is, since the day is the day that it is. And it is giving Tuesday, I just wanted to put a quick plug here for the fact that it is given Tuesday. And if you want to support our work of the alliance against seclusion restraint, we would encourage you to consider making a donation that helps us to do the work that we're doing to change policies and law, to provide education and awareness and, of course, the offer training and family support. So if you'd like to, there's a link there, which is ASR news slash Giving Tuesday, and we'd love for you to support our work here. So with that, let me go ahead and introduce you to our special guests that we have here with us today. And I will give you a review a bio on both of these amazing people. And then we'll we'll start a conversation. So ginger, I'm gonna start with you. Because well, you're the first one on the list here. So it makes it easier, right? I've got this great introduction. Let me just say ginger is my friend and colleague and amazing person, but

Ginger Healy: 2:49

let's leave it at that. That's the whole thing. I want people to know who you

Guy Stephens: 2:54

are so that they know all the amazing things about you. And of course, you're a clinical social worker and you begin your career as a nonprofit case manager and child abuse investigator. You then became a hospital social worker and spent 15 years as the social service supervisor at an international adoption adoption agency was able to travel to provide support for orphanages all over the world. This job, continue to inform your work on attachment and trauma needs and children and after serving in that capacity. You work as a school therapist and served on the charter school board. You are currently the Director of Programs for the attachment and trauma network, which is an amazing organization. And you co chair, you co anchor the podcasts regulated and relational. And you speak nationwide at Trauma Informed schools therapeutic parenting, community engagement, and you are also the author of regulation and CO regulation, accessible neuroscience that brings calm into the classroom. And I know you just as amazing friend, colleague and somebody out there that's doing really amazing work to change the world. Of course, you're a social worker. And you know what I say about social workers are some of my favorite people in the world. You won't find people that care more about people typically than social workers. So great to have you here. Ginger as always, Kimberly Smithers and Kimberly brings over two decades of experience in strategy research, system design, policy and communication across the health and human services, education and nonprofit sectors. As principal owner, flourishing spark LLC, she collaborates with organizations striving to create supportive systems and environments for humans flourishing, especially for those those experiences that are shaped by socio demographic disparities, trauma and toxic stress, neurodiversity complex health conditions, and functional limitations. Kimberly also serves as the vice president of the attachment and trauma network board of directors and the parent education program in chair for the Family Association at Bennett Day School She holds an MBA from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management and a human centered design certificate from IDEO U, and resides in Chicago with her husband and son. And it's great to have you here as well, Kimberly, human centered design, it's interesting because my background actually was in well, my background. Academically was in biology, environmental science. But my career was spent doing a lot of design and web web work. And actually, kind of user experience and usability and all those things are very much of my wheelhouse. So I saw human centered design, I'm like, Oh, that's really exciting. Actually, a certificate a couple of years ago, I did a program on information design and information architecture was very, you know, kind of focused in that area as well. People that understand that understand and see the world differently. So I appreciate it. So it is good. to have you both here. Yeah, absolutely. So we're here for a reason, not that we're never here not for reason, although we probably could be we could probably just get together and have conversations. And I think they'd be interesting, but you know, maybe others don't. I do want to get folks that are watching live an opportunity to let us know who they are and where they're joining us from, because it's always fun to see where people are joining us from and of course, we are here for a mission, we are here to talk about the seventh annual schools conference. And what's beautiful about this is it we're going to be talking about an event that any of our any of our audience might attend, whether it be in person or virtual, because we have people that are part of our community from all over the world. And it's not unusual that people from New Zealand or Australia or the UK that are on on when we do these live events. So really excited. So let me just get a couple of comments here. Let's say Jodi up some of my comment here disappeared. Jodi said ginger is brilliant. And as authentic and genuine as they come. I pay her a lot. But she does a really great job with it. Let's see. neurodivergent by nature hello from the beautiful west coast of Canada. All right, fantastic. And we've got let's see, Trisha from Phoenix, Arizona. So people are beginning to jump on the call with us here. So let's talk about why we're here. Why don't you start ginger and tell us what is the seventh annual creating trauma sensitive schools conference? Awesome.

