2005 Conference : Keynote Speakers : Workshops : Registration : Details/Logistics : Brochure : Sponsors

Workshops/Institutes/Keynoter Details ::: Sunday ::: Monday ::: Tuesday

2005 Workshops and Institutes

::: Monday, Oct. 17th :::

“Excellence is About Vocabulary"
Morning Keynote Address, 8:15 AM to 9:30 PM

Presenter:
Brown Dr. Adolph Brown III is one of the countries most sought after speakers to address the topic of positive youth development. Since 1990 he has traveled over two million miles encouraging thousands of people to develop positive character traits while motivating them to set high standards. He was the Youth Co-Chair for the President’s Summit for America’s Promise: Alliance for Youth held in Philadelphia with Colin Powell. One of his most influential educational experiences occurred very early in his life at the Southeastern Tidewater Opportunity Project Head Start Program. From there he was “shaped and molded” to learn one’s potential is only limited by the degree one allows dreams to become actualized. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Psychology from William and Mary College and later earned his Ph.D. from the Virginia Consortium for Professional Psychology. He and his wife Marla operate the Child and Family Wellness Centers in various locations throughout Virginia. He lives in Virginia Beach, VA.

Description:
This keynote will stress the importance of developing strong language and critical thinking skills for young people. After all, the words we chose to use are often a determinant of our behavior. By exploring the verbal dynamics among today's youth through language, articulations, music and mannerisms, participants will be enlightened to the many varied ways youth have today to connect and relate.

Objectives:

Communicate effectively with all young people regardless of background
Learn the importance of triple A (attitude, approach and availability) in our work with young people
Recognize the effects that one’s language has on their attitude and behavior

"Working With 10-14 Year Olds"
Institute C, 9:45 AM to 2:45 PM

Presenter:
Maureen Wenik is the Teen Coordinator of the Hatboro YMCA in Hatboro, PA

Description:
Do you remember what it was like to be 12 years old? What did you like to do? How did you feel? What was important to you? Who was important to you? Through interactive and fun activities, we will explore the developmental stages of early adolescence focusing on physical, cognitive, emotional and social development. We will also focus on ways in which youth workers can best impact this age group.

Objectives:

Participants will understand the developmental stages of early adolescence
An analysis of the basic needs of teens will be explored
Participants will learn a variety of age-appropriate activities to use with this age group

"Writing A Winning Grant Proposal”
Institute D, 9:45 AM to 2:45 PM

Presenter:
Bob Gorodetzer earned a Masters Degree in Public Affairs and Human Services Administration and has over thirty-five years experience in social services. He has a background in community organization, strategic and corporate planning, budgeting, contract administration, and grant writing. In 1976, after twenty years with Bucks County Drug and Alcohol Commission, Bob and his wife established Dean Consulting. Specializing in grant writing, Bob has authored successful grants for Behavioral Healthcare, Education, Criminal Justice, Arts/Cultural and Human Services Organizations. He is a lifetime member of Gabrielle Arts Alliance’s honorary board, President, Pennsylvania Committee on Problem Gambling, Inc. and past Secretary; Warminster Township’s Community Advisory Review and Evaluation Committee.

Description:
Attendees will gain an understanding about the process that will result in a successful application for federal, state and private funding opportunities. The workshop will include a discussion focused on assessing potential of funding resources (federal, state and private), information related to the decision making process (is it worth submitting an application), and input describing the impact of a successful award on an organization (financial and personnel). Utilizing the framework of the federal grant application process, participants will learn how to read a Request for Application (RFA)/ Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), understand the steps needed for planning, developing and submitting an application and locating data sources needed to document the need for the proposed project or program. There will also be a presentation of information about the potential of Foundation funding.

Objectives:

Participants will learn how and where to locate information on federal, state and foundation funding opportunities,
Participants will learn how to read a Request for Proposal and determine feasibility of submitting an application,
Participants will become familiar with the steps required to write a proposal and data sources needed to support the application.

“Skills Instead of Pills By Any Means Necessary”
Workshop Session Three, #9, 9:45 to 11:30 AM

Presenters:
Brown Dr, Adolph Brown III is one of the countries most sought after speakers to address the topic of positive youth development. Since 1990 he has traveled over two million miles encouraging thousands of people to develop positive character traits while motivating them to set high standards. He was the Youth Co-Chair for the President’s Summit for America’s Promise: Alliance for Youth held in Philadelphia with Colin Powell. One of his most influential educational experiences occurred very early in his life at the Southeastern Tidewater Opportunity Project Head Start Program. From there he was “shaped and molded” to learn one’s potential is only limited by the degree one allows dreams to become actualized. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Psychology from William and Mary College and later earned his Ph.D. from the Virginia Consortium for Professional Psychology. He and his wife Marla operate the Child and Family Wellness Centers in various locations throughout Virginia. He lives in Virginia Beach, VA.

