ACF AND SAMHSA VIRTUAL TRAINING FOR PARENTS, CAREGIVERS, AND FAMILIES ON THE MENTAL HEALTH OF CHILDREN
March 22, 2023—6:00–7:15 p.m.
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) are offering a virtual training for parents, caregivers, and families on the mental health needs of children.
ACF and SAMHSA are both committed to improving behavioral health (i.e., mental health, substance use) for children, youths, and families. As part of our agencies’ ongoing behavioral health efforts, this March 22nd virtual training aims to provide parents and caregivers with the information and resources to recognize, manage, and support their children’s mental health needs.
Event facilitators and speakers will include January Contreras (ACF Assistant Secretary), Miriam Delphin-Rittmon (SAMHSA Assistant Secretary), Dr. Sunny Patel (Senior Medical Advisor, SAMHSA Center for Mental Health), Dr. Gary Blau (Senior Advisor, SAMHSA), Lauren Behsudi (Senior Advisor, ACF), David Armstrong (parent and caregiver advocate), and Arc Telos Saint Amour (Executive Director, Youth MOVE National).
We understand that parents and caregivers play a vital role in the lives of children, families, and communities. This virtual training will provide parents and caregivers with tools and skills to support their children.
The ACF and SAMHSA virtual training will be held on March 22, 2023, from 6:00 to 7:15 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time). You can register for the training via this Web link.
2nd Annual Prevent Child Abuse Illinois ACEs and Resilience Conference
April 13, 2023 9:30 am – 4:30 pm
The ACEs Conference is back! Join us in Bloomington, IL for the second annual FREE in-person conference focused on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and resilience. Hear from two outstanding speakers in the field and join us for a screening of the award-winning documentary film Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope. Lunch will be provided. CEUs and clock hours available for qualified attendees.
Location:
Bloomington-Normal Marriott Hotel & Conference Center
201 Broadway, Normal, IL 61761
Hotel parking is $10
For more information:
Contact Kelsey Greene at kgreene@pcaillinois.org
or Prevent Child Abuse Illinois at 217-522-1129
Funding is provided in whole or in part by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
WHAT IS FUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOR ASSESSMENT?
To help students, schools use a process to identify and understand challenging behaviors and come up with possible solutions. This is called Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) and is an evaluation focused on behavior.
To learn more, click the link: What Is Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA)? | Understood
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF TEACHABLE MOMENTS
Early elementary teachers and early childcare professionals can gain an understanding of how to effectively identify and use teachable moments in both classroom and childcare settings with the Terrific Teachable Moments framework – a research-based, youth development teaching resource from Illinois Extension that uses the 4-H Youth Development experiential learning concept to reinforce and encourage positive behaviors.
March 30 at 6 PM
Moments Matter: Terrific Teachable Moments for Early Childhood Professionals
- Online workshop is free to attend.
- Gateway Credits are available at no cost
- CPDUs are offered for $20.
- Register by March 27 to participate.
Explore Terrific Teachable Moments
The program’s hands-on learning activities reinforce core socio-emotional learning compentencies, developed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL,What Is the CASEL Framework? – CASEL), as well as teach the six pillars of character: caring, citizenship, fairness, respect, responsibility, and trustworthiness, established by The Six Pillars of Character – Character Counts®.
- Features 150 activity-based mini lessons that each take less than 10 minutes to complete.
- Helps kids develop emotional awareness and make positive character choices.
- Versatile learning tool for both home and classroom settings.
- Reinforces behaviors such as helping others, honesty, compassion, problem-solving, and self-control.
- Available as an app on both Android ™ and IOS™ smart devices.
Register for this class at: Moments Matter: Terrific Teachable Moments Resource for Early Childcare and Early Elementary Teachers (illinois.edu)
IN-PERSON PROVIDER TRAINING CLASSES!
Below are the trainings that we are offering in person in March:
Emergency Preparedness
Thursday, March 23, from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, Rantoul Public Library, 106 W. Flessner Ave., Rantoul, 2.0 Training Hours FREE
Presenter: Justin Bouse, Administrative Lieutenant, Rantoul Police Department
Connecting with Parents
Tuesday, March 28, from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, Carle Conference West B, 810 W. University Ave., Urbana, 2.0 Training Hours FREE
Presenter: Randi Kinsella, Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant, Caregiver Connections
Before we can talk to a parent about our concerns, our worries, or our observations about their child, we need to spend some time building a relationship with that parent. This training will cover some ways to do that as well as talk about the obstacles that inhibit us from building a healthy relationship with a parent. Then we will talk about ways that we can maintain and improve our existing relationship with a parent.
Process vs. Product Art
Thursday, March 30, from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, St. Paul’s Lutheran Early Learning Center, 1 Bachrach Ct., Decatur, 2.0 Training Hours FREE
Presenter: Sue Heidle, Early Childhood Consultant
We will discuss the pros and cons of Process and Product Art. We will also do a few projects so you can experience the differences.
To register for these classes, contact Jenny Garinger at garinger@illinois.edu or 217-333-7816.