Ginger Healy: 7:31

We are so excited for this conference every year. We look forward to it. And it is our seventh annual and we have just grown every year. So it's just bigger and better every year. So creating trauma sensitive schools. So of course, we are catering to educators of all kinds. We want everyone who works with a child. We're talking about teachers in this classroom, but we're also talking about school board members, school leadership, superintendents, we've had bus drivers come to our conference, we've had lunch staff, custodial staff, these are all people who come in contact with children every day in the school building and outside the school building and have influence in a child's life. And so that's what this is, is surrounding the children in our lives with these buffer relationships that are trauma aware, trauma informed trauma sensitive and trauma responsive. And so this creating trauma sensitive schools conference, this is our seventh year and as post COVID. We have adopted now this hybrid model where we're doing two asynchronous conferences during the week. So February 18 19th, and 20th. We will be live in person in Dallas, Texas. at the Hilton Anatole, that's where what the conference will be. And then we'll take a break Wednesday, and then Thursday and Friday, we'll move to the virtual platform. So anyone who cannot come in person to Dallas can come virtually and those who have come to Dallas can also come virtually to you get the opportunity to do both. So that's really exciting. It is two separate conferences, there will be different speakers, different keynote, the the quality of the speakers, the content that will be shared. I cannot even wait to dive into who is speaking and what they're speaking about because it is just such a beautiful gathering. Even virtually this gathering of like minded people with the same mission and hearts the for the healing of children, and for the purpose of creating trauma sensitive schools, it's powerful, it's impactful, and you don't want to miss it. We are the largest school conference in the world. And we welcome everyone from all over the world. And we welcome all educators of all kinds. And Kimberly, we'll get into how our conferences not just for educators, how it can really be impactful for those in any field because of the, you know, researched based and scientifically backed, influence information and sessions that we will teach we have speakers from, that are educators and that are come from different backgrounds as well. So I, you know, stop me, because I'll just go on and on about how excited I am for our conference.

Guy Stephens: 10:52

Why and it sounds like you, you you just open up a good door for Kimberly to jump in and talk a little bit about, you know why this is for all people. And you know, and aside from that, I'd also like to hear what you're really excited about, about this particular event that's coming up. So Kimberly, why don't you take it away? And tell us a little bit more about why this is really a great event for lots of different kinds of people? Yeah,

Kimberly Smathers: 11:15

absolutely. And you're right, I mean, ginger, this can be so impactful for parents and caregivers, faith leaders, community leaders, the local boy scout leader, I mean, if you have children in your life in any form, I think there's something to gain. I'm not an educator myself, I've done some work in educational settings. But when I first came to the conference, I don't think I had a moment of feeling like, gosh, I am somehow missing something or feeling to soak in information. Because of that. I felt it on a personal level, I better understood my own experiences and the impacts they had had, I felt it as a parent, I, you know, immediately came home with a book list and more strategies and more, you know, concepts of how to really co regulate how to problem solve, you know, I pulled Ross screens book one of our keynotes off the shelf the other night to say, Hey, I've got a sticky thing. I really want to come at this in a way that's collaborative. How can I best do that? So I think there's really something there for everyone. And regardless of where you're whether you're coming in with that educational background, or if you're feeling quite expert in this, or maybe it's kind of new, all of those are perfectly good entry points to get something out of the conference. So I'm as excited as ginger and I don't even have my teacher badge.

Guy Stephens: 12:41

And is there something in particular this year that you're really excited about? Or speaker that you're really excited about? Or what is it this year that as you're looking at what's on the agenda that you think, Ah, I can't wait to hear or see this? Well,

Kimberly Smathers: 12:56

there's a couple that I just was hard to think who do I want to try to call it because there really are so many that first I'll name it for myself, which is Jessica sinner ski. So she's one of the first people I met my first year at the conference, just a wonderful human being. But I think playing such a critical role in the space. I see gingers got her books at the ready. And she's got another one that's very new, and just came out as well, my mazing brain, I think, oh, yeah, I've got it upstairs in my son's room, because he's interested in it. But it's such a wonderful bridging and my mind of this kind of information in a way that is frankly quite accessible for adults to learn to, in that graphic format. But for children to really be met where they are in a way that's so child centered, so effective. So I'm always excited to hear what she has to say, Chair, I think she's doing just amazing work and getting the message out. And the second I wouldn't mention, and I'm gonna apologize in advance if I'm saying the last name wrong, it wasn't sure, but it's Jennifer abernant. And I think that you've done some work with her guys, so you feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. But um, I have just more recently learned about Jennifer's work. And I am just so excited to hear her take on trauma as it relates to neurodiversity. I feel like that's a conversation that I've not seen as much of personally, I know there's some out there many other great people doing that work. But I feel like this is some of the most salient work we need to be doing when it comes to really understanding how environments are perceived so differently by different children, and how trauma can be kind of layered on in these ways that we really need a grasp on to be effective and responding to those children. Yeah,