Description:

Objectives:

Provide practical skills to ensure that each young person changes cognitively, socially, emotionally and spiritually up an adult interaction.
Learn to create “ah ha” moments of clarity and insight with young people regardless of their circumstances
Implement a “Raise the Bar” mentality by recognizing and acknowledging that “high achievement occurs in the framework expectations”

"Assets 101: An Introduction to the 40 Developmental Assets Model" (Repeat of #2)
Workshop Session Three, #10, 9:45 AM to 11:30 AM

Presenters:
Roberta Meek is the Assets Coordinator for the United Way Youth Initiatives in Bethlehem, PA. She is a dynamic presenter and trainer who bring humor and insight to her workshops. She works closely with the Lehigh Valley Asset Builders and is the Adult Resource Person for Teen.TAPS, a youth leadership group. Roberta has extensive experience in creative problem solving, managing change and pluralistic leadership. She is a skilled facilitator and has assisted local and national non-profit organizations with self-assessment and strategic planning. In addition to her professional involvements, Roberta is the proud single mom of two children and the grandmother of a beautiful grandson.

Teen.TAPS, a Youth Leadership Group based in Bethlehem, PA is a group of young leaders that serve as resources to organizations in the Lehigh Valley concerning matters that affect children and adolescents because it is a strongly held belief that teens should be active decision-making partners with adults. Teen.TAPS helps to spread the word about the importance of the 40 Developmental Assets and incorporates the asset philosophy in everything they do. The group formed in 2000 in response to the need for youth partnership at the first "Unleashing the Power of Youth and Community Potential Conference" in 2000. In addition the group is currently waging a campaign to make it possible for youth in Pennsylvania to have voting privileges on community boards and commissions. Teen.TAPS includes Judith Araujo, Charlene Cruz, Dahila Cruz, Will Day, Courtney Killo and John MacDonald

Description:
This workshop is a primer about Search Institute's 40 Developmental Assets and the ways that communities around the country are embracing the framework. Participants will understand how the 40 Assets movement enhances existing positive youth development programs and initiatives. Attendees will engage in fun, yet informative, activities to gain an understanding of the context in which the 40 Assets are applied and their positive impact on young people. In addition, this interactive workshop will offer participants the opportunity to apply the 40 Assets to their own lives.

Objectives:

Participants will be able to demonstrate understanding of the concepts of developmental assets
Participants will be able to delineate how the assets approach can be used to foster the mission of their organization, school, or family
Participants will be able to place the assets movement in context with other positive youth development trends, programs, and practices

"First Responders: Students on the Front Lines of Bullying and Violence Prevention"
Workshop Session Three, #11, 9:45 AM to 11:30 AM

Presenter:
Ric Phillips is the Executive Director of Community Matters based in Santa Rosa, CA. He is a nationally recognized educator, speaker, facilitator, and trainer with an inspiring and engaging style. An experienced facilitator, Ric has designed and led community-wide summits, strategic planning retreats, and community coalition meetings throughout the United States. He is the past President of Youth Service California and the California Association of Peer Programs, organizations dedicated to engaging young people in volunteerism and leadership in schools and communities. In addition, Ric has served on the board of directors of the National Peer Helpers Association and as an Advisory Committee member of the National Crime Prevention Council. Ric is the creator of the nationally recognized 24 Hour Relay Challenge, a youth and adult organized community building and fund raising program. The "24 HRC" has been successfully implemented in more than 120 communities throughout the United States and has raised more than three million dollars for youth serving organizations, programs and activities. Ric earned his Master of Science Degree in education from the University of Southern California where he was a recipient of a United States Office of Education Fellowship. His background includes serving as a principal and a teacher at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, a school district and county office of education Prevention Coordinator, and as the Regional Director of the Healthy Kids Center in the California Department of Education for 10 Northern California counties.

Description:
Bullying and other forms of mistreatment are far to common place in schools and after school setting, and the cost is high -- increased physical violence, adults spending too much time on discipline issues, young people coming to school and after school settings in fear, parents frustrated and afraid for their children, and decreasing staff morale. We must find ways to increase both physical and emotional safety for youth and adults alike. This workshop will present proven and effective strategies for effectively confronting and reducing bullying and other forms of mistreatment. We will explore how many schools and after school settings are training staff and youth alike with powerful non-violent communications skills to effectively intervene when harassment, put downs, and bullying occur.

