Sept 2024 Newsletter

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The Chris Walsh Center is excited to announce the our upcoming Fall 2024 Events! These include The Power of Resilience and Social Emotional Learning for Educators and The Resilient Caregiver, both taught by Dr. Simone Kotraba. Coming up, the Center will be hosting additional caregiver education and community building opportunities, as well as a caregiver support group. Make sure you keep up to date with all of our upcoming offerings by being subscribed to this newsletter and following us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Sudbury Foundation to the Chris Walsh Center, The Power of Resilience & Social Emotional Learning for Educators is FREE to attend. Likewise, while these trainings are designed for educators, caregivers are welcome.

The Power of Resilience & SEL for Educators

Improving Wellness, Mental Health, and SEL in Schools

Activate your superpowers to boost your well-being and create belonging through this experiential workshop. This 3-session workshop offers practical strategies for educators to integrate into their daily routines, helping regulate the nervous system, reduce stress, and increase resilience and creativity. Interactive sessions will connect you with peers to cultivate self-awareness, heart-brain coherence, mindfulness, and embodiment practices that empower you to thrive personally and professionally. You are invited to attend one, two, or all three of the sessions.

Who is Dr. Simone Kotraba?

Dr. Simone Kotraba is the founder of HeartMind Solutions. She is a transformational coach and wellness facilitator who guides individuals and teams on a journey of growth and expansion, helping them unite their hearts and minds. With her light-hearted wisdom and vibrant energy, Simone creates a welcoming and supportive environment for participants to use their strengths and tap into their highest potential. Simone has spent her entire career working with families, teaching, and leading in K-12 and higher education settings. She holds multiple licenses and certifications and is passionate about alleviating human suffering.

Session 1: Thursday, October 10th, 2024 at 4:00 PM Online

Personal Resilience and SEL for Educators

In this session, you will experience the building personal resilience transformation process developed by HeartMath Institute. These simple on-the-go techniques will empower participants to build emotional, mental, and physical resilience. Participants will learn skills to connect more deeply with the power and intelligence of the heart even in a busy school setting. Adding the qualities of the heart helps create the important shift to change behaviors and achieve positive social-emotional outcomes.

Participants will understand the importance of personal resilience to improve well-being and performance. Practice self-awareness by identifying depleting and renewing emotions, learning strategies for building resilience, and the important role the heart and brain play in transforming disempowering thoughts and feelings.

Session 2: Thursday, November 21st, 2024 at 4:00 PM Online

Mindfulness, Resilience, and SEL for Thriving Educators

In this session, participants will develop a general understanding of mindfulness and how it can be utilized to build resilience and decrease chronic stress. Understand how chronic stress can negatively impact work outcomes and how mindfulness can build emotional resilience. Participants will identify and understand the emotional, cognitive, physical, and behavioral benefits of mindfulness in schools. Participants will practice self-awareness by identifying where they feel stress in the body. Understand what the stress response is and how chronic stress affects the body. Examine how mindfulness can increase resilience to support a healthy stress response and practice simple and effective exercises for sustained resilience.

Session 3: Thursday, December 12th, 2024 at 4:00 PM Online

Resilience and the Embodied Educator

In this session, participants will identify and lovingly understand their “Stuck” emotions and thoughts and transform them into resilience using Social Presencing Theater (SPT). SPT is a method for exploring the creative potential of social systems such as schools. By connecting to the body using contemplative methods, we become aware of the "social body" of a group in addition to our own body. Social Presencing Theater serves both personal and collective resilience, well-being, self-awareness, and the decision-making process. In this session, we will perform exercises together in a mindful way that combines body, heart, mind, attention, reflection, and silence. Social Presencing Theater is an embodiment practice developed by Arawana Hayashi and Otto Scharmer at the Presencing Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

When: Thursday, October 10th, November 21st, and December 12th at 4:00 PM

Who: Dr. Simone Kotraba

Where: Hosted Online by the Chris Walsh Center

To register for The Power of Resilience & Social Emotional Learning for Educators with Dr. Simone Kotraba CLICK HERE. If you know someone who would benefit from attending this event, please feel free to forward this email, as well as share the included social media tile.

