Related COA Accreditation standards:

Today, human and social services leaders find themselves in unprecedented times. Workforce challenges, the never-ending increased demands, and shrinking resources require that nonprofit leaders and managers pursue new and innovative strategies for ensuring programmatic and organizational success. Join Dr Dann in this high energy and highly participatory workshop to explore proven strategies to leverage the efficacy of your team and organization. Drawing from the research on trauma-informed practice, the Resiliency Factor provides participants with concrete strategies to reduce turnover, heighten employee engagement, and help the team bounce back from extremely difficult situations. Most importantly, the Resiliency Factor provides a path to ensure the successful pursuit of your organization’s important mission.

During this interactive workshop, participants will have the opportunity to complete an assessment tool that will help them understand the level of resiliency as well as areas for growth that exist within their team and organization. The assessment tool also serves as a springboard for exploring strategies to leverage employees’ developmental assets and their ability to be resilient.

Participants at all levels will have the ability to apply effective strategies at the individual, team, and organizational levels. Supervisors, for example, will benefit from understanding strategies to become resilient, while managers and leaders will have the capacity to apply the conceptual frame and practical strategies from a team and or systems-based perspective.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Paul Dann
President and CEO of North American Family Institute
North American Family Institute

Related COA Accreditation standards: Service Standards

This workshop will equip participants with the knowledge and tools to create trauma-responsive organizations and programs by integrating SAMHSA’s guiding principles for a trauma-informed approach, Bruce Perry’s neuroscience framework, and effective evaluation strategies. Through hands-on activities, group discussions, and case study analyses, participants will learn how to enhance safety, trust, collaboration, and cultural competence in their practices while addressing systemic inequities and promoting healing.

Key components of this session include:

Participants will leave with practical tools, including:

This session will offer an engaging, application-focused approach to strengthening trauma responsiveness and advancing equity in organizations and programs.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Rebecca Moore
Residential Clinical Director
Thornwell

Jeffrey Moore
Professor
Anderson University

To thrive in the demanding and often stressful field of human services, we must understand how brain function shapes our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. As Dr. Bruce Perry states, “A brain-aware perspective helps me when I’m trying to understand people.” When we integrate this perspective into our work and build brain-friendly environments, we can strengthen our executive functioning skills, which are the key to staying well while working in challenging environments and partnering with individuals with complex needs.

Everyone possesses executive functioning skills—the 12 brain-based skills that influence how we plan, respond, and accomplish tasks. By identifying our strengths and addressing our challenges, we enhance our ability to work efficiently, reduce frustration, and foster deeper trust, stronger relationships, and more productive conversations. Understanding how these skills develop—and how they are shaped by individual experiences, resources, and environments—allows us to shift from self-judgment and deficit-based thinking to greater self-compassion and empathy for others.

We can develop executive functioning skills most effectively in brain-friendly work environments—spaces that support cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation, and clear decision making. This interactive workshop will provide practical, science-backed strategies to promote psychological safety, self-regulation, and healthy expectations, which support employees’ ability to plan, adapt, and collaborate with greater ease. Join us to explore how a brain-science approach can support executive functioning and transform both personal well-being and organizational success.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Karen Johnson
Senior Director, Change in Mind
Social Current

Dana Emanuel
Senior Director of Learning and Innovation
New Moms

In a world filled with uncertainty and challenges, finding moments of joy can become increasingly challenging. Yet, the research on the importance of joy in our lives is quite clear. Joy is paramount to our collective health and wellness. This thought-provoking and engaging presentation will explore the profound impact of joy on our mental and emotional well-being. Through inspiring anecdotes, research-backed insights, and practical strategies, this presentation will delve into the transformative power of joy in fostering resilience and cultivating hope.

Participants will explore the “science of joy” and how the intentional act of collecting joy can increase our personal resilience, as well as the resilience of those we are working with. Participants will be empowered to embrace joy as a catalyst for resilience, hope, and positive change in their lives and communities, as well as in the lives of individuals they are caring for. Join this session and discover the profound impact of joy in fueling a brighter, more resilient future.

Learning Objectives

Presenter

Christopher McLaughlin
Owner & Lead Consultant
Inspired Consulting Group, LLC

This session will offer successful retention strategies, which are grounded in the power of employee engagement, to combat the growing issue of staff shortages. Presenters will focus on the research-based patterns and trends regarding workforce challenges that lead employees to leave an organization and offer strategies for leadership to embrace change, build in opportunities for growth, and make employees feel seen and heard. By engaging our employees in their work and driving our mission further, we can reduce workplace stress and burnout, while increasing job satisfaction. “Our People Matter” is not just an organizational tenet; our backgrounds and experiences directly influence the unique value we bring to our work and the communities we serve. It is crucial to create a safe space that allows us to learn about and celebrate our differences. Workshop participants will leave with a toolkit of takeaways that they can immediately apply to their role and their organization.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Jenny Livelli
President & CEO
The Children’s Guild

Elizabeth Garcia
Chief People Officer
The Children’s Guild

This session will explore the concept of trauma-informed performance management, an innovative approach that shifts the focus from solely client-centered care to prioritizing staff well-being. Participants will learn how to recognize and address the signs of trauma among staff members and understand the importance of creating a supportive work environment that fosters resilience and empowerment.

It will also address the challenges that arise when trauma-informed practices are misapplied, leading to staff burnout and organizational strain due to tolerance of poor performance. We will discuss strategies to maintain high-quality standards, while being sensitive to the personal experiences of employees. This includes setting clear expectations, providing constructive feedback, and ensuring that trauma-informed principles do not excuse unprofessional behavior, but rather guide the path to recovery and excellence.

