Fall Conference 2024:Developmentally-responsive Practices in Early Learning

We are absolutely thrilled to host our Fall Conference for the first time in Campbell River, BC. We're looking forward to bringing our conference to our colleagues from the Island, and hope that colleagues from other communities will join us too.

Our Fall Conference has received generous financial support from Westcoast Childcare Resource Centre and the Provincial Government, allowing us to reduce ticket prices from $400 to $35 each!

Date: October 25– 26, 2024

Time: 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM both days – registration opens at 9 AM

Location: Coast Discovery Inn: 975 Shoppers Row, Campbell River, BC V9W 2C4

Cost: Reduced fees: $35 for both days

Breakfast & Lunch is provided

Certificate of Professional Development will be provided

THE BURSARY PROGRAM ALSO COVERS SOME TRAVEL AND ACCOMODATION COSTS - DETAILS ARE BELOW

This workshop will focus on using Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential model and Brazelton Touchpoints as lenses to understand why we function the way we do, and how to best facilitate early learning programs through safety, regulation, and connection. This theory applies to people across the lifespan, and also to us as the support providers.

Different understanding can lead to different support strategies.

Brain Development and Our Stress Response System
Understanding how stress uniquely impacts our functional capabilities, such as self-control and relationships

Developmental Touchpoints vs. Milestones
Exploring all human development as a non-linear process, embedded in the context of the family system

Sensitization and Tolerance
Why do some of us have brains which try to protect us in ways which can sometimes cause us difficulties?

State Dependent Functioning
Why does it sometimes feel like our brains have shut down, and we can’t do the thing we expect of ourselves?

Practical Strategies for Supporting Clients
How can we translate neuroscience into strategies which match where our brains are at?

Attachment and Co-Regulation
What are our roles as service providers, in creating the safety necessary for engagement and growth?

These topics will be explored throughout our session, in a way which is unique and relevant to attending service providers and their target populations of support.

Jan Ference BEd, M.S in Counselling, IPMHF (Infant-Parent Mental Health Fellow) has spent her entire career working with at-risk children and their families. She completed her Bachelor of Education at the University of Victoria and got her first teaching job in an inner-city school. She quickly realized that she wanted to know more about the social emotional well-being of the complex children she was teaching, and so completed a Master’s in Counselling program at the University of Portland.

Dr. Bruce Perry’s model inspired Jan to change her practice and the systems that serve the most complex children. Jan currently mentors clinicians from around the world, who are training with Dr. Perry. She has trained thousands of colleagues in this model with the goal of changing the lens through which we see the most vulnerable families. Jan continues to extend her practice through mentoring clinicians who are training with Dr. Perry, as well as being an active and passionate National Trainer for the Brazleton Touchpoints Center. She has also graduated from the Infant-Parent Mental Health Fellowship through the University of California, and the Reflective Supervision Academy through UC Davis.

in 2016, Jan created and led a specialized early intervention trauma team, working intensely with perinatal women who have Opioid Use challenges, and is currently leading the transformation of the education system in the Yukon. Most significantly, she is supporting the newly formed First Nations School Board to bring education back to their communities. This is an example of reconciliation in action, which is aligned with Jan’s intentions, values, and heart.

Andrew McKenzie BA, MACP, RCC, NMT Certified comes to his clinical work with insight and knowledge gained through experiences as an adoptive and birth parent, as well as nearly twenty years of working with neurodiverse children and adults in the British Columbia public school system, as well as in various non-profit mental health settings focussing on perinatal substance use and early life adversity. Andrew’s experiential and academic understandings of how strong, attuned relationships are the most potent ingredients of healing, underpin his role as a mental health clinician and consultant in both non-profit and private practices. Through these positions, Andrew, a BCACC Registered Clinical Counsellor, Neurosequential Model Clinician, and Brazelton Touchpoints Trainer, works to support vulnerable families through training provincial systems such as foster parents, schools, healthcare, and many more, in understanding the developmental impacts of trauma, and the healing power of attuned relationships.

In partnership with the Province of British Columbia – Ministry of Children and Family Development and the Government of Canada, Westcoast Childcare Resource Centre (WCCRC) has established the BC Professional Development Bursary Fund for Early Childhood Educators and other childcare providers in BC.

All participants receive bursary support in the form of reduced ticket prices from $400 to $35. There is also a travel and accommodation bursary available; first priority for the travel and accommodation portion of the bursary will be given to attendees in remote and rural areas. We will notify eligible attendees by email.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

975 Shoppers Row, 975 Shoppers Row, Campbell River, Canada