NEED TIME

Thanks to a generous grand from the Sudbury Foundation, The Resilient Caregiver is free to attend. However, registration is required.

The Resilient Caregiver

Improving Wellbeing and Mental Health with Families and Community

In this experiential session, participants will explore the transformational process of resilience techniques developed by the HeartMath Institute. It includes simple on-the-go tools that empower participants to build emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual resilience. With practice, participants will connect more deeply with the power and intelligence of the heart during their daily routines. Adding the qualities of the heart helps create the important shift to change stressful thoughts and emotions to achieve inner peace and happiness. Participants will understand the importance of resilience to improve wellbeing and increase deep connection with themselves and loved ones. Participants will tune into their hearts, minds, and bodies to identify depleting and renewing emotions and develop emotional awareness skills that lead to greater self-regulation and co-regulation.

Who is Dr. Simone Kotraba?

Dr. Simone Kotraba is the founder of HeartMind Solutions. She is a parent of 11-year-old twins. Simone is a wellness facilitator and coach who guides families on a journey of growth and expansion, helping them unite their hearts and minds. With her light-hearted wisdom and vibrant energy, Simone creates a welcoming and supportive environment for participants to have courageous conversations, practice using their strengths, and tap into their highest potential. Simone has spent her entire career working with families, teaching, and leading in K-12 and higher education settings. She holds multiple licenses and certifications and is passionate about alleviating human suffering.

When: Thursday, October 24th, 2024 at 7:00 PM

Who: Dr. Simone Kotraba

Where: Hosted online by the Chris Walsh Center

To register for The Resiliant Caregiver with Dr. Simone Kotraba CLICK HERE. If you know someone who would benefit from attending this event, please feel free to forward this email, as well as share the included social media tile.

The Chris Walsh Center, in partnership with the Education Department and the Master of Arts with a concentration in Counseling Psychology (MCO) program at Framingham State University (FSU) received a grant for $20,000 from the Sudbury Foundation. This grant will allow the Chris Walsh Center to serve our community with a variety of offerings focused on educator and family education aimed at improving social emotional learning for themselves, as well as their students and families. This builds on our work from last year which focused on building family resilience, extending those efforts into the classroom. In addition to the development of enhanced curriculum for the community, the grant is enabling the Center to offer thirty-five educators the opportunity to take a graduate course, Social Emotional Learning: The Gateway to Engagement, Academic Performance, Mental Wellness, and Healthy Relationships, at no cost to them. The Sudbury Grant also allows the Center to hire a Graduate Assistant from the Master of Arts concentration in Counseling Psychology program at Framingham State University and provides the opportunity to invite educational panelists and speakers throughout the year to aid in our mission of supporting caregivers and their families.

To provide caregivers with robust information to help them support the mental health of their children, the Center will be hosting four webinars. These webinars will include topics related to this years theme of enhancing social emotional learning. Two webinars will be hosted in the fall and two in the spring semester.

Importantly, the Chris Walsh Center will also be offering two online caregiver support groups. Caregiver support groups will focus on the needs parents have shared with the Center; including navigating resources, learning specific techniques to support your child and provide support for you, the caregiver. At each support group a graduate student in the mental health counseling program will be present to facilitate the group for caregivers in attendance.

In partnership with Framingham Public Schools, Framingham State University, and The John C. Stalker Institute, one of the amazing opportunities the Chris Walsh Center is able to provide our community, thanks to the grant from the Sudbury Foundation, is the opportunity for fifteen Framingham Public School educators to attend a graduate course, Social Emotional Learning: The Gateway to Engagement, Academic Performance, Mental Wellness, and Healthy Relationships, during the Fall 2024 term at no cost to them. The Fall 2024 offering of this course is already at capacity and currently twenty educators are on the waitlist for the Spring 2025 term.