Guy Stephens: 14:47

that's fantastic. And Jennifer Curtis is somebody that I've known for, I would say, almost as long as is. I've had the Alliance going which has been going on five years probably in in Jennifer for at least four years. And of course, our interest in this came from some shared experience. But Jennifer is actually at an alliance volunteer as well, and is working with our team and doing some amazing work. So I'm really excited to hear that.

Ginger Healy: 15:17

And let me say, Jennifer is speaking at our virtual conference. So if you want to hear her speak, and I feel like the topic that she's speaking on, everybody needs everybody could really benefit from hearing her, she will be speaking at our virtual conference. And then Jessica sidarsky, who Kimberly also pointed out, she will be at our in person conference. So you can already start to see you're gonna want both. Because the Phenom, the lineup of speakers is phenomenal. And

Guy Stephens: 15:54

if you do the virtual conference, do you have a certain amount of time that you can watch it? Or do you have to watch it all live or

Ginger Healy: 16:01

this is, this is one thing that we absolutely love about the virtual conference is that it's recorded, so you can attend it live and watch it live. And you can continue to watch and rewatch the sessions that you loved. And for me, I need to rewatch to remember everything. And since you can't watch every single person live, then you can watch them all virtually. So it gives you access to the whole conference. And oh, I don't I may quote this wrong. It's like 30 to 60 days, you have it for a month or two that you can rewatch and that is really powerful to be able to have access to those recordings for so, you know, for ongoing training. Right. So

Guy Stephens: 16:55

so my recollection and understanding is that you know, you so we've got the in person conference, and that's in Dallas right. Now, before the conference starts, you have an academy day, what is Academy day? And is that part of the conference? Is that separate from the conference? How about Academy day?

Ginger Healy: 17:14

Yeah, I'm so glad you asked. Academy D is our pre con. So the in person conference is February 19, and 20th, Monday and Tuesday, but Sunday, February 18 is our pre Khan Academy day. Now this is really where the deep dives happen. So most sessions are going to be you know, an hour or so long. But the academy day sessions are three hour Deep Dive. So this is particularly valuable for those who are new to the trauma informed field and want to get like the basic 101 deep dive and go right in. But we also have in addition to that, if you have been in the trauma informed movement for several years, and you want to dive deeper into concepts that we never seem to have time for, we have that as well. So we have a range of speakers to choose from what

Guy Stephens: 18:12

what's happening. Tell me what's exciting what's happening on Academy day that I was excited about.

Ginger Healy: 18:16

We've got deep dives into restorative justice with Joe Bremmer, we have deep dives into what's called Bala vizac. So Meghan Baldwin, who I know you've had on your show before, and the thing about Meghan, and what she does is, it's so rich and so deep that we never have enough time with Megan, we want more and more and more. So that's where you're gonna get that with the deep dives. We also have Rebecca Lewis pan Kratts from s doc who she's an expert in her field and in poverty simulations and socioeconomic status and how to bridge the gap between parents and the school. And we also have guy Stephens and Susan Driscoll guide. Do you want to kind of touch on what you and Susan earners be speaking on in your deep dive?

Guy Stephens: 19:04

Well, you know, I don't know that I was really ready for that. But sure, why not. So we're actually going to be talking about a brand new program that we've been collaborating with the Crisis Prevention Institute on, which is actually due out in May of this coming year. But we've been working on a program called reframing behavior. And you know, I'll say at a really high level, part of the the goal behind that we started collaborating with CPI about a year and a half ago. And part of the goal is really to go upstream. I'm always talking about getting upstream. And how do we you know, for instance, avoid a crisis situation? Well, we do that by going upstream by understanding trauma by understanding a brain aligned approach. So this is a opportunity through this partnership to bring some of this science into mainstream schools that haven't been traditionally reached by a lot of the work that's out there. So we'll be talking about the new program and it's really going to be kind of one of the first, you know, public is the wrong way to put it, I guess. But one of the first, you know, sneaks beneath the hood of what we're doing with this new program, and we're really excited to talk about it.

