----- Please forward to your contacts. -----
 
BEST START RESOURCE CENTRE 2011 ANNUAL CONFERENCE: TODAY IS THE LAST DAY FOR THE 'EARLY BIRD' RATE!
 
Date: February 22-24, 2011
Location: BMO Institute for Learning, Toronto, ON
 
The Best Start Resource Centre team is pleased to announce our 2011 annual conference. The conference addresses preconception through to child health and explores sessions relevant to your work and areas of interest. Acquire the latest information, learn innovative strategies and programs, and meet new colleagues. 
 
Register by January 7, 2011 to take advantage of the "early bird" special of $300. 
Regular registration fees of $350.00 apply after January 7, 2011.
 
To find out more about the conference including: registration details, the program, speakers, venue, parking, and accommodations, see http://www.beststart.org/events/detail/bsannualconf11/index.htm 
 
We look forward to seeing you in February!
 
Meghan
 
*** Here are some highlights of the conference. Check out the new and exciting speakers for 2011! Take a look at our workshops for service providers who work with Aboriginal children and families and our workshops offered in French. ***
 
 
----- PRECONFERENCE SESSIONS (February 22, 2011) -----
 
Resilience: What's new? Now what can we do?
 
This pre-conference workshop will highlight current theory and research about resilience and what this means for practitioners. Examples of current initiatives and programs will be presented as well as strategies that participants can use to promote resilience in children around them. The first part of this full-day workshop will present current knowledge about resilience by exposing myths and misinformation, exploring pathways to resilience, and highlighting evidence-based programs that support resilience in young children and the adults around them. In the second half, strategies and resources that practitioners can use to promote resilience in their own work with children and families will be shared through video clips, discussion, and activities.
 
Healthy Babies Healthy Children: Reserve your day! It's for you!
 
The pre-conference on Healthy Babies Healthy Children (HBHC) will offer practical suggestions for Public Health Nurses in key areas of their work. Registrants will take part in all four presentations listed below. 
1 - Dealing with Mental Health Issues
2 - Vicarious Trauma (Secondary Traumatic Stress)
3 - Seeing What Children See
4 - Helping Parents Deal with Difficult Child Behaviours 
 
----- MAIN CONFERENCE (February 23-24, 2011) -----
 
KEYNOTES
 
With Our Best Future in Mind---What's New?
Dr. Charles E. Pascal <http://www.beststart.org/events/detail/bsannualconf11/speaker.htm#pascal> , Professor, Human Development and Applied Psychology, OISE/University of Toronto; Special Advisor on Early Learning to the Premier of Ontario; Conseiller Principal/Senior Advisor, Fondation Lucie et Andre Chagnon Foundation
 
Dr. Charles E. Pascal will provide an update regarding implementation of the province of Ontario's pre-natal to age 12 vision noted in the report, With Our Best Future in Mind.
 
Balance Between Professional and Family Life
Andrée Jetté <http://www.beststart.org/events/detail/bsannualconf11/speaker.htm#jette> , Public Speaker
 
A lecture on the art of achieving balance in everyday life. Not an easy task would you say? That is why the workshop focuses on a tool called « compartmentalising your day ».This tool is for analytical minds as well as artistic ones! We all know how to divide our day in order to accomplish all our tasks. In this presentation, we will make good use of this knowledge to learn how to separate family, work, and the relationship with our own self. A special chart will be used to demonstrate how to separate these three elements in different categories. Participants will come away with a number of practical and concrete tools to be used immediately in their every day life. With this magic formula, it is now possible to keep one's balance, amid the fast paced rhythm of modern life.
 
