Conference Agenda

The major tracks and themes are:

Track One: Strengthening Our Future: Building and Engaging

• Essential themes for prevention/intervention in Violence, Substance Abuse and Mental Health: Coalitions; Poverty; Families; Cultural Competence Youth and Children; Program Management

Track Two: Strengthening Our Future: Working in the Field

• Essential themes for prevention/intervention in Violence, Substance Abuse and Mental Health: Choosing and Implementing Evidence Based Interventions; Challenges and Successes in Program Implementation; Prevention and Intervention; Mental Health Promotion; Issues and Strategies in School and Community Collaborations; Partnering with Law Enforcement

Track Three: Strengthening Our Future: Establishing the Legacy

• Essential themes for prevention/intervention in Violence, Substance Abuse and Mental Health: Technology; Communications; Evaluation Sustainability

Pre-Conference: Monday, April 26, 2004

• 10:00am- 12:00pm Pre-Conference Sessions
• 12:00pm- 1:30pm Lunch on Own
• 1:30pm- 7:00pm Pre-Conference Sessions

Core Conference: Tuesday, April 27, 2004

• 8:00am- 9:00am Continental Breakfast
• 8:00am- 7:00pm Exhibit Area Open
• 8:45am- 9:00am Welcome
• 9:00am- 10:30am Keynote Address
• 10:45am- 12:30pm Concurrent Meetings
  • YVPP Grantee Meeting
  • TCE Grantee Meeting
  • SS/HS Grantee Meeting
• 12:30pm- 2:00pm SSHS Grantee Luncheon and Speaker
  • All other grantees on own for lunch
• 2:00pm- 4:15pm Workshop Sessions
• 4:30pm- 5:30pm Workshop Integration Sessions: State Meetings and Networking
  • Integration sessions will be featured throughout the conference. They provide forums for interest groups based on geographic location, populations served and/or critical topics of concern.
• 5:30pm- 7:00pm Welcome Reception and Resource Fair

Core Conference: Wednesday, April 28, 2004

• 8:00am- 9:00am Continental Breakfast
• 8:00am- 5:00pm Exhibit Area Open
• 8:45am- 9:00am Opening
• 9:00am- 10:30am Keynote Address
• 10:45am - 11:45am Workshop Sessions
• 11:45am- 12:45pm Workshop Sessions
• 12:45pm- 2:15pm YVPP Luncheon and Speaker
  • All other grantees on own for lunch
• 2:15pm- 3:15pm Cornerstone Sessions
  • Cornerstone sessions will feature expert practitioners and researchers presenting on essential themes.
• 3:30pm- 4:30pm Workshop Sessions
• 4:45pm- 6:30pm Workshop Sessions

Core Conference: Thursday, April 29, 2004

• 8:00am- 9:00am Continental Breakfast
• 8:45am- 9:00am Opening
• 9:00am- 10:00am Keynote Address
• 10:15am- 11:15am Cornerstone Sessions
  • Cornerstone sessions will feature expert practitioners and researchers presenting on essential themes.
• 11:30am- 12:45pm Workshop Sessions
• 12:45pm- 2:15pm TCE Luncheon and Speaker
  All other grantees on own for lunch
• 2:15pm- 4:30pm Workshop Sessions

Post-Conference: Friday, April 30, 2004

• 8:00am- 9:00am Continental Breakfast
• 9:00am- 12:00pm Post-Conference Sessions
• 12:00pm- 1:30pm Lunch on Own
• 1:30pm- 3:00pm Post-Conference Sessions

Pre-Conference Sessions

Building Solutions: Health, Education and Social Service Challenges and Needs in Rural and Frontier Communities

• Open to all rural- and frontier-based grantees
• This will be a dynamic working session that will create an opportunity for rural- and frontier-based grantees to share experiences, forge partnerships and draft strategies to improve healthcare access, collaborate with local agencies and sustain efforts built on existing partnerships and systems. Participants will consider:
  • Common strengths, obstacles and challenges unique to rural and frontier settings
  • Opportunities for creating systemic change
  • Partnerships for developing successful service provisions and seeking/sharing resources
  • Strategies for successfully implementing and sustaining initiatives in rural and frontier settings
• Offered 10 am – 1 pm and 2 pm – 5 pm

Systems Thinking/Systems Changing™ Simulation for Sustainability

• Open to all grantees
• This is a comprehensive look at change within a system. The simulation provides a framework and a process for designing and implementing effective system-wide change. Change can be anything from integrating new technology into a system to changing the culture and operating principles of an organization. The simulation will include the importance of using data and understanding a system’s current reality, creating a shared vision that involves all stakeholders, and learning from resistance to change. Change is a process that people go through in stages, and effective systemic change takes time, planning and persistence. The simulation will be led by Carol Bershad, co-developer of Systems Thinking/Systems Changing™
• Offered 10 am – 4 pm
• Maximum registrants – 50