Learning Objectives:

Gain greater familiarity with research on bullying and violence prevention
Learn how students can and do reduce conflicts and improve school climate
Acquire tools and strategies for implementing Safe School Ambassadors in their schools and after school settings

"Let’s Talk About Sexuality: Love, Intimacy and Relationships in Today’s World”
Workshop Session Three, #12, 9:45 AM to 11:30 AM

Presenter:
Pray Marlene Pray is the Director of Education and Training for Planned Parenthood of Bucks County based in Bristol, PA. Marlene is a professional sexuality educator, anti-racist organizer and youth activist. She is the former Chair of Community Action Against Racism and also serves on the Board of Directors for the Bucks County Housing Group. In 2002 she led Planned Parenthood’s effort to open Bucks County’s first center for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning youth and allies. She received the Peacemakers Award for Service in Dismantling Racism from the Bucks County Peace Center, traveled to Kenya with Congressman Jim Greenwood to combat HIV/AIDS, and she is a doctoral candidate in Human Sexuality at Widener University.

Description:
Young people demand and deserve honest, age-appropriate, medically accurate sex education in order to make responsible decisions. In a safe and empowering environment we will explore some of the most pressing issues for youth today: including defining love, intimacy, healthy relationships and healthy sexuality. Using fun and interactive games and activities we will address issues of abstinence, safer sex, sexual pressure, and negotiating intimate relationships. Join us and leave with new insights and honest, empowering information!

Objectives:

Discuss in a safe and empowering environment the dynamics of love and romance in teen relationships.
Describe the role that intimacy and love play in negotiating safer sex and abstinence in relationships and dating.
Clarify their personal values about relationships and sexuality and learn how to negotiate differing values with a partner.

“The Essential Elements of Leadership”
Workshop Session Four, #13, 1:00PM to 2:45 PM

Presenter:
Rivera Jimmy Rivera is the founder and Senior Pastor of City Limits Assembly of God in Allentown, PA, a flourishing multicultural church since 1994. Jimmy has an innate ability to speak to youth and inspire them to heights of achievement that they may never have imagined. Noted for his passion for urban community outreach/development and drug rehabilitation, he founded the Reach Home Community Services, an agency dedicated to community revitalization and economic empowerment. Overcoming a fourteen-year heroin addiction, he exemplifies a life of resiliency and how to focus on one’s strengths. Learning how to navigate multiple roadblocks and barriers, he became an addictions counselor and vocational administrator at an internationally known drug rehabilitation facility. Ultimately his desire to help people became a call to ministry and after attending Berean University to study theology; he began the latest chapter of his life’s work. Jimmy lives in Allentown, PA.

Description:

Objectives:

“Measuring Student Assets and Stressors:
Lessons Learned from Cooperative Survey Design”
Workshop Session Four, #14, 1:00 PM to 2:45 PM

Presenter:
Carol Noel-Michaels is the Community Asset Coordinator for the Building YOUth Initiative in Bernards Township, New Jersey. She holds a Master of Public Health degree in Community Health Education and is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES). In addition to her work in Bernards Township, Carol has community outreach and quantitative and qualitative evaluation experience from her time as a health communication fellow at the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland and as a graduate assistant with the Institute for Health, Science and Society at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Jennifer Kidd is the Youth Services Coordinator for the Bernards Township Health Department. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Health Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and is a Certified Education Specialist (CHES). Jennifer oversees the programs of the health education department, which includes both the Bernards Township Municipal Alliance and the Building YOUth Initiative. She has over seven years experience in substance abuse prevention and youth services.
Phil Moroni is an eleventh grade student at Ridge High School in Basking Ridge New Jersey. He was a 2005 Student Stressors and Assets Survey participant and a member of the 2004-2005 Bernards Township Student Stressors Task Force, a school and community based group that formed after the township lost a young person to an alcohol related death. This task force also served as an advisory group for the survey instrument design.

Description:
This session will assist anyone who is struggling to design or implement a student school-based survey and especially those who are contemplating how to begin. Based on the lessons learned from developing and administering The Student Stressors and Assets Survey, staff from the Building YOUuth initiative of the Bernards Township Health Department and Municipal Alliance Against Substance Abuse will share strategies and methods to achieve collaborative success and to avoid potential pitfalls.

Objectives:

Participants will learn techniques to effectively key stakeholders and to communicate evaluation objectives with an audience.
Participants will learn how to tailor survey content to their community needs and how to ensure a successful sampling size, using The Student Stressors an example of a practical application of measuring youth assets a.
Participants will be able to identify the potent barriers and challenges to administering a survey in the school environment.