Ginger Healy: 20:15

Oh, it's, it's gonna be powerful. And, and we have other speakers on Academy day two, it's really there is something for everybody. And I just love I hear so often from attendees that we want more, we need more like it's just, and so this gives you an opportunity to really get everything you need, and more. And Academy days is separate. So when you register for the conference, you'll register if you want Academy day, you're going to register for that, in addition, so watch for that. And the really great thing right now and it's really crucial, while we're hot. Why we're doing this live right now is that we are in registration is open. And earlybird pricing is in effect right now. And it ends December 15. So please, you know, this is the time to register to get really deep discounts. And there's also discounts for groups. And so if you're wanting to bring a large group from your school, this is the time to do it to get the group discount to get the early bird discount. Don't miss out on that pricing.

Guy Stephens: 21:23

Fantastic. And I just pulled up the web page as well. Of course, I believe my my friend and colleague Connie persik is also doing Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Which will probably be fantastic. No, lots of great stuff.

Ginger Healy: 21:36

She's amazing. She is an expert. I mean, honestly, all of our speakers are the cream of the crop best of the best we had, I don't even remember the number over 200 people apply to be speakers and they were really all amazing. And but our speakers are truly we vet them. They are experienced, they are knowledgeable they are in the building. They know what they're talking about. They have years of experience. So you are not going to find better quality of speakers and sessions and content anywhere else.

Guy Stephens: 22:13

So let's talk a little bit about you know, I know there are a number of just amazing people throughout the entire event. But let's talk about the some of the keynotes that you have both for the in person and for the virtual conference and I'll let either of you take that away but who are some of your keynotes

Ginger Healy: 22:31

very early to talk about Ms. Nadine Burke Harris because I get speechless when I talk about her so Kimberly's got

Kimberly Smathers: 22:43

well i I'll admit that I kind of have like a nerdy celebrity approach like I'm not I don't get so into musician sometimes, but I I have been like obsessed fangirl with Nadine Burke Harris. But let me tell you why. And I think you all might feel this way too. For anyone who doesn't know. Nadine Burke Harris and just she's the virtual keynote. I can't remember

Ginger Healy: 23:07

our closing virtual keynote. Yeah,

Kimberly Smathers: 23:11

she's she's was started as a pediatrician and was the first Surgeon General of California. But she has done so much conceptual and on the ground work around adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress, and really working in those environmental and those broader factors to affect the health of the children she was serving in her, you know, in person clinic in California and has gone on to do so much more at kind of a systemic level and thinking about the broader system changes that relates to aces and health. So I can't think of a better perspective to infuse to this group, it just has relevance across so many domains, whether it's healthcare, education, social systems, built environments. So just delighted that we'll have a chance to hear from her.

Ginger Healy: 24:03

Yeah, it's an honor. And while we're just talking about the virtual conference in keynotes, Stuart Shanker and Susan Hopkins and guy you know them very well. So you also know how amazing they are. There really isn't, in my opinion, a kinder more gentler person than Susan and and really Stewart to and knowledgeable in, you know, regulation. I don't know guy you probably could give a even better plug than I could because you're you have worked with them up in Canada. Sure. Sure.