ZOOM TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHILD CARE PROVIDERS
Child Neglect Prevention: Exploring the Basics
Wednesday, March 22, from 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm, 1.5 Training Hours Free
Presenter: Jill Duden, Prevention Specialist, Prevent Child Abuse Illinois
Child neglect is the most prevalent form of child maltreatment, with serious and long-term consequences. It is also the least clearly defined, understood, and publicly recognized. Neglect can be characterized as occurring in different, but often overlapping domains. These include physical (e.g., failure to provide necessary food or shelter, or lack of appropriate supervision), medical (e.g., failure to provide necessary medical or mental health treatment), educational (e.g., failure to educate a child or attend to special education needs), and emotional (e.g., inattention to a child’s emotional needs, failure to provide psychological care, or permitting the child to use alcohol or other drugs).
Trauma and the Brain
Monday, April 3 from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, 2.0 Training Hours FREE
Presenters: Theresa Lawrence, LCPC, Assistant Director of Adoption Support and Training Services and Sarah Ambrose, M.Ed, Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant, Caregiver Connections
Do the children you serve show behaviors that are complex and hard to understand? Please join us to learn how trauma can affect the brain and how to build meaningful connections and relationships with children who have experienced trauma.
2, 4, 6, 8 – This is How We Regulate! Sensory Processing: Strategies for Teaching Kids about Self-Regulation
Wednesday, April 5 from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, 2.0 Training Hours FREE
Presenter: Randi Kinsella, Mental Health Consultant, Caregiver Connections
Sensory and motor interaction with the world is the foundation of growth, development, and learning for a child. Sensory deficits can be linked to atypical and challenging behavior in young children. This workshop explores how to utilize strategies for the mouth, move, touch, look and listen categories to help children self-regulate in a child care setting. We will also look at way for adults to understand what strategies their own nervous systems employ to achieve and maintain appropriate alert states throughout their daily work.
The ABCs of Behavior
Wednesday, April 19 from 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm, 1.5 Training Hours FREE
Presenter: Nina Sullivan, Special Education Teacher & Early Childhood Special Education Master’s Student
In this training, participants will learn behavior management strategies to use in their professional settings through an overview of the four functions of behavior. An emphasis of the training will be focused on learning about and creating antecedent, behavior, and consequence charts.
Contact Jenny Garinger at garinger@illinois.edu or 217-333-7816 to register.
If you prefer to do trainings on your own schedule, remember the Gateways i-learning website is always available: https://courses.inccrra.org. These trainings are Gateways Registry-approved and cover a variety of child development and early childhood education topics. Trainings automatically appear on your Gateways Registry Professional Development Record (PDR), and they are FREE. Be sure to have your Gateways Registry online username and password to login.
Illinois was awarded federal relief dollars through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to ensure that child care programs can weather the pandemic – and emerge from it stronger than before. So far, this funding has been used to provide Child Care Restoration Grants and the Child Care Workforce Bonus program. In 2022, the Strengthen and Grow Child Care Grant (SGCC) will provide stable, predictable funding to support high-quality child care and invest in our critical child care workforce.
For the next phase of stabilization funding, IDHS Division of Early Childhood (DEC) will be offering Strengthen & Grow Child Care grants. These grants were designed to align with the Early Childhood Funding Commission’s recommendations.
- The new grants were designed taking all funding streams into account to maximize access to stable and predictable funding in order to improve quality and support workforce development.
- These grants prioritize equitable and transparent funding across all of Illinois, focusing on those hardest hit by the pandemic, including those providers operating without existing grant-based revenue.
- Programs that operate without predictable grant funding from sources like Head Start and Preschool for All struggle the most to pay reasonable wages and make investments in quality programming.
- In alignment with what the Funding Commission heard from the field, the SGCC grants will provide the additional resources that providers with minimal existing grant-based public funding need so that they can make necessary investments in workforce development and quality programming.
- As recommended by the Funding Commission, the State can no longer make our investments in early childhood one funding stream at a time, but rather must take all sources of programs’ funding into consideration. To achieve truly equitable funding, we must intentionally support those providers who have historically had the least funding stability, especially where they are serving low-income families. The SGCC grant focuses on supporting these providers.
SGCC Round 6 applications open on March 6, 2023 and close on March 24, 2023. Round six budgets will cover five months of funding (May, June, July, August, and September 2023)
- If your program has an SGCC eligible application use this pdf Budget Tipsheet (909 KB) to submit a budget request for round 6 starting March 6, 2023. Please note the Round 6 budget request will need to cover 5 months of expenses.
- To receive the SGCC round 6 grant you must have completed all reporting for any COVID relief funding your program has received. This includes Child Care Restoration Grants (CCRG), Child Care Workforce Bonus (CCWB) and SGCC reporting for rounds 1-4. Please use the next week to make sure all reporting is submitted.
READY4K
Illinois Cares for Kids is excited to offer all Illinois families Ready4K, a FREE resource for helping your child, Birth through 5th grade, stay on track with their learning goals. You will receive 3 texts/week with simple ways to bring learning into everyday moments. Families can get messages in Spanish, English, Arabic, Vietnamese, Chinese, or Russian. To sign up, text “IL4Kids” to 70138, or fill out the webform here: illinoiscaresforkids.org/ready4k.
