IN-PERSON TRAINING PROGRAMS

Bring OTA to Your Community

In-person training for educators, students, and parents
within your community. 

Keynote

Be Who You Needed: Building Stronger Connections & Healthier Boundaries with Youth (60-75 minutes)

Research shows that the greatest protective factor a young person can experience is a relationship with at least one trusted adult in the spaces where they spend the majority of their time. And you know what’s even better? Many trusted adults! In this interactive presentation, Brooklyn shares leading research and evidence-backed strategies for building trust, maintaining healthy boundaries, avoiding burnout, meeting universal youth needs, and working together as teams of trusted adults to best support youth.

Educator Professional Development

Trusted Adults Make All the Difference: Establishing Stronger Connections & Healthier Boundaries Between the Adults and Students in Your School

Format:  Full day or two half days

Research shows that at least one trusted adult at school can have a profound effect on a child's life, influencing that young person toward positive growth, greater engagement in school and community activities, and better overall health. The unfortunate reality is that on average only 40% of students today can name a trusted adult at school. Of that 40%, most name the same 4 or 5 adults in the building.

This workshop will present evidence-backed strategies for increasing both numbers and offer new approaches for setting up educators to be the trusted adults students need, without falling into the traps of becoming pretend parents or makeshift mental health professionals.

The One Trusted Adult approach inspires all adults to:

• Embrace sustainable career practices, and encourage colleagues to do the same
• Break the silence around boundary violations and abuse
• See trusted relationships as a protective factor that support prevention of mental health issues, substance use, violence, bullying, suicide, and other major youth risks and concerns

Attendees will leave this workshop with the following:

• Simple tools that help build trusting relationships with young people and expand the opportunities for positive impact
• How to set clear expectations that keep both young people and the adults who work with them safe
• How to create an organizational culture that cares for the whole child and celebrates the adults who get it right while holding accountable those who don’t 
• Ideas and inspiration for improving advisory and student leadership programs

Additional option exclusive to schools implementing
OTA Advisory Programming:

Advisor Training (60 minutes) - This hour will focus on designing school-wide experiences that promote healthy connection through the 3P’s of meaningful engagement - Presence, Play, and Possibility. The session will include a walk through of OTA advisory materials and best implementation/facilitation practices.

Student Programs

Middle School Student Leadership Workshop

Ripple Student Leadership (90 minutes)

A Student Leadership workshop with exercises on communication, collaboration, and making a positive impact in the school community. Up to 50 student participants, in a non-auditorium space (gym, cafeteria.) We cover the ripple model of leadership: Solo Circle (paying attention to self and wellness), Inner Circle (building a network of supports), and Outer Circle (seeking out opportunities to positively contribute). This is a highly interactive program, with students participating in exercises and games, and sharing examples and experiences.

Start a Wave & Be Bolder Regional Conferences

Format: Full day events for middle or high school students

The OTA team partners with organizations to host regional student leadership conferences, bringing selected youth and advisors together from multiple schools. From suicide prevention programs, to mental health supports, substance abuse prevention programs and anti-bullying organizations, we partner with groups who understand that closer communities and stronger connections are a necessary factor in protecting youth from all that we worry about most. These events are a positive and possibility focused approach to engaging youth to create and lead schools that they want to attend and communities that they want to be a part of.

What to expect:
• highly engaging, interactive, and student centered
• participants will be invited and encouraged to do pre-interviews of their classmates and teachers ahead of the conference
• real examples from adolescents making positive and lasting change in their schools will be shared
• participants will set goals, and be inspired to take action
• advisors and participants will be given ideas, tools and instructions to host a student leadership event at their own school

High School Student Leadership Workshop

BeBold Student Leadership (90 minutes)

A Student Leadership workshop packed with exercises on communication, collaboration, and making a positive impact in the school community. Up to 50 student participants, in a non-auditorium space (gym, cafeteria.) We cover actions student leaders must take to be impactful no matter their role, including: meet new people, ask curious questions, try new things, model accountability, show support, care, and kindness. This is a highly interactive program with students participating in exercises and games, and sharing examples and experiences.

Parent Program

All Kinds of Care (60-minutes)

 Why don’t they know that everything I’m doing for them is because I care?! In this engaging session, Brooklyn shares leading research on the gaps and agreements between adult expression of care and youth perception of care, and how we can strengthen trust and relationships through better communication of expectations. She will also address why and how to help your children set up teams of trusted adults, so when you might not be the person they want to hear from in a specific moment, you know they have healthy, boundaried adults that you trust at the ready to support and advise. It truly does take a caring village and helping your child set up theirs is a top parenting priority.

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR

Brooklyn Raney

After working in schools for more than a decade, Brooklyn Raney founded One Trusted Adult, a company through which she has spent the past five years working with youth-serving professionals, parents, and guardians to develop strategies for strengthening relationships in homes, schools, and communities to best support the positive development of youth.

She is a research-practitioner who holds a BA from Colgate University, an MA in Educational Theater from NYU, and an MS in Education from the University of Pennsylvania, where she is currently a doctoral candidate. Brooklyn’s research explores the intersection of student perception, teacher sustainability, and parent expectation as it relates to an ethic of care in schools.

Though often immersed in writing and research projects, Brooklyn will never miss a week of Girls Leadership Camp, an adventure with her mentee from the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, or a FaceTime with her nieces and nephews. She believes every adult must see themselves as an advocate of youth needs, a promoter of youth potential, and a defender of youth dreams. If we are to prevent our biggest fears and promote our greatest hopes for youth today.

Brooklyn lives in Moultonborough, New Hampshire, with her husband, son, and two adventurous goldendoodles named Tuukka and Larry Bird.  

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