Guy Stephens: 24:39

And, you know, I had the pleasure of knowing both both sword and Susan for some time now and their work, of course, at the the merit Center, which is the the organization that Stuart had started, of course, has been in this work for many years and has more knowledge than anybody I think I've ever come across what the brain science piece of it is, you know, what I love about Dr. Shankar is not only does he have this huge, you know, dynamic, you know, kind of foundation of knowledge and experience, but he continues to learn and bring new information. Always. Yeah, and, of course, they developed, you know, the kind of the self reg approach, which is amazing and have done a lot of work, you know, really in Canada and the United States as well, but I think haven't been as well known here in the US and you know, we've done an event together Gosh, about a year ago with the attachment trauma network of the Alliance, and had both Susan and stored and was really excited to have them joining this year for the creating trauma sensitive schools conference. So I think that'll that'll really definitely be exciting. I had the opportunity over the summer to go to their conference in Canada and present there but more importantly get to sit and I was of course, a little bit of a nerd with all this I was in the front row. Right right right there. But you know, Stuart and Susan presenting and they're both amazing and you

Ginger Healy: 26:18

know, we really have like the best of the best when it comes to speakers and and keynotes, I'm, I love that we're kind of going backwards here for our drumroll moment, I'm going to go to Lori next because we're all fans of Lorie, if you're not a fan of Laurie, then you you'll become a fan as soon as you learn more about her. But what we're doing with Dr. Laurie DISA tells this year is very unique. And this is the brainchild of Laurie she came to us with this brilliant idea called a town hall. And so we are going to end Tuesday afternoon, end the conference with Laurie directing a town hall. So if you picture all of us gathered together as a group, and asking questions and learning from each other, we're going to start out that way as a group with Laurie directing. And then we're going to break into smaller groups, educators, social workers, therapists, counselors within the school, and and then other like, community collaborators, all thinking about this child, this student in the school, and we're going to break into smaller groups, questions, answers, learning from each other, and then come back together for the final learning piece. And I'm not doing it justice. But it is a brilliant idea. And it really gives us the opportunity, especially at the end of the conference, after all the learning, we had to really apply it to be able to take back ideas, to our homes, to our work offices and into the building, how we can better help this children and push this work forward, going forward. Because the conference is going to be life changing, it's going to be great. And then we're going to go home, and we're going to go back to work and then what the work continues. And so it's not about going away for a conference for a little bit. It's about becoming becoming trauma informed and how we're going to move this work forward. And, and so we have a lot of actually exciting ideas how we're going to do that we're going to do that through the town hall. But we're also going to do that with some exciting announcements that will be revealed at the conference, including like our certification program that I will just tease you with right now. But we'll have networking events at the conference for the speakers for the attendees for everybody just beyond the sessions will have moments, a lot of moments of connection so that we can continue this work because some of the educators we know are feeling isolated when they go back to their buildings or to their rural areas, or even not just rural, but they feel alone. And so we have really cool, amazing, fun, powerful ways to keep the work going. So that'll be a little bit of Laurie and then I don't know, Kimberly, I feel like I'm talking to like do you want to take Roscoe and give a shout out to Dr. Green? Sure.

Kimberly Smathers: 29:30

And you may have more like background you'd like to add. I know he's done so much work in this space. But I I'll share from my perspective as a parent. I found his books. I've heard his name but I hadn't actually dug into the material. And I have just been blown away by the simplicity and the practicality in the accessibility. I've actually I brought a few of the tools to my last parent teacher conference to say you know not not put let's start Whole Mississippi just to say I have found this conversation structure really valuable with my own child, could we use something like this, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear they were using something a bit like, good. It was a wonderful jumping, jumping off point. But I love his kind of nature of sharing. It's such a practical way and helping you kind of frame and understand ways to find solutions with your child. So you're not doing too you were doing with and you were building life skills as you help them succeed. So I'm just a huge fan. I know he has such a history, though. So I don't know, ginger, if you want to touch on that aspect more, no,

Ginger Healy: 30:36

I think that you actually have hit on exactly what needs to be hit on that he gives us strategies and the ability thing he makes his content accessible. And, and the simplistic it's complex, yet it is too simplistic in that we can do this. And that's the whole point. We're not going to learn something that we walk away going, that's great, but I can't even wrap my head around it. It's like, here's the plan, here's what we're going to do. And the whole idea of being collaborative. There's nothing more beautiful than that, that is at the heart of what we believe is connection, relationship, collaboration, everyone having a voice, especially the student. And so I just love everything that Dr. Green does. And we are honored to have him as our opening keynote Monday morning. So he really is not to be missed. So I can't think of anything that I would say, Well, if you have to miss part of it, miss this. And I'm honestly like, it's the content is phenomenal. And you you'll just really become a part of this family. I think you feel that guy should you keep coming back. And we keep grabbing you back that we are a family at four on foreign in behalf of these children who we serve. So so so

