Whole Child, Whole Day News
Welcome to our periodic newsletter where YDEKC shares updates and resources related to social and emotional learning and holistic supports for youth. We focus on strengthening adult practices, cross-sector partnerships, and systems that support the whole child across the whole day.
We hope your school year is off to a good start! Here at YDEKC, we are still riding the inspiration wave from the Whole Child, Whole Day: A Social & Emotional Learning Symposium on August 9th. We are truly grateful to staff, volunteers, participants, and presenters for making it such a spectacular day of connection, collaboration, healing, and learning. Check out the reflection blog post to learn about the highlights and to access materials from the event.
We recognize that our efforts to support the whole child doesn’t stop at the symposium; it is an on-going effort. In the last session of the symposium, we asked participants to “Turn Learning into Action” by reflecting on the day of learning and setting a personal goal to apply that learning.
On October 24, 2019 (which is also Lights On Afterschool, a national celebration), we encourage you to check in with your accountability buddy and/or someone you attended the symposium with and talk about the progress you are making towards your goal. Then join us online on social media on Facebook, Instagram (@ThisisYDEKC), and Twitter (@ydekc) with the hashtags below to share what you learned and/or what action you have taken. If you weren’t able to join us at the symposium, we’d still love to hear from you. How are you supporting the whole child? What actions are you taking to ensure that young people are engaged in safe and inclusive learning environments?
We look forward to seeing your posts on Oct 24, 2019!
#WHOLECHILDWHOLEDAY, #SELKC, #LIGHTSONAFTERSCHOOL, #YOUTHDEVELOPMENT
Mona & Anne Youth Development Executives of King County ydekc.org|206.336.6914
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Local News and Resources
Know of local resources geared towards strengthening adult strategies and practices that support social emotional skill development in young people? E-mail mgrife@ydekc.org.
Webinar: Creative Expression as a SEL Tool for K-12
October 21
This webinar training will focus on Art with Heart’s curriculum and four core therapeutic activity books developed for kids K-12. It will highlight the benefits of creative expression as a tool for building social-emotional learning (SEL) skills. You’ll learn how to use creative expression to help kids name and manage their emotions, develop strategies for coping, and build resilience. Combining theory and anecdotal experience, you’ll learn how to engage kids in creative expression and how to respond to their art in ways that build trust and connection. Register here. Check out additional trainings here.
Decolonizing Education Conference: Anti-Racism towards Equity in Public Education October 27-29, Hotel Murano Tacoma Hosted by The Equity in Education Coalition, this multi-day event will center anti-racism in education policy and focus on building advocacy, organizing, and policy making strategies that work to undo institutional racism in the education system. Keynote speakers at this inaugural conference include Pedro Nogeura, Ijeoma Oluo, and Tim Wise. At the time of this mailing, the conference is sold out, but at the very least check out their workshops and speakers to get inspired. More information available here.
Bridge Conference: Looking Back, Facing Forward October 28-29, Hyatt Regency at Seattle’s Southport in Renton The annual Bridge Conference hosted by School’s Out Washington is the premier conference for expanded learning professionals in the PNW. Come hear nationally renowned speakers and join their peers in rich conversations about education equity, engaging and interactive program practices, system thinking and partnership building, and so much more. Register now.
2019 Legislative Report Released: Social-Emotional Learning in Washington’s K-12 Schools The Social Emotional Learning Indicators (SELI) Workgroup was established in 2017 to build upon the WA SEL Standards and to continue the focus on the whole child. The workgroup applied guiding principles to ensure that statewide SEL work promotes equity and is culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and universally designed for access by all learners. Check out OSPI’s SEL webpage—it contains a plethora of resources for SEL implementation, including the legislative report. The direct resources include a glossary, a Practitioners’ Implementation Guide, the Washington SEL Standards Benchmarks/Indicators, and Implementation Briefs focused on four specific groups: education leaders, educators, community and youth development organizations, and families. The report also includes an Implementation Brief dedicated to culturally relevant SEL.
Healing through History and Creativity South End Stories, which led a workshop at YDEKC’s 2019 Social & Emotional Learning Symposium, is featured in a recent post from the Best Starts for Kids Blog. A Trauma–Informed and Restorative Practices grantee, South End Stories aims to strengthen a sense of belonging for students and families at Orca K-8.
Youth Voice: “You Failed Us” Azure Savage, who co-facilitated a Young Women Empowered workshop at YDEKC’s annual Symposium this year, has published a book about the stories of 40 youth of color in Seattle Public Schools, as well as their own experiences as a student. The book illuminates common struggles that youth of color face with identity and mental health. Check out this article to learn more and order a copy here.
Cultivating Belonging in Schools for Staff and Community Partners Inspired by a spring gathering of the Highline Public Schools Community Partners Roundtable, this blog post looks at what schools are doing to make community partners feel valued and included. If you work in a school as a teacher, counselor, staff, or administrator, when you talk about school climate, are you examining practices that impact the adults as well as the students? What are you doing to create a sense of belonging for the adults in your school, including community partners?
Upcoming Funding Opportunity: Positive Family Connections Follow the Best Starts for Kids Blog to hear about a new funding opportunity, Positive Family Connections. This request for proposals will focus on family centered community engagement for parents/caregivers of middle school and high school students living in King County.
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National News and Resources
Webinar: Moving from Research to Implementation in Social and Emotional Learning: Exploring the Kernels of Practice with Stephanie Jones On this October 30th webinar, Forum for Youth Investment President & CEO Karen Pittman will sit down with Stephanie Jones to discuss the January 2017 report, “Kernels of Practice for SEL: Low-Cost, Low-Burden Strategies.” This report emerged from the work Jones and the EASEL (Ecological Approaches to Social and Emotional Learning) team at the Harvard Graduate School of Education have done to identify and describe common, effective, and accessible strategies adults can use to support social and emotional learning in young people.
Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students from Teaching Tolerance Check out this guide from Teaching Tolerance on best practices to serve LGBTQ students. The journey toward an LGBTQ-inclusive school climate begins with simple steps recommended in each of the four key areas of this guide: policy check-up, classroom culture, instruction, and family & community engagement.
The Urgent Need for Anti-Racist Education In this Education Week article, Christina Torres calls teachers to action in response to mass shootings and hate crimes that have become more prevalent in the U.S. While some point to mental health services and social emotional learning supports, Torres says, “Until we provide focused education about the history and current iterations of racist beliefs at the root of this hatred, we cannot claim we are actively working to solve the problem in our classrooms.” Read more to understand actions you can take as an educator.
Why Trees Can Make You Happier Check out this article from Greater Good Magazine on how research suggests that being around trees is good for our mental and social well-being.
Moving Toward Equity: A Thought Leader Conversation with Hal Smith Check out this recording of the Forum for Youth Investment’s recent webinar featuring a conversation between Karen Pittman and National Urban League’s Hal Smith. They explore the following questions and more: How can we move toward real educational equity? How do we define what that means? What does social and emotional learning have to do with it? And why are some advocates cautious of the push for SEL?
Trends in Creative Youth Development The Creative Youth Development (CYD) Learning Series recently presented a webinar featuring researcher Denise Montgomery of CultureThrive. They discussed the five trends in CYD program development: Holistic Approaches Growing as Needs Grow, Collaboration Across Sectors, New Generation of Program Staff with New Approaches, Scaling by Depth, and Establishing Creative Career Pathways. Check out a video of the webinar and other resources here.
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