A1 Workshop
( 60 minutes )

Our mandate is youth-focused, where RCMP KARE Pro Active members meet with youth throughout Alberta, going to the hot spots identified to them such as group homes (Kindred House, Grimmond House, Red Deer area homes), drop-in centres such as YESS and the Armoury providing education on tactics used by exploiters to recruit or trap vulnerable youth into the sex / drug trade.

A2 Workshop
( 60 minute )

Taking care of youth is emotionally draining and rewarding work. The workshop will consist of two parts. First, Daena will discuss the relationship between frontline worker self-care and care for youth from her research in Edmonton and Winnipeg. Second, participants will engage in a peacemaking circle to explore: What is self-care? How do I/don’t I take good care of myself?

A3 Workshop
( 60 minute )

Developing a model of supportive housing for teen families. Recognizing the challenges of teen parenting, Terra Centre and Brentwood Housing Society partnered to develop a supportive housing model for teen families. Through this presentation, we will share successes and challenges experienced by staff and teen families involved, and discuss how our participatory research agenda will capture the programs innovative practices.

A4 Workshop
( 60 minute )

WrapED is a collaborative program that uses the wraparound approach to help youth move away from the threat of gangs and to learn to thrive in community. While building resiliency of youth on the ground, WrapED is also contributing to a national body of knowledge about evidence-based programs in gang prevention. Learn about our collaborative model, the wraparound approach, our successes, our challenges, and key learnings to date.

A5 Workshop
( 60 minute )

Do you have mindfulness practices that help you and your work in service to others? Does your work feel magical? This workshop will explore helping others and caring for yourself. Join us for an interactive, playful hour designed to enable you to experience the magic of you and your work.

A6 Workshop
( 60 minute )

This presentation will showcase preliminary findings of an engaged, Community-Based Participatory Research project that partners with homeless Edmonton youth. In this project, youth created narratives to explore their experiences of living on the streets and the impact of downtown revitalization on their health and resilience. Youth participants will be co-presenting.

A7 Workshop
( 60 minute )

In this session Tamara will help you to understand the lived and learned realities of sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ) children, youth, and families and to explore and engage with LGBTQ terminology. She will identify our professional responsibility to create safe and inclusive environments for LGBTQ children, youth, and families, as well as useful community resources and professional supports.

B1 Workshop
( 60 minutes )

Youth from the Oromo, Sudanese, Somali, Ethiopian and Eritrean communities built capacity and developed leadership skills to plan a week long program (PYEP) for youth ages 12 – 24 in August, 2015. They learned about the role of police, community engagement, mentorship and the importance of feedback to influence change. Youth, police and Community Animator will share their experience and learnings.

B2 Workshop
( 60 minute )

Analysis plans for the Child and Youth Data Laboratory’s Longitudinal Project will be discussed in the context of high-risk youth. Panelists will discuss the nature and scope of the project, and plans for investigating homeless youth, youth involved in the justice system, and youth facing multiple challenges.

B3 Workshop
( 60 minute )

This presentation introduces Moving the Mountain, an integrated, holistic, and individualized approach to learning for at-risk Aboriginal girls. It highlights the successes and challenges as the program moves from prototype to pilot, focusing on the realities of this process from the perspective of the youth and facilitators.

B4 Workshop
( 60 minute )

Streetworks is in the 5th year of its drug education project “Youth to Youth: Keeping kids safer and healthier”. This project aims to use Harm Reduction as a strategy to ensure that youth have truthful drug information, allowing them to make decisions that are realistic and appropriate for their life circumstances.

B5 Workshop
( 60 minute )

An Advisory Group came together to expand mentoring for children in care and support meaningful relationships between mentors & vulnerable youth. The project focuses on innovative practices in recruitment, screening, matching and enhanced training. Panel members (including pilot sites, mentor & mentee) will share lessons learned and collaborations from the first year, next steps and celebrate successes to date.

B6 Workshop
( 60 minute )

In this engaging presentation, the audience will encounter the narratives of 'high risk' youth who find community and purpose through engaging in creativity. Learn how iHuman's model is implemented, share in the youths' storytelling through various art forms and be inspired to "be a hero to creativity".