Aboriginal Reproductive Health 
Jessica Yee <http://www.beststart.org/events/detail/bsannualconf11/speaker.htm#yee> , Founder and Executive Director, The Native Youth Sexual Health Network
 
Indigenous communities currently face the highest rates of youth pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STI's), and domestic violence in North America. Those who experience these realities the most are our youth. Colonization, Christianization, and genocidal oppression have drastically severed the ties where traditionally we might have received the knowledge that would enable us to make informed choices about our sexual health and relationships. Many of our ancestral teachings show us that several of our societies were matriarchal and this included healthy, educated decisions over matters of childbearing and sexuality. However clinical sexual health often ignores these origins of sex positive existence, while there is a severe lack of culturally competent and community oriented resources available to service the needs in our Indigenous communities. Today, the Native Youth Sexual Health Network works to address the strength and pride to be drawn in our tradition and culture that is directly related to what we term today as "healthy sexuality". This session is an opportunity to reflect on our experiences working with and for Indigenous youth, while exploring the complexities of sexual and human rights, harm reduction, empowerment in the context of differences in power, the impact of colonization, racism and access to care. We believe that it is with the self-determination of our rights as Indigenous youth and the understanding of our ancestral teachings intersected with our present realities that justice can be met for us in the world of reproductive and sexual health.
 
The Development of Self-Regulation
Dr. Stuart Shanker <http://www.beststart.org/events/detail/bsannualconf11/speaker.htm#shanker> , Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy and Psychology, York University; Director, the Milton and Ethel Harris Research Initiative, York University
 
Recent advances in developmental neuroscience are dramatically altering attitudes towards the possibility of maximizing the educational potential of every child. Scientists now understand that the better a child can self-regulate, the better she can rise to the challenge of mastering ever more complex skills and concepts. But what exactly is self-regulation, and why is it so important for learning? Dr. Shanker will talk about the nature of self-regulation; the experiences that promote the development of self-regulation and the factors that can impede its development; and what teachers and parents can do to enhance the self-regulation of each and every child in their classroom.
 
OTHER SESSION TOPICS:
 
- "I'm Still Hungry" Child and Family Poverty Ontario - Interactive Workshop on How Service Providers Can Make a Difference 
- Vicarious Trauma: When Compassion Overwhelms Us 
- The Way of Play 
- On Track in Early Child Development - Practical Applications of the Online Guide for Front-Line Service Providers 
- Creating LGBTQ Families: A Different Kind of Family Planning 
- Feeding a Preschooler Child: Fun and Challenging!
- Strategies for Reaching Priority Populations 
- Weight Gain During Pregnancy: A Canadian Population Health Approach
- Building Resiliency in New Parents 
- Growing Up in a New Land
- Presentation-Induced Cerebral Necrosis: A Treatment for Death by PowerPoint 
 
For service providers who work with Aboriginal children and families:
- Caring for the Spirit of the Prenatal Woman from an Aboriginal Perspective 
- Fathering from an Aboriginal Perspective 
- FASD and Aboriginal Communities
 
In French:
- Accueillir la petite enfance : Le processus de l'intervention éducative pour une pédagogie démocratique 
- Développement langagier chez l'enfant d'âge préscolaire évoluant dans un milieu bilingue ou multilingue 
 
To learn more and to register NOW, go to http://www.beststart.org/events/detail/bsannualconf11/index.htm 
 
Meghan Boston-McCracken, MSW, RSW 
Bilingual Information Specialist / Spécialiste bilingue d'information
Best Start Resource Centre / Meilleur départ 
Health Nexus Santé
(formerly Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse/anciennement Centre ontarien d'information en prévention)
Sault Ste. Marie, ON
Telephone: (705) 254-3463 / 1-800-397-9567 ext. 2345 
Fax: (705) 254-7503
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> 
www.healthnexus.ca <http://www.healthnexus.ca/>   www.beststart.org <http://www.beststart.org> 
 
Register now! Don't miss the 'early bird' rates!
2011 Best Start Resource Centre Annual Conference
Feburary 22-24, 2011
http://www.beststart.org/events/detail/bsannualconf11/index.htm
 
Join over 1,800 service providers who are part of the 
Maternal Newborn and Child Health Promotion Network (MNCHP) 
to share and receive up-to-date information, guidance, and strategies. 
Subscribe at http://www.beststart.org/services/information.html
 

To manage subscriptions/passwords, or view archives, go to http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/click4hp.html . [log in to unmask] is run in collaboration with Health Nexus: http://www.healthnexus.ca/index_eng.php