By the end of this training, participants will be equipped with the tools to implement a balanced trauma-informed performance management system that upholds the organization’s mission and values without compromising on quality and accountability.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Kiera McGillivray
Chief Program Officer of School Based Initiatives
Co-Director of the Brain Science Training Institute
Children & Families First

Shannon Fisch
Director of Operations & Risk Management
Co-Director of the Brain Science Training Institute
Children & Families First

Human services organizations and their workforces are facing an unprecedented crisis. Burnout, turnover, and departures from direct services roles are at historic levels, just as the mental health needs of children, youth, and families have dramatically increased. The human and financial costs of these converging dynamics are impacting access and quality of preventative and interventional services across the country and forcing organizations to end or scale back much needed programs.

Research has shown there’s a strong connection between the culture and climate of child and family serving organizations and the implementation and impact of evidence-based practices and therapies. To address this crisis of need and the workforce, it’s time to consider a new frontier for promoting the health and well-being of clinicians, supervisors, and managers, as well as the possibilities of new therapies with children and families.

Evidence on the health benefits of nature connected wellness practices is growing rapidly. There’s a worldwide movement to connect people with nature through organized practices, such as forest and ecotherapy. In Asia, Europe, and Canada health insurers and physicians are prescribing time in nature in place of or prior to medication and talk therapy. The positive results on health and well-being have been profound and wide ranging. Practices such as Forest Therapy have been shown to boost the immune system, balance the heart rate, and lower cortisol levels, while also reducing anxiety and depression. Additionally, participants have reported increased levels of executive functioning, improved social emotional communication, and an enhanced ability to focus and manage conflict.

Birchwalking is a social impact organization founded and led by clinicians and leaders in the field of trauma-informed child and family services. In their work with nonprofit organizations and their government partners, they’re bringing evidence-based nature connected practices to human services professionals to promote workforce well-being, reduce burnout, and improve clinical service delivery. Results indicate staffs’ feel empowered by learning and experiencing these practices and report an improved attitude towards their work, colleagues, organizations, and clients. In one organization, the response from staff was so positive that its leadership invested in training a staff member to become a certified Forest Bathing Guide so that nature connected experiences can be regularly offered for staff and clients.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Amy Moore
Director of In-Home Care
Ascentria Care Alliance

Christine Tappan
Founder, Lead Guide
Birchwalking

Science is catching up with wisdom. For thousands of years, humans have recognized the power of somatic and embodied (SE) practices to support individual and collective well-being. And in recent years, advances in neuroscience have allowed us to better understand the neurobiology behind the healing and resilience-building that body-based approaches can offer.

In this session, we will go beyond the brain and explore why the entire nervous system and body are important to consider when developing a program or services and when developing an organizational culture that is trauma-informed and healing-centered. Facilitators and participants will build a shared understanding of stress and trauma, as well as key components and functions of the nervous system. We will also examine models, such as the polyvagal theory, to help understand the connection between our bodies and mental/emotional health.

Participants will discuss foundational SE practices, and the session will offer a space to practice with some of these simple strategies. Participants will also reflect on which embodied practices might be most supportive to their own well-being at work, as well as what approaches can best contribute to workforce wellbeing in their teams and organizations.

Additionally, facilitators will engage in discussion around the connections between SE approaches and anti-oppression work. Specifically, this conversation will center around how mind-body practices can help uproot and unlearn unconscious biases and how embodiment is a strategy for sustainability in equity, diversity, and inclusion and antiracism work.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Kelly Martin
Director of Practice Excellence
Social Current

Karen Johnson
Senior Director of Change in Mind
Social Current

Creating a trauma-informed, healing-oriented organization is a complex process that requires more than just understanding trauma. Organizations must go beyond that and foster a culture of healing that enables communities to flourish. To create transformative, trauma-informed, and healing-oriented environments, organizations must not only train their workforce but also embed it into the culture, practices, and external partnerships. This is a challenging task, especially in the face of changes in the social sector, the aftermath of the pandemic, and the growing pressures on the workforce.

Successful organizations understand the importance of connecting trauma-informed transformation to equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives. They foster values and competencies that empower leadership at all levels and facilitate the healing process within the communities they serve. Rather than settling for a trauma-informed culture, they strive to make healing the core of their trauma-informed culture within the organization.

Creating a healing-oriented culture has many benefits, such as increased employee satisfaction, improved client outcomes, and better community engagement. However, organizations might face challenges when trying to create such a culture, such as resistance to change, lack of resources, or difficulty measuring progress.

Empowering your staff to take the lead in driving and maintaining the trauma-informed movement and ensuring its long-term viability is crucial. We will share our experience of implementing and sustaining this change for over five years, and provide you with the best practices we learned for keeping this transformation alive and dynamic. Our experience has shown that it is essential to connect trauma-informed transformation to equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives to create a healing-oriented culture.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Corina Casco
Chief Program Officer
Children’s Bureau

In this workshop, Starr Commonwealth will discuss the integration of trauma-informed, sensory-based occupational therapy into behavioral health therapy via the “co-treatment approach.” This specialized approach enhances the developmentally appropriate, play-based tactics that help young children who have experienced trauma heal. This session will include discussion and demonstrations of activities conducted to assist participants in understanding the foundations of this specialized approach as well as how the developmentally informed strategies appear in practice.

Check out this article, authored by presenters Jenny Sloan and Sara Gariepy, referencing these practices in the Journal of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Jenny Sloan, LMSW CTRT CTP-C
Clinical Supervisor
Starr Commonwealth

Sara Sulkowski
Behavioral Health Clinician
Starr Commonwealth

Sara Gariepy
Occupational Therapist
Starr Commonwealth