ECYEH Monitoring 2024-2025: Essential Processes and Tools for your Monitoring Experience
[Held October 9] Highlights include changes to document submission and the interview process, the new monitoring scoring system, and key tips and resources to help you prepare for a monitoring visit.
Unleashing Extraordinary: Well-being Strategies for Educators Supporting Vulnerable Students
[Held November 13] Discover practical strategies, hands-on tools, and engaging activities to boost your resilience, enhance well-being, and thrive personally and professionally as we head into the holiday season.
Creative Pathways to Healing: Arts Integration for Students Experiencing Homelessness
Wednesday, December 11, 10:00 – 11:00 AM
Join us for an enlightening workshop on healing and arts integration by internationally renowned educator and scholar Dr. Rajni Shankar-Brown! Explore the transformative power of arts integration in supporting students experiencing homelessness. This session will delve into the myriad benefits of incorporating creative expression into educational settings, highlighting how the arts foster social and emotional resilience, build community connections, and enhance academic engagement. Discover effective strategies for implementing creative and arts-based activities that promote healing and self-discovery, and support pathways to creating nurturing environments for diverse learners experiencing homelessness. Together, let us cultivate creative pathways for healing!
Meet Our Instructor, Dr. Rajni Shankar-Brown
Rajni Shankar-Brown, Ph.D., is an internationally renowned and award-winning community-engaged educator, scholar, artist, poet, author, and human rights activist. Dr. Shankar-Brown is a professor at Stetson University, DeLand, Florida, and the president of the National Coalition for the Homeless, the nation’s oldest advocacy and direct service organization supporting people experiencing homelessness. Her work has been featured on over 100 media sites including CBS, The Washington Post, and The Seattle Times. For more information, visit her LinkedIn page.
Spreading HOPE — Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences
Wednesday, January 8, 10:00-11:00 AM
We build HOPE — Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences — by promoting equitable access to positive childhood experiences (PCEs) that help children grow into resilient adults and mitigate the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Join us to explore research and learn how to promote equitable access to the Four Building Blocks of HOPE: Relationships, Environment, Engagement, and Emotional Growth. We’ll discuss how homeless liaisons and youth-serving professionals can create supportive environments, facilitate essential connections, and ensure that every student receives the resources they need to thrive. Additionally, we’ll connect this approach to other frameworks like the Strengthening Families Protective Factors, emphasizing the integral part liaisons and youth-serving professionals play in transforming educational experiences and outcomes for vulnerable students.
Meet Our Instructor, Karen Shanoski, M. Mgt.
Karen Shanoski’s work at Center for Schools and Communities includes multiple responsibilities for family support programs including leadership of the Parents as Teachers (PAT) state office, Children’s Trust Fund work, training and consultation services in strengths-based family engagement practices, and family-school-community partnerships. She serves on Childhood Begins at Home Campaign, PA Family Support Committee, Family Center Network, Strengthening Families Leadership Team and other statewide workgroups.
She served on the National Board of Parents as Teachers. She has been director of a private nonprofit that helped people meet basic human needs and a planner with a county children and youth agency. She is an active community volunteer since high school, including service as a public school board member for ten years. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and a Master’s degree in Management, from Pennsylvania State University. She is a graduate of the Education Policy Fellowship Program.
She and her husband are the proud parents of two creative adult sons making their way in the world.