2024 Bridge Conference

In this affinity session, BIPOC participants will co-create a container of connection, inclusion, diversity, and inspiration through centering their lived/living and professional experiences from a cultural identity focus lens. Connecting aspects of their identity and how that might inform their leadership style of youth development, participants will gain a deeper awareness of the systemic barriers they are confronting amongst themselves and with their youth. With this greater sense of awareness, participants will be given opportunities to practice peer to peer coaching skills to strategize, advance, and enhance their skills towards greater leadership, collaboration, and peer support in strengthening the BIPOC collective voice for future possibilities in the field.

In this session, participants will:

• Build connection amongst BIPOC youth development leaders 
• Strategize and practice strengthening their leadership skills

The election is coming to a close, and now it is time to start GOVERNING! How much do your students know about how state government works? Do you find yourself having circular discussions about what the federal government is doing? Do you students know about their state representatives? This session introduces TVW and its free resources, which foster student engagement and empowers students to participate in nuanced discussions. In this presentation, participants will learn how to get students actively participating in state government. Through Teach with TVW, classrooms collaborate with volunteer lobbyists, tracking and advocating for/against legislation. Participants will grasp how to implement this program, unlocking its benefits for students. By addressing topics that matter to students, these programs show our young people how government works for them while simultaneously empowering individuals to address systemic issues and promote positive change in the future.

Are you a youth worker who values restorative practices, youth voice, and growing equitable and connected program spaces? This workshop is for those who are excited by the liberatory possibilities of community circles, by the why, and are looking for guidance on how. Moving beyond the programmatic foundations of emotional safety and self- and co-regulation, we’ll link individual practices like developing agreements, using mistakes as opportunities for repair, and solutions vs consequences into a scaffolded process to implement community circles in youth programs. This workshop also provides specific strategies to teach these higher-order SEL practices to youth.