“Opposites Attract:
Bridging the Gap Between Youth Development and Academic Achievement”
Workshop Session Four, #15, 1:00 PM to 2:45 PM

Description:
For far too long, academic achievement and youth development have been viewed opposing approaches in education. Current research makes a compelling case that they are interrelated and that students achieve best in a climate of connectedness. This workshop will provide sound research, strong evidence, and best practices for how we can build positive school climates that engage and empower students and produce high academic success.

Learning Objectives:

Explore current research supporting youth development as it connects to academic achievement
Learn effective strategies for building the bridge between youth development and academic achievement
Share and exchange practical ideas and tools

“The Media Straight Up!”
Workshop Session Four, #16, 1:00 PM to 2:45 PM

Presenters:
Kelly Mendoza received an M.A. in Communication from the University of Colorado at Denver in 2002. Since then she has taught college communication courses and worked as a research assistant on a grant developing a multimedia curriculum for middle school students on Tobacco Education and Media (TEAM). Currently she is a PhD student in the Mass Media and Communication program at Temple University. Her research interests lie in media literacy, gender studies, and visual communication.

Description:
Media literacy is the process of accessing analyzing evaluating and creating messages in a variety of different forms. Media literacy helps kids distinguish between fact and opinion and to recognize claims backed up by evidence and those that use emotions. Media literacy can be introduced in a variety of venues – school/curriculum, after school programs, prevention programs, and religious education programs to name a few. Kids are bombarded daily be advertisements for alcohol and tobacco while illegal drugs are not formally marketed, kids experience and messages in music videos, movies, popular music and cable television. Consequently, youth must learn to distinguish between reality and fantasy, understand how and why certain messages are targeted to appeal to them and realize when message-makers are attempting to influence them. Once kids learn these media literacy skills, they become more aware of and resistant to pro-substance use messages

Objectives:

Participants will get an overview of media literacy and the impact of media messages on youth.
Strategies to incorporate media literacy activities into curriculum and/or other programs targeted to impact kids.
The connection between media literacy and the strengthening of children’s critical thinking, reasoning and communication skills.

“Discovering Your Own Key to Unlock Your Potential”
Keynote Address, 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM

Presenter:
Rivera Jimmy Rivera is the founder and Senior Pastor of City Limits Assembly of God in Allentown, PA, a flourishing multicultural church since 1994. Jimmy has an innate ability to speak to youth and inspire them to heights of achievement that they may never have imagined. Notedvmmunity Services, an agency dedicated to community revitalization and economic empowerment. Overcoming a fourteen-year heroin addiction, he exemplifies a life of resiliency and how to focus on one’s strengths. Learning how to navigate multiple roadblocks and barriers, he became an addictions counselor and vocational administrator at an internationally known drug rehabilitation facility. Ultimately his desire to help people became a call to ministry and after attending Berean University to study theology; he began the latest chapter of his life’s work. Jimmy lives in Allentown, PA.

Description:
The key to releasing one’s potential involves the process of self-discovery, recovery and renewal. Before releasing an action or behavior, first there must be realizing that outcome. Many young people today stumble on their way to self-discovery and learning how to realize their potential because of many distractions in popular culture. Their dreams and desires become dull and they conform to the status quo. This keynote will challenge participants to part with the past, navigate the present and confront the future with boldness, courage and excitement.

Objectives:

"Teen.Taps Fun Festival: Activities /Games / Movies”
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Presenter:
Teen.TAPS, is a Youth Leadership Group based in Bethlehem, PA and is a group of young leaders that serve as resources to organizations in the Lehigh Valley concerning matters that affect children and adolescents because it is a strongly held belief that teens should be active decision-making partners with adults. Teen.TAPS helps to spread the word about the importance of the 40 Developmental Assets and incorporates the asset philosophy in everything they do. The group formed in 2000 in response to the need for youth partnership at the first "Unleashing the Power of Youth and Community Potential Conference" in 2000. In addition the group is currently waging a campaign to make it possible for youth in Pennsylvania to have voting privileges on community boards and commissions. Teen.TAPS includes Judith Araujo, Charlene Cruz, Dahila Cruz, Will Day, Courtney Killo and John MacDonald

Description:
This evening’s activities will consist of movies, games and fellowship to allow conference participants to enjoy each other in a “down-time” and meet new people and build new relationships.

Objectives:

To have fun
To meet new people at the conference
To build more relationships with people you did not attend with

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Workshops/Institutes/Keynoter Details ::: Sunday ::: Monday ::: Tuesday

2005 Conference : Keynote Speakers : Workshops : Registration : Details/Logistics : Brochure : Sponsors

2005 Workshops and Institutes

::: Monday, Oct. 17th :::

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