Topic Highlights and Speakers

The Maine Resilience  Building Network holds its inaugural paid MRBN membership conference. 

Please remember to join MRBN if you are not already a MRBN member. 

Keynote: Social Emotional Learning- Calm Cool Kids - Kellie D. Bailey, MA, CCC-SLP, MMT

Kellie developed a workshop titled Calm Cool Kids to provide parents, caregivers, adult learners, community leaders, educators, administrators, clinicians with a deeper understanding of the social-emotional needs of our children.  She is the author of Some Days I Flip My Lid, a children’s mindfulness book describing the trials of a youngster who just longs to be a Calm Cool Kid, but has trouble with flipping his lid and losing his cool, slated for release with PESI publishing in the fall 2019.  ​The workshop will review neurodevelopment of the brain, the role of trauma, in brain development, essential developmental/sequential movement patterns required for responsive learning, Interventions for building self-regulation, in children with ACES, and much more!

Kellie D. Bailey, MA, CCC-SLP, MMT is a licensed Speech Language Pathologist and a Certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher with over 28 years of background in pediatric assessment and intervention. She earned her Master of Arts in Communication Sciences and Disorders from The University of Maine in Orono, Maine. She has worked across various pediatric settings and is co-founder of The Children’s Collaboration Center in Warren, Maine. 

Poverty to Resilience: Surviving to Thriving - Elyse Pratt-Ronco

Low-income youth face particular barriers to their success. There are also myths about poverty, which create implicit bias, and thereby influence expectations for students. Through a systems perspective, this presentation will explore research-based strategies focused on building resilience for low-income students in the face of barriers experienced when living in poverty.

Elyse Pratt-Ronco is the Assistant Director of Upward Bound at UMF and has worked for eighteen years with low-income students in this program.  She also teaches graduate courses on Poverty and Education, and Risk and Resilience. She earned her Masters Degree in Developmental and Educational Psychology from Boston College and her Doctorate in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology from Boston College. Her research on rural poverty and resilience has been recognized by the American Educational Research Association.

Grandparents as Caregivers: Realities and Resources

Grandparents who provide care and/or guardianship for their children’s children are often overwhelmed and under-resourced. The multi-layered emotions are sometimes made even more challenging by mental health concerns and substance misuse. Gain understanding of the landscape caregiving grandparents face and leave with fresh ideas and resources for offering support.

Bette Hoxie is the former director of Adoptive and Foster Families of Maine Inc. She was a foster parent for 30 years caring for over 150 children. She has 3 biological adult children, 8 adopted children, 9 former foster children (for whom she is still Mom) as well as 40 grandchildren and 3 great- grandchildren. Bette raised her now 20-year-old grandson from infancy and is currently providing kinship care to 2 grandchildren ages 3 and 3 ½. She is a dedicated child and family advocate who has served as a court appointed special advocate (CASA), and provides training on a number of child welfare related topics.

Sarah MacLaughlin, LSW is a parent educator, trainer, and author of the award-winning book, What Not to Say: Tools for Talking with Young Children. She currently writes full time for ZERO TO THREE, a national nonprofit dedicated to improving the well-being of babies and young children. Sarah is also Mom to a young son who gives her plenty of opportunities to take her own advice.