Communicating for Impact: Creating and Delivering Powerful Messages

• Open to Targeted Capacity Expansion and Youth Violence Prevention Grantees
• This interactive session will help grantees develop and deliver powerful messages that influence the actions of their most important audiences. The session will assist grantees tailor their own communications plans to meet their program’s objectives. Special emphasis will be given to audience analysis, message development and presentation delivery.
• Offered 1 pm – 4 pm
• Maximum registrants – 30

Overcoming Obstacles for Effective SS/HS Communications Campaigns

• Open to all Safe Schools/Healthy Student grantees
• You’ve completed your communications template. You’ve had on-site communications technical assistance. You’ve enlisted your key partners and communications steering committee. Now as you attempt to move forward, however, are you finding that implementing that great plan is not as easy as you thought it would be? Through this advanced interactive workshop, grantees will identify and address strategies for overcoming specific challenges to communications implementation, from working with limited resources to accessing and using the media.
• Offered 1 pm – 4 pm
• Maximum registrants– 30

Targeted Capacity Expansion Prevention/Early Intervention New Grantees Meeting

• Fiscal year 2003 TCE grantees
• New TCE grantees are invited to an orientation meeting that will lay out the general goals of the Prevention/Early Intervention program. Grantees will have an opportunity to discuss start-up questions and challenges. Several grantees from previous funding years will share their experiences. Participants will also have an opportunity to meet their Government Project Officers and Technical Assistance Specialists. Dinner will follow the meeting.
• Offered 4 – 7 pm

All YVPP Grantees Meeting

• Open to all YVPP grantees
• During this session, Government Project Officers will provide an overview of the Youth Violence Prevention Program initiative and discuss grant-related issues and questions. Participants will have an opportunity to meet and network with other YVPP grantees.
• Offered 4 pm – 5:30 pm

Safe Schools/Healthy Students Evaluation Consortia

• By invitation only
• Local evaluators from SS/HS sites initially funded in FY 2003 are invited to a conference session to discuss potential evaluation consortia research ideas. (Evaluation consortia are groups of SS/HS local evaluators carrying out cross-site evaluations of local SS/HS initiatives.) Research projects funded as evaluation consortia will receive federal support and resources to facilitate the collaboration of SS/HS local evaluators conducting cross-site research. These collaborative research projects will ultimately benefit local sites and the wider research field by providing insight about the SS/HS initiative from a cross-site perspective.
• Offered 9 am --12 pm

Bullying Seminar

• Open to all grantees
• Bullying is NOT a fact of Life -- No student should be afraid to go to school because of bullying, and no parent should be worried that his or her child may be bullied. This didactic and hands-on workshop will review relevant data, evidence-based programs, implementation strategies, skills development and ways to evaluate bullying-prevention programs. Participants will understand the definition of bullying, some of the bio-psycho-social reasons for bullying and ways that children, bystanders, parents and schools can have an impact on bullying. There will be a comprehensive review of various bullying-prevention programs that can be implemented at the site level.
• Offered 1pm -- 4 pm

Leaving a Legacy

• Open to all grantees
• This interactive session will demystify sustainability by breaking it down into its various components so that grantees can create a framework with which to craft successful sustainability strategies. Through discussions, proven tools and in-depth consultation, participants will gather the necessary knowledge and skills required to sustain the elements of their programs that will ensure change now and in the future.
• Offered 1 pm – 5 pm

American Indian /Alaska Native Issues Session

• Open to grantees whose programs target American Indian and Alaska Natives
• Project sites serving American Indian/ Alaska Native populations can be quite varied. Although each deals with common issues, each also has unique needs. During this session, participants will have an opportunity to network and share experiences as well as discuss relevant resources for current practices within education, social service, juvenile justice, healthcare and mental health. Participants will consider strategies for assuring access to services that are culturally appropriate and successful strategies to engage the American Indian/ Alaska Native population as active participants and collaborators. Strategies for future collaborative work will also be generated.
• Offered 1 pm – 4 pm

Using Technologies to Support Your Program

• Open to all grantees
• Sessions will be offered throughout the day to introduce grantees to ways technology can enhance program objectives. In addition, technology consultants will be available throughout the conference to assist grantees with their technology questions, plans and objectives.
  • 10 am – 11 am: Using and understanding the National Center’s web site
  • 11 am – 12 pm: Developing PowerPoint presentations that work
  • 12 pm – 2 pm: Open lab
  • 2 pm -- 3 pm: Developing PowerPoint presentations that work
  • 3 – 4 pm: Using and understanding the National Center’s web site
• Maximum registrants– 15 per session

