The fall is typically a busy conference season for Methodist Children’s Home and many partner agencies in our industry. MCH staff have attended a variety of conferences this year to collaborate on best practices, discuss emerging industry trends, and provide instruction on topics such as leadership, evidence-informed programming and trauma-informed care. Traci Wagner, vice president for programs, said that MCH presence and participation was higher at the conferences she attended than in any prior year.
Earlier this month, Wagner and Marissa Smith, assistant vice president for programs, attended the Coalition of Residential Excellence (CORE) Conference, hosted this year by Kamehameha Schools in Honolulu, Hawaii. CORE exists to promote and strengthen residential education programs for children/youth whose homes and communities could not meet their needs. During the conference, Wagner and Smith presented on Evidence Informed Independent Living Programming and Motivating Your Staff.
Late last month, MCH had a large representation at the Texas Child Care Administrators Conference (TCCAC) in Round Rock. This conference is facilitated by the Texas Alliance of Child and Family Services (TACFS) who build communities of care for children and families through education, advocacy and collaboration. Wagner and Smith also presented on evidence-informed programming at TCCAC.
Also, in September, the Tyler Family Outreach team, along with Wagner and Thomas Chandler, compliance coordinator, attended the East Texas Network for Children (ETNC) Conference. The conference is hosted in Tyler each September to provide training for those who work directly with children and strengthen the services of providers. Kristy George, director of Family Outreach (Tyler), provided instruction on TBRI during one of the educational sessions.
George said, “The ETNC conference is one of my favorite conferences to attend each year. There are always great sessions, and I was excited to be able to contribute to the TBRI session to give professionals extra tools when working with kids from hard places.”
Support services staff also had the opportunity to recently attend conferences focused on human resources. The HR team attended the Heart of Texas SHRM 2024 Conference in Waco last month, which offered sessions on topics like workplace investigations, employee engagement and performance and HR trends. Earlier this week, Meghan Holder, director of human resources; Kevin Brown, director of training; and Shawn Kirkpatrick, employee communication and engagement coordinator, attended the HR Southwest conference in Fort Worth. Hosted by Texas SHRM, the conference provides more than 100 educational sessions for attendees to choose from and many networking opportunities.
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