YDEV Event Reflection

Robert Brooks

The YDEV event I decided to attend was the 19th Annual Multicultural Conference Promising Practices. This year the main topic spoken about is Resilience Across the Board. The key speaker was Robert Brooks, who is a Clinical Psychologist, Author and Lecturer. I feel like Brooks has a lot of knowledge in his field and he cover great points. One of the things he spoke about was the power of mindsets, which is "the assumptions and expectations we have for ourselves and others that guided our behavior. Mindsets play a powerful role in impacting on all aspects of our lives and the lives of those we work to become more resilient." I really like what Brooks said here. I feel like you mindset is what you set forward to what you want to achieve. 

Then Brooks leads on to talk about "resilient mindset," which he incorporated both social-emotional as well achievement components as well achievement components in the definition. Another thing I found important is when he said "you can't  change some one mindset if you don't build a relationship with them." Here I found this very important because I do not think people realize how much it can make a difference if you take the time to get to know some one.

One other thing I really connected with was when he talk about being a Charismatic Adult. Some caracteriscs of a charismatic adult is a person reaching out, connect and develop trust with those with whom they are helping. Many of the things he said resonated with me. I thought to myself and said this is who I am and want to be. As a youth worker this is what we inspire to do!

Brooks spoke about nurturing resilience. He said "Daniel Goleman viewed empathy as a significant feature of both emotional and social intelligence. It is a way of effectively connecting and communicating with others." I found it important because he spoke about the difference between empathy and sympathy. A lot of people get the two words mix up. Having empathy is to put yourself in their shoes, and see things through their eyes, vs sympathy, being sorry for them. Here is a great video he show on Empathy by Brene Brown.




Another important thing I took away from Brooks presentation was when he spoke about the "island of competence." He said "it is difficult to nurture resilience  if we focus primarily on deficits rather than on the strengths that reside in each individual-changing the questions we ask others." (Don't only look at the problems, ask about the strengths. Brooks gave great examples. Also, he went on and spoke about the Strength base model and I tied it with one of the themes where is LEADING WITH THE YOUTH. Where to strengthen problem-solving and decision-making skills; resilient individuals knew problems as situation to be solved rather than over-whelmed them.

I register for the workshops late but was able to attend two great work shops. The first workshop I attended was called "How Mentoring Relationships Improves Resiliency of Our Youth and Our Workforce." I pick this one because I felt that as a youth worker I am a mentor. I thought it would be interesting to see what the presenter company offer the youth in Rhode Island. The presenter is from Lifespan Community Health Institute. I am glad I went to this presentation. There was a lot of education majors, and nurse majors in there. I was excited to say I was a YDEV major with Lauren. I ended up speaking to the presenter at the of the workshop and she said her previous job was base out of Boston doing youth work and there was no major called "youth development." She said it was interesting because nobody knew what it was and she wanted me to contact her so we can continuing talking about our work of line.


My second work shop I attended was called "Building Resiliency with Play" I pick this work shop because play has to do with youth work. Also, I knew this workshop would be interesting because the presenter was my previous Physical Education professor. The workshop was very fun. We did play games and speak about the importance of it play. The last game I played in the workshop was jenga. It was very interesting and intense that when the time was up we had to continue because our blocks took a while to fall. The presenter Kristen Pepin is also and instructor at Henry Bernard. After the workshop I spoke with her about my internship. I have not started my internship yet, but from the description the title for me is an Physical Education Enrichment Instructor. It says I will be able to work with the curriculum and work with the students. It says the school has a difficult time engaging students with physical education activities. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to speak to Pepin because she has a lot of knowledge in this field. She said she did not mind if I needed to run ideas by her. She also told me about this program where they gave free training from Reebok.
To be honest, I always hated attending conferences because I thought they were a waste of time. Now I enjoy them and notice it is a great place to network and gain knowledge. Also, I see it as a place where I can find other resources.