Symposia
The Annual Symposiums have, from the start, been intended as a learning and sharing opportunity for a broad range of Rocklanders from every segment of the community — including educators, administrators, public officials, community leaders, health professionals, early childhood and school-age care professionals, social workers, program funders, and parents. The Symposium Committee works hard every year to plan a full and meaningful day of workshops, panels and activities built around an important issue or theme.

1. Early Childhood Transition, May 2, 1997 Goals-Themes:

• Focus Countywide attention on forging relationships among childcare providers, preschool teachers, public school teachers and parents


• Providing information about best practices and local success stories


• Initiating implementation plans in individual school districts

• Communication


• Preparing children


• Curriculum continuity


• Involving parents

Keynote: Paul Vivian, Family Resource Coalition, State of Connecticut

Paul Vivian has a wide range of experience in the education and family support fields. Paul oversaw the conception of Connecticut’s Family Resource Center Program and guided the implementation of twenty-eight centers statewide. Now, as an independent consultant, he provides technical assistance and training for state governments, school systems and other organizations interested in creating partnerships among schools, parents and the community. As the Symposium Keynote, he discussed Schools of the 21st Century and Connecticut’s experience with operating Family Resource Centers.

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2. School Age Care Partnerships: Achieving Best Practices, March 20, 1998 Goals-Themes:

• Focus Countywide attention on value of out-of-school time programs for children, families, and schools


• Providing information about best practices


• Initiating informal agreements between school-age care programs and school districts
  
  

• ASQ (Assessing School-Age Quality) self-study process


• Shared space: Schools and After-School Programs Living together in harmony


• Hands-on activities for 5-12 year-olds


• Building partnerships: It takes a whole community


• Accreditation of School Age Care Programs
  
  

Keynote: Tracey Ballas, Executive Director, Ohio Child Care Resource and Referral Agency

Ms. Ballas previously served as Director of Child Care Services for the YMCA of Central Ohio and was the Director of the Zanesville City Schools Before-And-After-School Programs for many years before joining the National-Institute-on-Out-of-School Time (NIOST) training staff. She was one of the founders of the National School-Age Care Alliance. As Keynote Speaker, Ms. Ballas addressed the importance of children’s out-of-school time, the increasing standards for and professionalization of the field of school-age care, and the need to improve the availability, quality and viability of out-of-school time programs serving school-age children and youth.

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3. Family Resource Centers, March 19, 1999 Goals-Theme:

• Fostering a Countywide commitment to learn more about Family Resource Centers (FRC)


• Facilitating partnerships among all in the County concerned with the well-being of children and families


• Assisting in the development of FRC plans by individual school districts

• The significance of brain research


• Getting started with an FRC


• Building partnerships and collaborations


• Involving families
  
  

Keynote: Dr. Michael Kaplan, Assistant Professor, Child Psychiatry, Yale Child Study Center and director of the New Haven Head Start mental health consultation program.

As Keynot Speaker, Dr. Kaplan discussed brain research pointing to links between nurturing in the first few years of life and long-term social and emotional development, and stressed the importance of consistent, reliable relationships for healthy child development.

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4. Resiliency, March 14, 2000 Goals-Theme:

• Exposing child-centered professionals from various sectors of the County to the concept of “resilience”


• Helping them see how important it is to help children be resilient and ways they can do so

• The importance of relationships in supporting resiliency


• How to structure an environment to help kids feel secure, and become resilient


• How the school and after-school programs can work collaboratively for special needs kids


• Helping children cope with grief and stress


• Exploring the connections between culture and resiliency


• An overview of the Comer-Zigler model, supporting the child’s overall development
  
  

Keynote: Dr. Susan Craig, Educational Consultant, A.G.H. Associates, Inc.

Dr. Craig is an expert who reframes methods of working with kids. She helps child-centered professionals think outside the box, respect the challenges many kids face, and not let them down. In her speech she talked about why some kids seem to be resilient from the start, often because there is a caring adult in their life. She talked about ways to teach children resiliency, which is a critical life skill — by helping them have a consistent image of who they are and find their optimism; supporting their persistence; making sure expectations are consistent with developmental milestones, allowing them to be “kids” and play and dream; teaching them how to make choices, and find opportunities to be productive; allowing them to see the fruits of their labor on display; and showing them how to be a comfort to themselves.

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5. Celebrating Five Years, March 16, 2001 Goals-Theme:

• Fostering school-community collaborations in Rockland


• Sharing information about the implementation of collaborative, child-centered programs


• Providing guidance on how Family Resource Centers can become the hub for integrated services and extended day activities


• Showcasing Rockland 21C successes with exhibits and presentations highlighting the outstanding work and best practices of school districts, public agencies and the community

• New York State Universal Pre-K program


• Establishing school-based health services


• Artist-in-residence programs


• Bringing County services to the schools


• School district presentations on successes and collaborations throughout the County
  
  

Keynote: Dr. James Comer, M.D., the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine Child Study Center; Founder of the Comer School Development Program.

