2019 Bridge Speaker Spotlight — Relationships that Build Community
by Clara Rosebrock | | Posted under
Dive deep into how we can truly put relationships first at the 2019 Bridge Conference. These three speakers — spread out from coast to coast — will lead us in dynamic discussions on how to nurture community and our cultural identities through relationships.- Patrice Holt, Start2Soar LLC, Atlanta, GA
- Fatima Z. Muhammad, Search Institute, Minneapolis, MN
- Claudia Pineda Reyes, Partners for Youth Empowerment, Seattle, WA
Courageous, Confident, and Competent Youth: Empowering Staff to Become Youth Champions from Patrice Holt, Start2Soar LLC.
This workshop is designed to develop direct service staff members' ability to build trust with youth in their programs. Building trust is a core best practice in strengthening relationships with youth. Direct service staff will learn strategies in developing courage in youth to defend their beliefs, building confidence in youth abilities to demonstrate their beliefs, and increasing competence of student's abilities to lead healthy lifestyles, exhibit positive character, engaged citizenship, and academic achievement. Patrice Holt considers herself a flame lighter in the business of sparking flames children and youth with strong foundations for their future. With 15 years of experience, Patrice uses youth development best practices, youth voice, practical experience, and feedback from stakeholders to develop youth programs, increase program quality, help create fresh resources for new professionals. She has a passion for coaching the next generation of youth development leaders that will advance the movement for more IMPACT on children and youth. Patrice is the recipient of the Inaugural Leadership award for the Georgia After School Youth Development Conference and her organization was recently awarded a spot in Georgia's Service Learning Cohort. Patrice believes that service to youth is at the core of her work and advocating for out of school time youth programs is her privilege.
Developmental Relationships: Building Meaningful Connections from Fatima Z. Muhammad, Search Institute.
Developmental Relationships are close connections through which young people discover who they are, gain abilities to shape their own lives, and learn how to interact with and contribute to the world around them. This interactive workshop will introduce Search Institute’s Developmental Relationships Framework and bring to life the evidence behind what we've always known - strong developmental relationships with youth lay the foundation for everything else we do. The session will also highlight practical tools and examples of how the framework can help you be more intentional and inclusive in building meaningful connections with all the young people you serve. Fatima Z. Muhammad is the Director of Youth & Family Solutions at Search Institute. She provides strategic and tactical leadership in the organization's youth and family focused service area, and works closely with youth and family serving community organizations across the country who are focused on improving youth outcomes by building developmental relationships with and among young people. Fatima also consults with youth-serving agencies to build their capacity to provide high-quality youth programming and advance racial equity. In her more than 20 years in youth development, Fatima has an extensive background in developing and leading programs and initiatives, creating professional development models, and conducting outreach and engagement efforts across diverse communities.
Using Creative Facilitation to Increase SEL and Build Relationships from Claudia Pineda Reyes, Partners for Youth Empowerment.
Claudia Pineda Reyes, MSW is a Mexican American Social Worker from Cicero, IL and Michoacan, Mexico. She is a trainer for Partners for Youth Empowerment and is currently employed by the Department of Health at King County. Claudia has dedicated her life towards expanding Social Justice by fervently pursuing her own personal development, partnering with others to undergo transformation, and by bringing this perspective to a wide range of settings and to a variety of audiences. Her expertise revolves around gender, racial equity, community engagement, immigrant communities, and anti-violence. She is fascinated by the nuts and bolts of interpersonal relationships, which she believes to be the foundation and vehicle through which social justice is advanced. Claudia’s formal education includes an undergraduate degree from Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, where she double majored in Latin American Studies and Ethnic Studies. She graduated from the graduate Social Work Program at the University of North Dakota. The bedrock of her work is largely informed by her training as a Restorative Justice Facilitator, and through the Center for Equity and Inclusion in Portland, Oregon and with Partners for Youth Empowerment.