B7 Workshop
( 60 minute )

Renee is a foster carer who supports high risk teens in her home. She has been a licensed foster care home for a year and a half, but she has been taking in high risk girls for 2.5 years. She started in this role to help out girls who were living on the streets. She takes a creative and supportive approach to each situation. Learn more about who Renee is, what fostering high risk girls is like, and her role in the community.

C1 Workshop
( 90 minutes )

We are all affected by the work that we do. This workshop will focus on discussing what happens to all of us whose work involves supporting others through trauma. We will talk about theoretical perspectives as well as considering ways to manage this impact.

C2 Workshop
( 90 minute )

“Embracing Change” is an interactive Expressive Arts, Restorative Circle process dealing with the human experiences of change and loss. Expressive Arts require no artistic skill and are a gentle way to connect with one’s own experience and express it in a non-threatening way. It encourages a notion of “trusting the process” rather than “controlling the process,” which is a great metaphor for life as we move through loss and embrace change. The Restorative Circle process provides a respectful means for participants to connect meaningfully with others as they feel ready to. We will be using a variety of art supplies such as markers, crayons, paper, glue. Limited to 25 participants.

C3 Workshop
( 90 minute )

Recognizing the role that trauma plays in the lives of complex youth struggling with mental health and addictions leads to better services and outcomes. We will describe the journey at CASA Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health towards embedding the narrative of trauma and resilience into our organization and services.

C4 Workshop
( 90 minute )

Edmonton’s recent progress in addressing youth homelessness is unique: through development of a youth-specific local community strategy that aligns with both the municipal and provincial plans to end homelessness, Homeward Trust has engaged government systems, community stakeholders, and youth with lived experience towards transforming our homeless youth serving-sector.

C5 Workshop
( 90 minute )

High-risk youth, many who have experienced significant trauma in their lives, identify that they often have strained and challenging connections to their case worker and service providers in the child welfare system. This workshop examines the need to better understand these relationship dynamics and shift from punishment-consequence intervention to a relationship based practice.

C6 Workshop
( 90 minute )

Join members of a Calgary project working to help immigrant youth discover their voices and identities through a Wraparound approach, with the aim of preventing gang involvement. The presentation will discuss ongoing learning, and will include interactive components for attendees to discover the innovation that comes with combining ideas.

C7 Workshop
( 90 minute )

D1 Workshop
( 90 minutes )

D2 Workshop
( 90 minutes )

An interactive discussion about building relationships with high-risk youth; what a ‘relationship focus’ looks like on the ground and in the community. With our Guiding Principles and building on our continuum of services, we’ve developed our approach with the aim to be as “relationship based” as we can. In this session we will also discuss the challenges that can arise from being too relationship focused (if that’s even possible!).

D3 Workshop
( 90 minutes )

Explore the principles of Harm Reduction and how to better support youth who are living with high risk choices. This presentation will introduce the concept of “Harm Acceptance” a new dimension of Harm Reduction practice. Harm Acceptance refers to practitioners operating from a harm reduction model who accept clients where they are at….and nothing else. These practitioners are not maximizing the model and do not strive to move youth toward a future where their behaviours are healthier, have less negative impacts and have a recovery orientation to client centred care. (Fortune, Poffenroth)

D4 Workshop
( 90 minutes )

Calgary Region, Child and Family Services, want to share its innovative practice shifts. We will highlight theory and foundation of these practices as developed by other leaders throughout the United States and Australia, and we will provide case examples of how we have incorporated this into our work with youth.

D5 Workshop
( 90 minutes )

Youth living in poverty depend on public transit, but are at risk of entering the criminal justice system when they accrue fines for being unable to afford the fare. The Youth Transit Access Project is collaborative initiative offering high-risk youth opportunities for transit access, and seeking to improve relationships between youth and enforcement.

D6 Workshop
( 90 minutes )

Learn powerful and innovative approaches to working with high risk youth. Through a proactive and evidence based framework, Trust Based Relational Intervention educates and informs front line workers and parents on why youth act out, what their needs are and teaches effective ways to facilitate improved behaviour and optimal development.

D7 Workshop
( 90 minutes )

As the needs of our youth become more complex, so to do the demands on frontline practitioners. This session looks at the innovative practice of creating better outcomes through the development of multidisciplinary, collaborative service teams. Topics include identifying and engaging members, communication, information sharing, shared responsibility and expectations. Session includes a panel discussion with one such collaborative team.