The Comer School promotes the collaboration of parents, educators, and community to improve social, emotional and academic outcomes for children that, in turn, help them achieve greater school success. As Keynote Speaker, Dr. Comer spoke of our ability to create powerful learning environments when we put the developmental needs of children first and respect all their developmental pathways – cognitive, physical, language, social, ethical and psychological.

6. Collaboration, March 26, 2002 Goals-Theme:

• Celebrating and fostering collaborations that support the children and families of Rockland County


• Providing a vision for the future of collaboration in Rockland


• Educating us about being more effective collaborators and collaborative leaders


• Connecting collaborative partners to each other

• Building sustainable collaborations


• Collaboration and the use of teams


• Collaboration and responsible listening


• Diversity and collaboration


• How to be effective and appreciated in collaborations

Keynote: Martin J. Blank, Director for School/Family/Community Connections at the Institute for Educational Leadership.

Marty Blank assists school districts, communities and states in pursuing collaborative strategies to enhance the learning and well-being of children, families and neighborhoods. In that role, he serves as Staff Director for the Coaltion for Community Schools. A nationally recognized leader in the field of community collaboration, he is the co-author of Together We Can: A Guide for Crafting a Profamily System of Education and Human Services, still considered by many to be a primary source document in the field. He is the co-publisher of The Community Agenda, a policy and practice brief for community collaboratives. As Keynote Speaker, Mr. Blank discussed the elements and value of collaboration between schools and communities.

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7. Leadership in Action, March 25, 2003 Goals-Theme:

• Understanding how effective leadership helps organizations succeed, both individually and collaboratively


• Exploring the premise that the challenges facing our community require varied leadership strategies and the systematic development of new leaders


• Sharing skills and strategies for developing leadership in children, youth and families


• Learning about different forms and styles of leadership, and identifying some of the barriers faced by women and people of color who assume leadership roles.

• Leadership challenges in the context of racism and sexism


• Empowerment of others, and what it demands of leaders


• What young children learn from play about leadership


• Tools for the development of youth leadership


• Teachers as leaders, both in the school and in the community


• Differing styles of leadership

Keynote: Dr. Vincent L. Ferrandino, Executive Director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP).

As Executive Director of NAESP, Dr. Ferrandino leads advocacy and support efforts on behalf of elementary and middle school level principals in the United States, Canada and overseas. At NAESP he has expanded services for urban and middle-level principals, and has created new resource materials for principals. Dr. Ferrandino previously served as Connecticut’s Commissior of Education from 1992-94, and was superintendent of schools in Weston, Connecticut. Early in his career, he had been a social studies teacher and assistant principal at Rockland’s Clarkstown South High School. As the Symposium Keynote, he addressed the political and systemic challenges facing educational leaders.

8. The Vital Partnership, October 1, 2004 Goals-Theme:

• Strategies to make your environment more family and child friendly
• Skills to work more effectively with parents
• Skills to work more effectively with child-centered professionals
• Strategies to make your environment culturally and linguistically accessible
• New ways to work with community partners to achieve the best possible futures for all children

• Partnering on Behalf of a Special Needs Child
• Bridging the Divide of Language and Culture- Making it Happen
• Communicating with Teachers
• When Entitlement is a Given
• Parent Involvement- Putting Your Energy Where it Counts the Most
• Developing Helpful Parent-Teacher Connections from the Start
• The Front Office- Setting the Tone
• Connecting Parents Who Do Not Feel Like They Belong
• The Parent Teacher Conference- Dealing with Bad News and Red Flags
• Transitioning into Middle School

Keynote: Dr. Karen Mapp, Deputy Superintendent for Family and Community Engagement, Boston Public Schools and President of the Institute for Responsive Education (IRE).

Dr. Mapp graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Trinity College, a Masters of Arts in Counseling from Southern Connecticut State University, a Masters of Arts as well as a Doctorate degree in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy, from Harvard University.

9. Well-Connected in Middle School, November 2, 2006

Keynote: Robert Wm. Blum, MD, MPH, PhD is the William H. Gates, Sr. Professor and Chair of the Department of Population and Family Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has edited two books, and has written over 220 journal articles, book chapters and special reports.

In May 2006, Dr. Blum was named the interim director of the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute. He is a Past-President of the Society of Adolescent Medicine; has served on the American Board of Pediatrics; was a charter member of the Sub-Board of Adolescent Medicine, is a past chair of the Alan Guttmacher Institute Board of Directors and served as chair of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Adolescent Health and Development. He is a consultant to the World Bank and UNICEF as well as the Worth Health Organization. He has been awarded the Society of Adolescent Medicine's Outstanding Achievement Award (1993) and in 1998 was the receipient of the American Public Health Association's Herbert Needleman Award "for scientific achievement and courageous advocacy" on behalf of children and youth.

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