Guy Stephens: 31:58

I want to just ask a question here. So we've talked a lot about educators we've talked about, really part of the intent of this conference, creating trauma sensitive schools, is, you know, an intent that I that I value highly, which is like, it's about everybody, it's about people that are working in the cafeteria, or paraprofessionals, or bus drivers, anyone that we can get to come in anyone that was working with kids. But I want to go over and Kimberly, you kind of opened the door for me to ask this and you were talking about kind of Dr. Greene's work and, you know, bringing it into your scope. What about parents and self advocates? Is this a good event for parents and self advocates either to attend personally or virtually? You know,

Kimberly Smathers: 32:46

that's the only way I have attended. And I'm coming back for your three. So I'm gonna say yes. I mean, I think what's beautiful about the content, and the way that the speakers are engaging and presenting is that, absolutely, if you have that educator hat, you are getting a lot of direct things to take back the next day. But I'm gonna say 97 98% applies when you were interacting, I wouldn't just say with children, to be honest, I have such a growing and deeper appreciation of how we co regulate with each other. So not just our children who are experiencing trauma or you know, it's so important to change basically the way I see the world. And that not to put two random points, oh, I am with you. I would like everyone to come to this conference. If you and let's start with if you have a child in your life, it was important to you, or if you're working on systems that are prone to negative effects of toxic stress. And I would say that's unfortunately, most systems we have currently, there are kind of incentives to maybe do things faster, or do things superficially or meet a metric meter mark. And to me, this work is all about People First, deeply understanding our own nervous systems. And those are the ones around us. So I genuinely believe that this is important for everyone. And I think, you know, as ATN does more of this work going forward, I think you'll see more and more, you know, the community coming to the table, because it's schools are critical, but they are one of the many Nexus points for where this work happens.

Guy Stephens: 34:20

Yeah, no, I absolutely agree with you. And I love it. I wanted to ask the question, kind of feeling like I knew what my answer was, but to know yours. And I mean, I think how powerful is it to be able to attend an event like this and and to go back having gotten exposure to say Lourdes at Hell's worker or Dr. Greene's work and to be able to say, hey, you know, I've been doing this at home and this has been working to be collaborating as part of a team. I do want to ask, you know, schools, of course, typically have you know, budgets for training, not all of them have as much as we would like them to have but, but But parents are often you know, especially if you think about parents of children that have special education services are often, you know, don't have the resources. Are there any scholarships or other opportunities out there for parents that might want to attend or any, anything like that.

Ginger Healy: 35:13

We do have some volunteer spots available. We don't have a ton, but we do have some. So please reach out to me, I'm just ginger at attach trauma.org. Or you can just reach out to the attachment trauma network and ask about volunteer spots, and volunteer spots give registration waived. But that's also why I really want everybody that can to get in on the earlybird pricing or group discounts. And just if we can apply any discount to you possible, we want to do that. So please reach out, we need volunteers in the in person conference, we put you to work, it's so much fun. Work,

Kimberly Smathers: 35:56

I do a lot of work as a volunteer to

Ginger Healy: 35:59

so much fun. And we also have spots virtually that we need moderators and help with our tech. And so there are both options available for volunteers. And that really does help with the cost of attending. So that is a great way to get involved in the long run as well. So for those Trish asked a great question that I was

Guy Stephens: 36:25

actually just getting ready to. Before I do that, I just want to say, if anybody else watching live extended, we have a number of people watching live. If you have any questions, we're gonna we're gonna wrap this up here shortly. But if you have any questions, feel free to put those in the chat. And I will go ahead and bring the question up. Yeah, you read my mind, how many people sign their public school educators up to a 10.

