Empowerment: Keys to Mentally Healthy Communities

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Day 1

Wednesday 8 June: Explore empowerment and resilience

Opening keynote: 11.00 – 11.50am AEST

Unpacking ‘empowerment’ and growing a shared definition 

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators

Being empowered is a protective factor for the mental health of children and young people because it enables social and emotional learning (SEL) and resilience. Reflect on empowerment: what it is, what it looks like in practice and the importance of a shared understanding. Hear how empowerment and resilience is connected, and the factors which influence this connection. Join the opening session of the conference to learn more about fostering empowering learning environments that promote the mental health of children and young people in your learning community.

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators
Date: Wednesday 8 June
Time: ACT, NSW, QLD, TAS, VIC: 11.00am | NT, SA: 10.30am | WA: 9.00am

Speakers:
	Professor Helen Milroy Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
	Geri Sumpter Head of Be You Delivery, Beyond Blue

Session 1: 12.00 – 12.50pm AEST

Exploring empowerment across learning communities

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators

Join headspace Schools Clinical Lead Ebony Gill as she chairs a panel of educators exploring what empowerment means to them. The panel considers what empowerment looks, feels and sounds like in practice – and how the members of their learning communities understand empowerment. How do you know each other’s perspectives in your learning community? And what are the consequences of different understandings? Join this diverse panel of educators to find out more.

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators
Date: Wednesday 8 June
Time: ACT, NSW, QLD, TAS, VIC: 12.00pm | NT, SA: 11.30am | WA: 10.00am

Speakers:
	Ebony Gill Be You Clinical Lead, headspace
	David Wild Chief Executive, Specialised Assistance School for Youth
	Shruthi Rao Senior Educator, Goodstart Early Learning Somerton Park
	Sybila Ford Principal, Mount Pleasant Primary School

Session 2: 1.00 – 1.50pm AEST

Unpacking the ‘power’ in empowerment

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators

A whole learning community working together can create empowering environments and relationships that promote the mental health of children, young people and families. But who gets to be empowered, and who decides? In this session, Be You Executive Manager Louis Hamlyn-Harris from Early Childhood Australia and Be You Clinical Lead Sharyn D’Souza from headspace take a critical look at how power is distributed in early learning services and schools. Participate to consider how your approach might be informed by your image of the child, the role bias plays in shaping your work, and what genuine, inclusive empowerment might look like in your setting.

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators
Date: Wednesday 8 June
Time: ACT, NSW, QLD, TAS, VIC: 1.00pm | NT, SA: 12.30pm | WA: 11.00am

Speakers:
	Louis Hamlyn-Harris Be You Executive Manager, Early Childhood Australia
	Sharyn D'Souza Be You Clinical Lead, headspace

Session 3: 2.00 – 2.50pm AEST

Building educator wellbeing through mentally healthy learning communities

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators

Be You team members from Beyond Blue, Early Childhood Australia and headspace explore the factors that affect educator wellbeing, and what learning communities can do to cultivate a mentally healthy work environment. Attend this session to understand more about what leaders and educators can do to support themselves and their colleagues, and to build a positive and supportive workplace culture in their learning community.

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators
Date: Wednesday 8 June
Time: ACT, NSW, QLD, TAS, VIC: 2.00pm | NT, SA: 1.30pm | WA: 12.00pm

Speakers:
	Nikki Edwards Be You Consultant, Early Childhood Australia
	Rachel Jewell Be You State and Territory Manager, headspace
	Professor Andrea Reupert Head of the School of Educational Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Education, Monash University
	Chantel Fathers Be You Project Manager, Beyond Blue

Closing keynote: 3.00 – 3.50pm AEST

Empowerment is a partnership: Connecting and engaging with families and communities to build capacity

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators

Hear from Sonia Regan, an experienced and passionate advocate for co-creating environments that empower children and young people. Together with Be You National Manager Sara Richardson, Sonia explores practical strategies and tools to build partnerships with families for empowered and mentally healthy communities. Join Sonia and Sara and reflect on the integral role your beliefs and practices have on partnerships with families and communities.

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators
Date: Wednesday 8 June
Time: ACT, NSW, QLD, TAS, VIC: 3.00pm | NT, SA: 2.30pm | WA: 1.00pm

Speakers:
	Sonia Regan Independent Consultant
	Sara Richardson Be You National Manager, Early Childhood Australia

Day 2

Thursday 9 June: Creating empowering learning environments

Opening keynote: 2.00 – 2.50pm AEST

Transitions as empowerment opportunities 

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators

Transitions in, and between, education settings provide both opportunities and challenges for empowering children and young people, their educators, and families. In this keynote session, Kathryn Hopps, Be You Consultant with expertise in transitions, highlights the many ways transitions can be empowering, what the challenges are, and how to navigate them. Attend to hear more ways to embed positive experiences and create new opportunities for empowering transitions.

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators
Date: Thursday 9 June
Time: ACT, NSW, QLD, TAS, VIC: 2.00pm | NT, SA: 1.30pm | WA: 12.00pm

Speakers:
	Kathryn Hopps Be You Consultant, Early Childhood Australia
	Geri Sumpter Head of Be You Delivery, Beyond Blue

Concurrent sessions 1: 3.00 – 3.50pm AEST - choose one session from:

Children’s rights as a protective factor for mental health drives everything we do

Audience: Early childhood educators and school age care professionals

Be You Consultant Dr Carmen Huser and early learning educator Claire Walker share their reflections on the connection between mental health and children's rights. They look back on two years of professional community-led conversations and learnings on how to advocate for children’s rights, using Be You resources and tools to inform their reflections. Learn more about children’s rights as a protective factor for children’s mental health and wellbeing, and drive positive change in your early learning service philosophy, policies and pedagogical practice.

