In one of our recent Champions Collaborative meetings, the community of practice open to everyone certified in Cards for Connection for two years following their certification, we had the privilege of meeting a young man named Sam. Sam is the CEO of Autism Rocks and Rolls, and he came to us with a lived experience worth slowing down […]

They turned the camera on, asked me how I was doing, and the first thing out of my mouth was this:  Today is the day the world finds out about this. I hadn’t planned to say it. It’s just what I was feeling. We’ve spent this summer with a film crew. They came to Central […]

As I’ve been working with Muse Storytelling, a new marketing partner of mine, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why I do this work and where it actually began. If you’ve been to one of my trainings, you know the origin story has a couple of parts. Part of it comes from the work […]

At the end of my training day in West Texas, after spending the day with almost two hundred early childhood professionals from Head Start, the director walked to the front of the room. I assumed she was about to transition the group to their next activity, wrap up the day. Instead, she started telling a […]

I was in West Texas last week, training almost two hundred professionals. Tonight, after a long day of teaching, I went down to the hotel bar for a glass of champagne and some quiet time to collect my notes — thoughts on the curriculum, ideas for what comes next. For most of the night, I […]

I want to tell you about the last two weeks, and how important connection has meant to me. It feels almost insignificant to write this after two weeks of glowing messages about camp. But I realized that after all of the pouring outward, I needed to absorb a dose of connection for myself.  Since our […]

Last week I told you camp felt like an empathy utopia. This week, I want to show you what it actually takes to build one, from the perspective of the mental health team. At UKANDU, there are actually a lot of teams, but I’m part of a special kind of magic – the Rainbow Team.  […]

I just got home from a week at Camp UKANDU, and I’m going to be honest with you – I don’t think I’ve fully integrated everything yet. Some experiences are too big to summarize in a single breath. This is one of them. Here’s what I keep coming back to: What if the world worked the […]

We will soon be opening registration for our fall, virtual Cards for Connection Conference. So, I wanted to introduce you to my friend, and colleague, Georgia. She offered the following testimonial about her journey with our program. This has been created with her permission. Some people take Cards for Connection once, get their certificate, and move […]

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to connect with hundreds of professionals in the early childhood space. I’ve spoken with leaders from the National Head Start Association, Oregon’s Child Care Resource & Referral statewide conference, Oregon’s ECHO program, and new partners at First Five in Siskiyou and Shasta Counties. While I always appreciate the opportunity to teach, what stays […]