Ginger Healy: 36:47

So we over the last seven years, we have had every single state attend and several countries, we've definitely had people come from Canada, but we've had Ireland and last year we had South American countries represented. So we are continuing to grow. We have also had Australia, New Zealand, virtually we've had quite a bit more but in person last year, I was so and it's so nice to meet you Wheezy. We have, I had the opportunity to sit down with an educator in Colombia. And she said, I think I'm the only person in my country and I said, you have come to the right place, we have resources in support for you ongoing. So I've been working with her. And and so I haven't looked at who else signed up because our registration is ongoing. But typically we have every state represented. We of course want every you know, everybody to come. And so please, this is a great opportunity. If you can't come to the conference, you can encourage educators in your students buildings to come spread the word in your local area that this conference is our registration is open, we have early bird pricing, and we you know, so you can help by spreading the word so that we can get more people there. Because of course, the more attendees we get, the more the work spreads, and the more healing we do in this world. So

Guy Stephens: 38:21

you know, all this talk. And of course, you know, I mentioned to you as we were coming on that, you know, we typically have people from all over the world that join on and you have somebody from Australia here, somebody here from New Zealand as well. And while there's a board member on the call here as well, an idea popped in my head, we need the creating trauma sensitive schools Australia or New Zealand conference. So you know,

Ginger Healy: 38:44

let's get that there Weezy up for us.

Guy Stephens: 38:50

That's great. All right, well, and I'll give a chance for any other final questions that we might have here. I do want

Ginger Healy: 38:57

to make sure we let everybody know that we have continuing education units, continuing education credits, whatever you want to call them, available at the person conference 17 credits and the virtual 15 credits, and this year we are offering offering graduate college graduate credits. So if you you can get your education units or your gret college graduation credits through us as well and you

Guy Stephens: 39:34

were the credit

Ginger Healy: 39:37

it will apply to any My understanding is it'll apply to wherever you're at so when you go to pay for your continuing education, you can differentiate between graduation credit or whatever unit you want. It is one college credit per conference so you can get one for the virtual and one for the in person You can walk away with two college credits here, which is pretty powerful as well. And for seriously, a lot less than paying, you know, at the institution. So if you go on to the website, you can find information about that as well or reach out to me either way.

Guy Stephens: 40:19

Okay, so I've got two final questions, and then we'll wrap up one of the questions and, you know, either of you are welcome to address this. But let's imagine for a second, I'm an educator, I happen to see this I'm interested in going to sounds great. How do I convince my boss? How do I convince somebody that holds the purse strings to my professional development, training that I should go to this? So any thoughts on how somebody might convince their supervisor this? Is something worth going to?

Ginger Healy: 40:52

Do you have ideas, Kimberly? Or do you want me to take it

Kimberly Smathers: 40:56

out? So quickly, you might have more percent might well, my head goes just to the work I do when I'm not wearing my Etn hat, which is data can talk sometimes I know that we've been fortunate to see some results in some systems that have started to adopt these practices more heavily. So my impulse would be I won't talk to you about how I feel about it, even though I feel very strongly to say, look at these reduced rates of expulsions of, you know, behaviors that we perhaps don't desire, even teacher retention, I've seen a bit I would probably leave a data but you know, depends on your administrator depends on like, what makes their heart sing. I

Ginger Healy: 41:37

think, I think that is accurate, and, and very powerful. I think you're spot on. I've been working with one school, that when implementing these practices and tracking the data, they have also seen a rise in test scores, because they are regulating the students prior to testing. They're calming their nervous system, and reducing anxiety in the schools, which that alone, convinced their school to come back year after year. So a rise in test scores, a decrease in anxiety, a decrease in behavior referrals, a decrease in expulsion, and on and on. So the data is there, which is absolutely fantastic. And all of this can be brought back to the staff for professional development and ongoing training. So and there, we have gotten really creative with funds to for schools, there have been grants available. And we've been able to work around budgets in that we give group discounts. And they have been used being able to take funds from different funding sources that will apply within the building. So listen, we can get you there. We want to get you there.

Guy Stephens: 42:53

And I have a question here. Great to have data to can you advocating for trauma sensitive schools across the continents? Are you able to share it is correlated? Do you have data that is published or you can share? And if so, where might someone find that?

