PENDLETON – October 7th was the fifth Early Childhood Education and Behavioral Health Fall Summit. The conference was held in person this year, for the first time since 2019, and held at Wildhorse. Erin Bartsch, Blue Mountain Early Learning Hub Operations Coordinator at IMESD, said, "We had about 450 attendees from early education, school districts, health departments, mental health programs, non-profits, and the Department of Health Services. We collaborated with the Oregon Child Development Center to provide Spanish interpretation for the sessions."
The keynote speaker was Justine Froelker, with breakout sessions focused on Brene Brown’s Dare To Lead program. There was an emphasis on creating and protecting your boundaries both in working with children and their families, and in your personal life. This session included skill-building around having hard conversations, staying curious rather than going to judgment, believing people are doing their best, and that being vulnerable takes courage.
Other breakout sessions included Soobin Oh from Teaching Preschool Partners, who talked about Playful Inquiry; Katie Greathouse with Chastain & Associates who spoke about boundaries with children; and Alfonso Ramirez from the Oregon Health Authority, who talked about social determinants on health and equity.
Following the summit, participants were asked to share their reflections on a survey; one participant commented: "’People are doing their best.’ I have questioned the validity of this assertion. In this session, I asked myself - have I ever, in my entire life, got up in the morning planning to fail that day? The answer is no. I've never turned the question around on myself. In light of that reflection, I have made an important shift from skepticism to absolute belief. I look forward to how this will color future interactions.”
The Summit was sponsored by IMESD-EI/ECSE, Umatilla Morrow Head Start (UMHS), Oregon Child Development Coalition (OCDC), Greater Oregon Behavioral Health Inc. (GOBHI), and Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) District 12.