More Silver Linings Champion Reviews
Silver Linings is not your typical youth and young adult training program. It helps you look at things from different perspectives and gives you new ideas on how to start making changes. An eye opening experience! It helped me look at things I already knew but in a new light, and it has motivated me to keep trying new things.
Christine Cao (Champion)
Title: Youth Coordinator
Organization Name: Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse
Organization website: odmhsas.org
I appreciated focusing on the Y/YA as the audience for the entire program - as opposed to a 'section' in the program. I saw that really digging into the Why was a reminder to be clear about the reasons for the work. I took away skills to analyze to mitigate the risk and maximize the benefit and to implement a written agreement.
Tia Keitt
Title: Family Engagement Coordinator
Organization Name: Kids Hope Alliance
Org Website: http://kidshopealliance.org/
You should participate in the SLA program certification because being part of a youth-led organization is much more than we all think it is. There are ways in which we can harm youth even with the best of intentions. Without this training I would still have large blind spots and wouldn’t have begun to embody the phrase “meeting young people where they are at".
Melissa Kerce
Title: Restorative Justice Coordinator
Organization Name: Center for Children's Rights
Organization website: www.jaxccr.org
I appreciated all the different ideas that were shared. I also appreciated the chance to practice new/unused skills. No matter how much practice you have in advocacy there is always something new to learn. I have gained confidence in being able to better advocate for our youth and families.
Jill Clopper
Lead Family Support
Milwaukee County Behavioral Health
Psychiatric Crisis service
I valued learning how to get to a our why's and learning about tokenism, and decoration, and how to stay above those lines. Wonderful and useful information that I applied right away. It exceeded my expectations. …be ready to be enlightened, the program is amazing and practical.
Carla Colbert
Title: Care Manager
Organization Name: Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center
Website: www.seethegirl.org
This will forever change the way you approach youth and youth work. It LITERALLY creates a paradigm shift within you. The content is informative and timely-especially with the current state of our world. It was also beautiful to build community across the globe with other youth workers. We all came from different walks of life, but in the end, we were all heading toward a better direction for young people. SLA is inspiring. It's a community. It's a game-changer.
Kristin Murray
Title: Creator and Chief Connection Officer
Organization: Authentic Witness
I appreciated how the overall program was tailored and easily understood by even those who were new to the field. As a first year program manager for a behavioral health program, I was anxious about not being able to fully comprehend what was being taught; however, the material and the way it was taught made it simple to understand even for a novice. I see how to be thoughtful and intentional in the way we make decisions when dealing with youth/young adults, a vulnerable population.
My takeaway -- I always thought it was great to have youth/young adults (or anyone for that matter) share their stories/testimonials as a way to influence those they share with. I did not realize the level of preparation and involvement it takes to prevent further harm to the victim even if we had the best of intentions.
It's a great program that teaches the tools to recruit engage youth/young adults in a safe and meaningful manner. It helps prevent harm to not only the organization, but most importantly, the youth/young adult.
Tiara N. Evangelista
Title: Healthy Transitions Program Manager, Mariana Islands
Organization Name: Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation: Community Guidance Center
Organization website: chcc.gov.mp
I appreciated the whole course. I loved thinking from a different perspective and hearing about things other professionals have done at their agency. This workshop caused me to reflect on some of my past decisions as a clinician and equipped me with the tools needed to making better choices when involving young people in activities.
It's a good program to assist in making ethical judgements when involving young people in agency activities. I came away with more insightful about my practice involving young people. I saw that I had been doing things kind of wrong in the past. That I should slow down and really incorporate the HART's Latter in my work involving young people.
If you are working with youth whether directly or indirectly this course is beneficial. It helps you truly see how to empower and uplift youth. We often negatively impact youth even when we have the best intentions.
I loved your course and continue to find it beneficial in my work. I really loved the feeling of respect and openness within the community. It really made it a comfortable environment to ask questions and learn from each other. Discussing the different ways that tokenism can manifest itself was a big eye opener for me.
With this training, I am more aware of my actions that could negatively impact a child or young adult. This program helps you see your implicit bias and avoid re-traumatizing or negatively impacting them.
Mary Kelley Moran
Title: Mental Health Awareness Project Coordinator
Org Name: Partnership for Child Health
Org web: Partnershipforchildhealth.org
Trauma-Informed Youth Reviews
Thank you for your important contribution to the success of the 2018 NE-PACT Annual Conference in Portland, Maine. Your presentation, Trauma Informed Method of Engagement for Youth Advocacy, was well received by the participants. The information shared will be very useful as participants return to their parent centers with new information and resources to share with families. Really learned a lot – good ideas and practices, Very good presenters and very engaging. Thanks again for a wonderful presentation and for sharing your knowledge and expertise with our conference participants.
NE-PACT 2018 Conference Evaluation: Becoming A More Trauma-Informed Organization Conference
sponsored by SPAN Parent Advocacy Network
Debra Cady is co-author of the TIME model (Trauma Informed Method of Engagement) which can be implemented in any setting where you deal with people – which makes her training all the more valuable. The TIME Model sets the stage to empower and educate your organization on how to make each human interaction powerful and positive. It expands your awareness of what we each can do individually as well as collectively to better support people.
Debra has the amazing ability to connect with her audience – her humor, knowledge and honesty made us instantly at ease and ready to learn. If you are seeking a powerful speaker with decades of experience in systems of care and mental health, please seek out Debra!
Michael Scanlon,
Youth Coordinator and Advocate (Connecticut)