Ginger Healy: 43:08

Yeah, let me reach out to me. Friant are free and I don't want to pronounce your name incorrectly. Ms. wadiya. And we can talk about that we had was, it might have been the year before last year, we had groups of schools come and share their data, which was really powerful. They shared what they were doing within each building and what was working. So yeah, I have some Do you

Guy Stephens: 43:32

mind if I share your email address in the chat here? Do please do Okay, fantastic. Okay, so we're gonna wrap up here. I told you we got about half an hour we've gone longer. Absolutely. Any final thoughts that you have that you want to share about the event? Any I'll start with you, ginger. Any, any final thoughts? Or, you know,

Ginger Healy: 43:56

I know I hear I said I was talking and now all of a sudden I'm speechless. I I really think we've hit on the important points that the sessions are we you would not believe this speakers we have, you will walk away completely changed. It will it is truly life changing. So hit hit that website. Everybody that guy has pulled up. There's so much more that I may have forgotten about we do have the hotel that we are doing the conference at in Dallas, we have an incredible conference group rate there, the hotel price is locked in really low. So that's another incentive there. But and there will be food at the conference. I mean, you know, we're gonna have a great time. So but if you cannot attend in person, the virtual conference is not to be missed. I mean, the keynotes and then all of the topics. There should be an agenda online that you can look at and once you start looking at that agenda, you you'll be blown away with all The speakers that the virtual and that you can watch those all and hit all of them and see them recorded. I just think there's not a reason not to, to go to the virtual as well.

Guy Stephens: 45:12

And you know, one of the things that that comes to my mind is, I think part of the value of an event like this is the energy you get from getting together with like minded peers and colleagues and, and people with different backgrounds. And it really is, I mean, it really I mean, it's almost the recharging the battery,

Ginger Healy: 45:35

right, that's exactly what it is. And we all need that for

Guy Stephens: 45:39

and February's of darn good time to recharge your battery. So you know, definitely something super valuable. So I want to Kimberly, and with you any final thoughts that you have, or anything you want to share as we wrap things up?

Kimberly Smathers: 45:53

Yeah, I'll make a quick, you know, to your point about recharging the battery, I couldn't agree more. And you know, we come together in seriousness for the serious serve. But we also like to have fun. We have a speaker's gathering that Sunday night that folks can join and attend. And on Monday night, we have a fun night. It'll probably be bingo like we did last year. For folks who attended last year, there may have been a dinosaur running around the room. I was I was in seeing having folks do their best impressions. We like to have fun too. So come learn come recharge your battery, and come play bingo with a dinosaur. i It's a lot.

Guy Stephens: 46:31

You got me a dinosaur. I'm, I'm coming back for sure. Well, listen, thank you both for making some time to join me today to let folks know about this, you know, I always love the opportunity to, you know, to promote this event because I really having been there last few years. You know, I think it's a fantastic event, the opportunity to come together with with people that are doing this work. And it's inspiring, you know, you you leave really feeling inspired and with new ideas and a whole new reading list and a lot of great things. So let

Ginger Healy: 47:07

me just say because I think that reading list is really critical. And we do have a bookstore there for the books and plenty of sponsors and exhibitors and giveaways, lots of books will be also given away and sold. And so there you you'll just come away fool like your suitcase packed, as well. So

Kimberly Smathers: 47:28

accordingly,

Guy Stephens: 47:30

leave a bit a little bit of room to carry on. That's very well listen, I'm gonna give one more pitch here for the fact that it's giving Tuesday. And we of course, have a link, but so do you. So I would encourage somebody if you want to support a good cause, support the work we're doing the Alliance support the work that's been done by the attachment trauma network, you know, a fantastic organization run by amazing people. That is really, you know, you said it earlier, Kimberly, when you talk about how this, this work really changes the way you see everything and everyone starting with yourself and you know, I think has a tremendous impact. So think about supporting organizations like ours, that are out there trying to, you know, make a difference and create, I think a better world I think that's what this is all about. So thank you both ginger and Kimberly, for joining me here. I want to thank everybody that was able to hop on and be part of this today and share it you know, if you want people from your school to go share with them the website, share with them the, you know, the live event that we did here. And, you know, let them know that it's out there. We'd love to see more people for more schools across the world. Joining us I thought it was fun when I attended to find out how far away people come from. We had people that had come from an area of Alaska where it's like you had to take little tiny, smaller planes and things like that. It's great to hear. So thank you all and happy tuesday and I look forward it's not far away, ginger, I'm sure you're feeling it too. It will be here before we know it. So thank you all and we will see you again next time. Thanks so much.

Kimberly Smathers: 49:02

This was wonderful. Have a great day.