Audience: Early childhood educators and school age care professionals
Date: Thursday 9 June
Time: ACT, NSW, QLD, TAS, VIC: 3.00pm | NT, SA: 2.30pm | WA: 1.00pm

Speakers:
	Dr Carmen Huser Be You Consultant, Early Childhood Australia
	Claire Walker Early Childhood Teacher, Gumnut Preschool Bowral

Mental health and inclusion: Creating safety through language

Audience: Primary, secondary and combined school educators and leaders

Explore how learning communities can use inclusive and recovery-focused language to promote safety and empowerment. Presented by clinical psychologist Ami Raman and Be You Education Consultant Chloe Ryan, this session provides strategies and tools to support educators to safely use language and communicate in their learning community, including with young people and their families. Join this session to reflect, build sustainable practices through co-design and use language to empower, promote inclusion and enhance the mental health and wellbeing of learning communities.

Audience: Primary, secondary and combined school educators and leaders
Date: Thursday 9 June
Time: ACT, NSW, QLD, TAS, VIC: 3.00pm | NT, SA: 2.30pm | WA: 1.00pm

Speakers:
	Ami Raman Clinical Psychologist, Clinical Content Lead for Orygen Digital
	Chloe Ryan Be You Consultant, headspace

Practical strategies to grow empowering organisations and systems

Audience: Early childhood service leaders

Discuss growing an empowered organisation with Be You Consultant Alicia Marshall and Kylie Pearce from Urban Education. This session supports leaders to consider their own unconscious bias and their role in establishing and maintaining an empowered team. Join to gain practical strategies and system suggestions, and consider the role that empowerment can play in promoting mental health and wellbeing in your learning community.

Audience: Early childhood service leaders
Date: Thursday 9 June
Time: ACT, NSW, QLD, TAS, VIC: 3.00pm | NT, SA: 2.30pm | WA: 1.00pm

Speakers:
	Alicia Marshall Be You Consultant, Early Childhood Australia
	Kylie Pearce Founder and Team Director, Urban Education

Concurrent sessions 2: 4.00 – 4.50pm AEST - choose one session from:

Inclusive environments empower everyone: A whole learning community approach

Audience: Early childhood educators and leaders

Discover the links between inclusive environments, agency and empowerment in early learning settings. Be You Consultant Emma Woods and Emma Pierce from the NSW/ACT Inclusion Agency lead this session on ways we can collaborate to support, include and empower all members of a community. They also share resources and practical strategies to support discussion, reflection and action in early learning settings.

Audience: Early childhood educators and leaders
Date: Thursday 9 June
Time: ACT, NSW, QLD, TAS, VIC: 4.00pm | NT, SA: 3.30pm | WA: 2.00pm

Speakers:
	Emma Woods Be You Consultant, Early Childhood Australia
	Emma Pierce Resource Coordinator, NSW/ACT Inclusion Agency KU Children’s Services

Explore how learning communities empower through cultural connections

Audience: Primary and secondary school educators

Schools are microcosms of society and are important places for supporting the wellbeing of culturally diverse communities. Be You Consultants unpack case studies, share insights from the postvention and suicide response space, and demonstrate practical strategies for cultural inclusion. The session has a particular focus on schools with culturally diverse communities. Participate to find out more about the Be You Professional Learning, tools, resources and suicide postvention support available to promote inclusion in your learning community.

Audience: Primary and secondary school educators
Date: Thursday 9 June
Time: ACT, NSW, QLD, TAS, VIC: 4.00pm | NT, SA: 3.30pm | WA: 2.00pm

Speakers:
	Tasneem Chopra Cross-cultural Consultant
	Sheralee Fordham Be You Consultant, headspace
	Ziyad Serhan Be You Consultant, headspace

Empowering young people in disaster preparedness, response, recovery and resilience

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators

A panel of Be You Consultants share their experience in disaster recovery, and why empowerment is at the centre of disaster preparedness and recovery. The conversation-style session explores disaster recovery in schools and early learning services, examples of how to enable the voice of the child or student in times of disaster, and the barriers and enablers to empowering children and young people during disaster planning. Join to learn more about the range of Be You approaches and strategies for empowerment to include in your early learning service’s or school’s disaster response and recovery planning.

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators
Date: Thursday 9 June
Time: ACT, NSW, QLD, TAS, VIC: 4.00pm | NT, SA: 3.30pm | WA: 2.00pm

Speakers:
	Elise Taylor Be You Consultant, headspace
	Julian Jefferys Be You Consultant, headspace
	Sally Hodges Be You Delivery and Engagement Advisor (Bushfire Response), Early Childhood Australia

Closing remarks: 5.00 – 5.30pm AEST

Planning for empowerment: A look to the future with Be You

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators

Geri Sumpter, Head of Be You Delivery, reflects on the insights and knowledge shared across the two days of the Virtual Conference, and discusses practical steps to plan for empowerment in your learning community. The session also looks to the future of the evolving education landscape, and the focus areas for Be You to continue to promote mental health and wellbeing in learning communities.

Audience: Early childhood, primary and secondary school educators
Date: Thursday 9 June
Time: ACT, NSW, QLD, TAS, VIC: 5.00pm | NT, SA: 4.30pm | WA: 3.00pm

Speakers:

Geri Sumpter
Head of Be You Delivery, Beyond Blue