Step by Step: WHSA Parent and Staff Leadership Retreat

Where:

Event Fees:

Who Should Attend:

All Head Start leaders.
Parents, staff, managers and directors.
All our welcome!

Room Block Information:

A room block is available until October 10th, 2022.
Rooms are still available!
Call 1-800-876-3399 and tell The Osthoff Resort agent
you are booking under the Wisconsin Head Start Association.

Questions:

Contact Brian at Brians@whsaonline.org or Jennie at Jenniem@whsaonline.org.

Meet Your Presenters:

Keynote: “Everyday Rituals for Decreasing Stress and Increasing Joy” 

Gail will be offering Yoga classes on Monday for those not involved with WHSA business and a breakout sessions after Tuesday’s keynote including: “Simple Easy and Inexpensive Joy Building Rituals”

Abha Thakkar is the owner of Mosaic LLC, a consulting firm that specializes in organizational systems development and coaching for nonprofits, collective impact initiatives, and local governments through an antiracist lens. Abha brings 20+ years of local leadership and a unique combination of skills and relationships that are critical to systems work, including grassroots leadership development, community organizing and non-extractive engagement, food systems resilience, community journalism, restorative justice, financial management, policy development, and systems analysis.

Charisse Johnson is mother/Stepmother of 7, former chair of her local Head Start Policy Council, former President of the Wisconsin Head Start Association Parent Affiliate, Former Vice President of the Wisconsin Alliance for Infant Mental Health Board, and Former member of the Governor’s Early Childhood Advisory Council. She is currently a Family Engagement Specialist at the Northside Early Childhood Zone in Madison. She has a passion and personal and professional commitment to family engagement. Charisse understands that empowered families and parent leadership are essential to healthy children and communities.

Full Schedule

Monday, November 7th, 2022

12:00pm – 1:30pm: Leadership Insights with STGi – Madelyn Connell – Through a showcase of ECLKC resources, participants will engage in a discussion of current success and priority topics. 
12:00pm – 1:30pm: WHSA Director’s Affiliate Meeting (Hybrid)
1:45pm – 2:30pm: WHSA Parent/Staff Affiliate Meeting (Hybrid)
2:30pm – 3:30pm: Yoga Breathing and Free Dancing for All Beings, All Bodies – Gail Konop: This class will incorporate movement and breath for fun and relaxation. Participants will be taught short and easy ways to incorporate movement and breathing techniques for decreasing stress and increasing relaxed focus. I will provide handouts of the breathing exercises and other techniques for participants to take back to their centers and their homes.
3:00pm – 4:30pm: WHSA Board of Directors Meeting (Hybrid)
3:30pm – 5:00pm: Leadership Insights with STGi – Madelyn Connell – Through a showcase of ECLKC resources, participants will engage in a discussion of current success and priority topics. 

Tuesday, November 8th, 2022

9:00 – 9:30: WHSA Welcome
9:30am – 11:30am: Keynote Gail Konop – Everyday Rituals for Decreasing Stress and Increasing Joy – Gail will share the personal story of how a health scare set off a midlife reckoning and turned her into a joy seeker 15 years ago. In her words, she will detail:

• How (with a lot of practice!) I stopped judging myself and learned to accept and even celebrate my human imperfections.
• How I started asking myself what I needed the way I would ask a toddler and often discovered the answer was as simple as a glass of water or a nap or a yummy snack.
• How I re-discovered (and nurture) the fun and playful child (and dork) in myself.
• How I taught myself to notice the extraordinary in the ordinary.
• How simple rituals like reading a few lines of poetry (before the news!) helps me face those (sometimes) dreadful Monday mornings.
• How I use self-honesty and the full spectrum of my feelings to deepen the joy seeking.
• How I learned to shift my mood in under five minutes using only my breath.
• How Yoga Therapy can heal the mind/body/spirit—including current research studies.

11:45pm – 1:00pm:  Lunch
1:30pm – 3:00pm: Simple Easy and Inexpensive Joy Building Rituals Part 1 – Gail Konop – Participants will be taught to tap into and create rituals they can use for decreasing stress and increasing joy. We will start this session by learning to greet ourselves (and one another) with loving kindness and compassion and humor. This session will utilize breathing and short meditations and free writing to guide the participants in creating their own joy seeking templates to take back to their centers and their homes.
1:30pm – 3:00pm: Organizational Healing: Disrupting Trauma Reenactment in the Workplace* – Abha Thakkar & Charisse Johnson – We will explore how the injuries that individuals – children, families and staff – bring into the workplace can manifest at various levels of your organization, what that looks like and why and how we disrupt those cycles of reenactment. Abha and Charisse will offer you concepts, tools, suggestions for further learning and a variety of facilitated experiences using different modalities to explore these themes.

3:00pm – 3:30pm: Break
3:30pm – 5:00pm:Simple Easy and Inexpensive Joy Building Rituals Part 2 – Gail Konop (description above)
3:30pm – 5:00pm: Organizational Healing: Transforming Justice in the Workplace* – Abha Thakkar & Charisse Johnson – We will look at how we move from a culture of retributive justice to transformative justice for children, families and staff as a precondition to trauma-informed organizational operations. Abha and Charisse will offer you concepts, tools, suggestions for further learning and a variety of facilitated experiences using different modalities to explore these themes.
5:00pm – 6:00pm:  Networking, Socializing & Drinks: Cash Bar, hors d’ouvres, and conversation! Raffle announcements!

Wednesday, November 9th, 2022

7:30am – 8:30am: Breakfast and Good Morning from WHSA
8:30am – 10:00am: Organizational Healing: Building Resilience, Safety & Inclusivity in the Workplace* – Abha Thakkar & Charisse Johnson – We will explore these concepts in the context of a constantly changing world and our intersectional identities in our efforts to build organizations where children, families and staff thrive. Abha and Charisse will offer you concepts, tools, suggestions for further learning and a variety of facilitated experiences using different modalities to explore these themes.

8:30am – 10:00am:Exploring Your Leadership Styles – Madelyn Connell – Participants will utilize ECLKC materials to explore leadership styles that support and strengthen organizational culture through challenging times. 
10:00am – 10:15am: Break
10:15am – 11:45am: Authentic Employee Engagement – Madelyn Connell – Participants will explore Gallup’s “12 Elements of Engagement” as a tool to attract and retain staff. 
10:15am – 11:45pm: Organizational Healing: Sharing Power & Fostering Healthy Communication in the Workplace* – Abha Thakkar & Charisse Johnson – We will explore the possibilities, complexities and rewards of democracy and transparency in the workplace so that children, families and staff can co-create sanctuary spaces together. Abha and Charisse will offer you concepts, tools, suggestions for further learning and a variety of facilitated experiences using different modalities to explore these themes.
11:45am:  End of Event