This course was developed in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education Guidelines on the Implementation of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Curricula K-12. It emphasizes Holistic Support and Enrichment: Strengthening Social Emotional Competencies, Health & Safety goals, and the five core strategies. The educators enrolled will learn the principles of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), its foundation, framework, and resources available to assist in the planning and implementation of SEL practices in the elementary education classroom. Likewise, educators will learn to implement SEL across the curriculum, emphasizing equity and cultural responsiveness.

The course instructor is Katherine Kaczynski who has taught as a visiting instructor at Framingham State for over ten years. Katherine began her teaching career in Early Intervention, a birth to age three program that focuses on children and families at risk. As an Instructional Technology Specialist, Katherine created a technology curriculum for grades K-8 and as a team member developed K-12 developmentally appropriate technology milestones. She has worked in collaboration with classroom teachers, school specialists, and support staff in developing lesson plans that seamlessly infuse technology into the classroom curriculum while focusing on the learning needs of all students. Kathrine is dedicated to helping teachers to create a classroom that is accessible to all students, through the principles and practices of restorative justice, culturally responsive teaching, and social-emotional learning. As a lifelong advocate for marginalized individuals, those with intellectual disabilities, Katherine has spoken at the State House in Boston on their behalf and worked on the successful passage of HB 984, known as The Real Lives Bill. Katherine holds a B.S. in Early Education from Worcester State College and an M.Ed., from Lesley College in Educational Instructional Technology.

The Chris Walsh Center is proud to be a member of the team providing this opportunity to educators in the Framingham community.

The Chris Walsh Center provides opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students to gain skills through internship and assistantship opportunities. This month we would like to introduce two student employees who are working at the Center: Samantha Bovel, Undergraduate Intern, and Natalie McCollam, Graduate Assistant.

Sam Boval is a senior at Framingham State University majoring in sociology. She currently works as a pharmacy technician and prides herself on her strong interpersonal and organizational skills. Likewise, Sam is completing her internship at the Chris Walsh Center located at Framingham State University, where she is eager to learn and develop new skills throughout the term. Long term, Sam aims to become a licensed clinical social worker. In her free time Sam loves to hang out with her dog Kemi. She is a Security Desk Attendant on campus. Finally she is in the process of starting a new club, a immigration club to have an open space for immigrants to express their feelings and connect with one another.

Natalie is serving as the Chris Walsh Center’s Graduate Assistant for the 2024-25 academic year. She is completing her third and final year of Framingham State University’s Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology program, working toward her long-term goal of serving neurodivergent and disabled clients as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Likewise, she completed her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology, also at Framingham State. Natalie believes in a neurodiversity affirming, person-centered approach, and brings that perspective to her work as a student, volunteer, and parent. In her free time, Natalie is completing her counseling internship at ArtRelief. She is also an avid roller skater, volunteering as a coach and official with New England Junior Roller Derby, supporting kids ages 10-17 in a neurodivergent and LGBTQIA+ friendly space as they build friendships, learn to work as a team, and strengthen their athleticism and resilience. Last, but not least, Natalie is the mother of two wonderful children and has six adorable pets: four cats, a dog, and an axolotl. When it’s time to slow down, she loves to snuggle up with her human and fur babies to read a good book.

As parents, we want the most for our children, but getting your child's needs met is not always easy. It can be challenging to know what to do to support them, as well as what services are available. The Chris Walsh Center is here to help. When you book an appointment for a free consultation, one of our graduate assistants will meet with you to gain an in depth understanding of your needs and begin the process of connecting you to appropriate services.

You do not have to do this alone, the Chris Walsh Center can support you in your mission of creating the best possible life for your child. Call 508-215-5630 or email ChrisWalshCenter@framingham.edu to book your consultation today!