Policy Dialogue with Technical Partners, Steering Committee, Selected grantees and Federal Representatives

• By invitation only
• This session will provide an opportunity to discuss policy issues related to mental health promotion and youth violence prevention at community and state levels. A major objective is to gain a clear understanding of where policy should focus to create stronger and healthier communities. This discussion will form the basis for ongoing discussions throughout the conference as well as a wrap-up meeting during the post-conference.
• Offered 10 am to 1pm

Post-Conference Sessions

Systems Thinking/Systems Changing™ Simulation for Sustainability

• Open to all grantees
• This is a comprehensive look at change within a system. The simulation provides a framework and a process for designing and implementing effective system-wide change. Change can be anything from integrating new technology into a system to changing the culture and operating principles of an organization. The simulation will include the importance of using data and understanding a system’s current reality, creating a shared vision that involves all stakeholders, and learning from resistance to change. Change is a process that people go through in stages, and effective systemic change takes time, planning and persistence. The simulation will be led by Carol Bershad, co-developer of Systems Thinking/Systems Changing™.
• Offered 10 am – 4 pm
• Maximum registrants – 50

Individual and Small-Group Communications Consultation

• Open to Targeted Capacity Expansion and Youth Violence Prevention grantees
• Grantees will have the opportunity to meet individually or in small groups with members of the communications team from the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention and fellow grantees for assistance with marketing their specific programs.
• Offered 9 am – 1 pm
• Individual meeting times will be assigned prior to the conference.

Individual and Small-Group SS/HS Communications Consultation

• Open to Safe Schools/Healthy Students grantees
• Grantees will have the opportunity to meet individually or in small groups with members of the SS/HS communications team and fellow grantees for individual technical assistance.
• Offered 9 am – 1 pm
• Individual meeting times will be assigned prior to the conference.

TCE Sustainability Workshop

• Open to TCE final-year grantees and TCE no-cost extension grantees
• The Prevention Institute, located in Oakland, Calif., is offering customized consultation on its Prevention Tools for Sustainability and Effective Coalition Maintenance for Prevention/Early Intervention grantees funded in FY01 (Cohort 1). Each site will receive feedback on its proposed use of the tools. PI Managing Director Rachel Davis, MSW, will facilitate the session.
• Offered 9 am – 3:30 pm

SS/HS Sustaining Your Work

• Open to SS/HS final-year grantees and SS/HS no-cost extension grantees
• Grantees will develop plans for sustaining their programs based on where they are in their grants. Sustainability experts will be available to assist grantees in tailoring and developing customized strategies to sustain key elements of their programs intended to create positive changes in their communities, now and in the future.
• Offered 9 am – 2 pm

Bullying Seminar

• Open to all grantees
• Bullying is NOT a fact of Life" - No student should be afraid to go to school because of bullying and no parent should be worried that their child may be bullied. This workshop will review relevant data, evidence-based programs, implementation strategies, skills development and ways to evaluate bullying prevention programs. Participants will understand the definitions of bullying, some of the bio-psycho-social reasons for bullying, ways that children, by-standers, parents and schools can have an impact on bullying, as well as a comprehensive review of various bullying prevention programs that can be implemented at the site level. This will be a combination of a didactic and "hands on" experiential workshop.
• Offered 9 am – 12 pm

Using Technologies to Support Your Program

• Open to all grantees
• Sessions will be offered throughout the day to introduce grantees to ways technology can enhance program objectives. In addition, technology consultants will be available throughout the conference to assist grantees with their technology questions, plans and objectives.
  • 10 am – 11 am: Using and understanding the National Center’s web site
  • 11 am – 12 pm: Developing PowerPoint presentations that work
  • 12 pm – 2 pm: Open lab
  • 2 pm -- 3 pm: Developing PowerPoint presentations that work
  • 3 – 4 pm: Using and understanding the National Center’s web site
• Maximum registrants– 15 per session

Policy Dialogue with Technical Partners, Steering Committee, Selected Grantees and Federal Representatives

• Open to all grantees
• This session will provide a synthesis of the policy discussions held throughout the conference. Discussions will focus on policy issues related to mental health promotion and youth violence prevention at the community and state levels. This wrap-up will delineate the areas where policy could focus to create stronger and healthier communities. Next steps and ideas for continuing the dialogue will be formulated.
• Offered 10 am -- 1pm