Building Protective Factors from Birth to Five

Hopscotch Staff is committed to your family's ongoing success after completing your adoption.  Our staff will be attending this conference in May and hope to incorporate more protective factors, strategies and resources into our post adoption services.

Sponsors:  Orange County Partnership for Young Children, North Carolina Children’s Trust Fund, Orange County Department of Social Services, and Child Care Services Association

Time and Date: 8:30 to 3:30 Friday, May 31, 2013

Location:  William & Ida Friday Center Continuing Education, Chapel Hill

Maximum Number of Participants:  90

Who Should Attend?   The training will be applicable to a multidisciplinary group of early childhood professionals and advocates, including mental health providers, child care providers and administrators, early intervention, social services, family support, and others who are concerned with promoting social emotional development in children birth through five.

Description:   Recent research has made it increasingly clear that adverse experiences during the period of birth to five years have an enduring impact on the developing brain and body. However, family protective factors have the capacity to buffer these harmful effects. The morning session will provide an overview of what the American Academy of Pediatrics terms “toxic stress,” as well as five family protective factors. We will then hear about an initiative of the North Carolina Children’s Trust Fund to bolster family protective factors in very high risk families, highlighting methods for engaging such families. Participants will receive the newest version of Orange County Smart Start’s community resource guide – Parent Pages.

Participants can network during a complimentary buffet lunch, then for the afternoon session we will divide into two tracks: 1) mental health, and 2) early education.  Each group will hear about four separate evidence-based or evidence-informed interventions for building protective factors and promoting social emotional skills and coping in early childhood. 

Objectives:  The primary participant objectives for this presentation are to:

• Understand three different kinds of stress (positive, tolerable, and toxic) and how each affects the developing child’s brain and body
• List and describe five Family Protective Factors
• Apply specific techniques for successfully engaging high risk families
• Use a local resource guide to identify community services that support families
• Identify and know how to access information about at least four evidence-based interventions for work with young children and their families through 1) mental health, or 2) early education.