Friends, 

Well, if you’ve been listening to the podcast and following along here over the past few weeks, then you know we’ve been going through the process of renewal and rebranding. As I become clearer about my audience and who my listeners and learners are, it’s become really evident who I want to continue to serve and reach. We need a group of champions who are dedicated to building resilience, nurturing, and supporting families. And, we are on a mission to do just that! We know that village is what really helps kids and families thrive; so, we’re literally creating that village! Last week, in our newsletter and podcast, we dove into Circles of Support and discussed ways to build those villages for kids and families. We also identified where you might be on those circles and ways you can help those circles grow, expand, and create deeper layers of connection and support. 

This week, I want to build your village through The ConnectEd Collaborative. Because, how the heck are you going to continue to be supportive helpers and healers for kids if you’re not being taken care of as well? 

There’s so much research that supports being part of a learning collaborative as a professional. To grow into relational leaders, to grow and learn as professionals, being part of a group with whom you can reflect, get feedback, share resources and gain support is critical for your growth and development. There’s also a great deal of research that shows that it prevents burnout as well. In fact, if you go back to previous episodes, Dr. Bruce Perry, a renowned expert points out that EVERY professional should be in these types of groups. 

Here’s a quote from a recent member:

“This is so valuable and important for people working with families to have this training and support. If we want to see a shift in our society, we have to shift our approach. I can see it and feel it. Dr. Amy & her team are helping professionals understand how to be more impactful in their work and their own lives. Please keep supporting this work. Thank you!”

 When you can be part of a supportive community, you look forward to what’s in it. The people, the resources, the shared expertise, and the guidance. In the ConnectEd Collab, we gather monthly. If you’re a healthcare professional, you receive CME for attending; and, if you’re an educator, we can provide certificates of attendance. That’s just icing on the cake because what’s truly happening in The Connected Collab is the magic of being together. 

Let me share with you some of the topics we’ve touched on in various learning collaboratives just this past year. See if any of these topics would be relevant to you and if being in a community of supportive colleagues might be your jam:

• Managing complex behavior
• How to talk to kids with anxiety or depression
• How to discuss or begin to discuss suicide or suicidality
• How to listen better
• How to prevent people we work with from experiencing further trauma or re-traumatizing folks
• How to talk to a parent who’s experienced trauma
• Culturally sensitive parenting programs and resources
• Abuse reporting
• Teacher safety at home visits
• Sexual Abuse
• Self-regulation
• Resilience
• Cyberbullying
• Screens

I could go on, but if this seems like topics that are interesting to you, I hope you reach out and join one of our ConnectEd Collabs and find out how and why this might be a great fit for you. 

In the Connected Collab, you come for free the first time! Join us and see what this is all about. We’d love to have you! This membership offers SO MUCH more than whatever membership you currently belong to. In fact…what other memberships are you spending money on? Netflix? Premium Spotify? A gym? A wine club? I promise you The ConnectEd Collab is going to bring you so much joy and personal investment. We record every month, so if you can’t make it, you’ll get the recording link. You’ll also get a brief summary that we call Monthly Gems that have links to articles, talk, books, classes, etc that others share. And then you’re also thrown into our online portal resource – it has recordings of all of our previous meetings, all of our videos, scripts, and interventions that help kids and families. Holy smokes!!

You’ll come for the content but you’ll stay for the community. Regarding the content – I don’t know of anywhere else that has access to this much information from a licensed psychologist and my team who are experts in trauma-informed care, children, complex behavior and mental health & pediatric health. But it’s really the community that you’ll stay with – you’ll begin to meet other people who are also committed to doing this important work. There are people from all over the country and you get to hear how they’re doing it and how they talk about things, or how they ask questions. Really it creates a lot less aloneness. And I’ve gotta tell you, that’s really why I created this community. 

In the meantime, I want all of you to be connected and in community. I want all of you to have access to a ConnectEd Collab!

And if you want to learn more, tune into the podcast this week where I review all-things village and collaboratives. If this newsletter, the podcast and everything we’re doing to become connected champions feels like you and your people – please invite others!