The Chris Walsh Center's eight-part speaker series on building family resilience has been packed with information and strategies designed to help caregivers support their children as they learn and grow. To date, the series has included talks on how to work with schools to support children who need a 504a or an IEP, how to talk to kids in ways that boost their participation in the discussion, how to support adolescents as they transition to college, how to support siblings of students with disabilities, and how to boost social emotional learning. Coming up, the Center will host presentations on how to identify and support autism and ADHD in people with nontraditional presentations, as well as talks on positive psychology, and how to support multimodal learning. It is our goal to make this valuable information accessible to as many people as possible. As such, we are proud to announce that subtitles for all 8 videos in this series have been translated into Spanish & Portuguese. To access the videos in Spanish please Click Here and take these steps:

For the Youtube subtitle instructions, viewers can find the translated subtitles by clicking the Settings tool (⚙️), then the “Subtitles/CC” section, then the “auto-translate” where you can find all of the subtitle options in alphabetical order, including Spanish and Portuguese. The Chris Walsh Center's Spanish translator, Makaylee Salazar, and Portuguese translator, Raquel Riberti-Bill has reviewed all of the subtitles in Spanish and Portuguese for the videos in this series to ensure they are correct. However, YouTube will automatically generate subtitles in over 100 languages allowing people to enable them in their preferred language.

La serie de ocho sesiones de discursos del Centro Chris Walsh sobre el desarrollo de la resiliencia familiar ha estado repleta de información y estrategias diseñadas para ayudar a los cuidadores a apoyar a sus hijos mientras aprenden y crecen. Hasta la fecha, la serie ha incluido charlas sobre cómo trabajar con las escuelas para apoyar a los niños que necesitan un 504a o un IEP, cómo hablar con los niños de manera que aumenten su apoyar a los adolescentes en su transición a la universidad, cómo apoyar a los hermanos de estudiantes con discapacidades, y cómo identificar y apoyar el autismo y el TDAH en personas con presentaciones no tradicionales, así como charlas sobre psicología positiva y sobre cómo apoyar el aprendizaje multimodal. Nuestro objetivo es poner esta valiosa información al alcance del mayor número de personas posible. Por ello, nos enorgullece anunciar que se han traducido al español los subtítulos de las cinco primeras presentaciones de esta serie, a las que seguirán el resto. Para acceder a los vídeos en español, haga clic aquí y siga estos pasos:

Para las instrucciones de subtítulos de Youtube, los espectadores pueden encontrar los subtítulos traducidos haciendo clic en la herramienta de configuracion (⚙️), luego en la sección “Subtítulos/CC”, luego en la “auto-traducción” donde se puede encontrar todas las opciones de subtitulos en orden alfabético, incluyendo español y portugués. La traductora al español del Centro Chris Walsh, McKaylee Salazar, ha revisado todos los subtítulos en español de los vídeos de esta serie para asegurarse de que son correctos. No obstante, YouTube generará automáticamente subtítulos en más de 100 idiomas para que los usuarios pueden actuvarlos en su lengua preferida.

CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) is a non-profit organization and nonpartisan leader in social-emotional learning (SEL) where there is a special role in assessing programs, gathering research, guiding laws, and collaborating on implementation. As defined by CASEL, Social Emotional Learning is an important way kids and adults learn to understand and handle their emotions, set and reach positive goals, show empathy toward others, build and keep good relationships, and make smart choices. Part of the CASEL website highlights how crucial it is to keep improving the way we put Social Emotional Learning (SEL) into practice. CASEL wants to help schools improve their social and emotional learning (SEL) programs by creating a common knowledge base. They focus on using data to make informed decisions, encouraging ongoing progress, and incorporating feedback from the community and cultural backgrounds. CASEL also highlights their collaboration with federal and state policymakers to advance policies that encourage integration within educational systems. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) benefits many areas, such as improving grades, fostering healthy relationships, enhancing mental health, and much more. On the CASEL website, parents and educators alike can find resources to support their understanding and implementation of Social Emotional Learning. Click Here to check out the site and access these resources.

Mission: To provide information for families and educators about the continuum of educational support available to students with disabilities, students who are gifted, and students with unmet needs. The center will offer support, workshops and other programming for families, educators, student support professionals, administrators, and advocates in the MetroWest area. The center also will engage in scholarly research, educator preparation, and professional development.

Email: chriswalshcenter@framingham.edu
Website: https://linktr.ee/chriswalshcenter
Location: 100 State Street, Framingham, MA, USA
Phone: (508) 215-5630