Children's summit to focus on putting network into action

Dani Messick, The Goshen News - August 20,2024

GOSHEN — The Elkhart County Children’s Summit is returning this year to discuss how supporters can create impactful change among area youth.

This year’s theme is “Putting Network Into Action.” The daylong event will be from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Friday at Maple City Chapel, 2015 Lincolnway East, Goshen.

Registration is $25, and includes lunch and 4.5 CEUs for clinicians who complete the training.

“(The theme) came from a discussion among the planning team about how often we have meetings and meetings and meetings and those are great and good things come from them and also we need to always be conscious of taking that next step toward what are we actually doing from this. What is actually coming from this, or are we just talking?” explained an organizer, Anna Sawatzky, director of The Source.

Anyone involved with children professionally, and even those who are simply passionate about the welfare of children in the area including coaches, pastors, teachers, law enforcement, foster parents, is invited to attend.

“What families and youth really need to thrive are strong informal networks — their families and their friends and their coaches and their faith leaders,” Sawatzky said. “We need to all be a village that are supporting our youth and it’s not just the professionals that they run into at thee specific times, it’s everybody.”

There will be networking opportunities and a vendor fair, as well as several talks by leaders in children’s resources.

A youth panel will exhibit area youth who have been involved in the various juvenile systems such as the Department of Child Services, Probation, and alternative schooling.

“They’ve sort of experienced these networks we’re talking about and can speak to what works for them, what didn’t want could have been better,” Sawatzky said “It’s always very moving to have them just tell their stories.”

Later on in the day, a local example of putting networking into action will be highlighted. The region’s recent response to child trafficking featured judges, the Bashor Children’s Home, Indiana Trafficking Victims Assistance Program, and the Department of Homeland Security.

“If we want to address an issue, we need to look across all of these systems and how they work together,” Sawatzky said.

Throughout the day there will be three different family voice segments.

“Just to hear from people who are going through our systems, what works, what doesn’t, what is their experience, the actual human experience of dealing with these things. What can we learn from that and how do we take that and use it to improve our systems,” she explained.

The keynote speaker, judge and pastor Everett Mitchell, will close out the day.

“He tells his personal story of trauma and growing up in systems and how he uses that to connect with youth and improve processes for youth,” Sawatzky said.

“What he’s going to talk about is how when we address trauma, when we deal with children in a compassionate way, how that increases public safety,” she explained. “These are best practices not just because they’re touchy-feely or not just because they’re the buzzword but because they actually are best practice for how we increase public safety for everyone.”

“It can feel like a judgment on how we’ve done things in the past, and just because we’re saying there’s a new and better way to do this or look at what we learned, doesn’t mean anybody before had bad intentions or was trying to do anything bad. It simply means that we’re all going to keep learning and growing together.”

Sawatzky said that’s the unique thing about the Elkhart County Children’s Summit; it brings together the various aspects of the community that deal with youth.

“We’ve got law enforcement and attorneys, social service organizations and foster care, and people who are just interested in youth well-being and we’re all coming together — and those are very often different segments and we each have our own jargon and acronyms and ways we talk and to come together and think about how we move forward together and how we have these conversations, be collaborating and then take action, the summit’s kind of unique in that way to do it on that scale.”

The event is co-sponsored by Oaklawn, The SOURCE, Elkhart County Juvenile Court, Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative, Department of Child Services and Bashor Children’s Home.

Registration is $25 and includes lunch and 4.5 CEUs for clinicians who complete the training. Register at https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/aeaa8r2?source_id=060ab770-7f40-462e-8422-5ac96307d64b&source_type=em&c=MQUJa_G8D06xJJTrPDhXM2P1LSsPDfJ3ZxnE0eH1jv05Sk5zdfoSBw==

To read this article on the Goshen News website, click here.