Evergreen Youth and Family Services annual conference returns Oct. 21-22

Oct. 13—BEMIDJI — After a year's hiatus, Evergreen Youth and Family Services will once again hold its annual conference, both in person at the Hampton Inn and Suites in Bemidji and virtually, Thursday and Friday, Oct. 21-22.

With this being her first conference after being named the Evergreen executive director in July, Ebony Warren described this conference as being right in line with Evergreen's mission to develop services to strengthen youth and preserve families.

"Having a place for youth-serving professionals to network and giving them additional information is a way we're continuing to build knowledge that will lead to positive outcomes for youth," Warren said.

Aimed at various social work professionals, the conference will feature keynote speakers and several breakout sessions as they relate to topics like stress management, internet safety, social welfare policies, sex trafficking and homelessness, among others.

With speaker proposal calls already done by the time she took her position, Warren's main planning responsibilities included leading marketing efforts with Pinnacle Marketing Group and Paul Bunyan Television and figuring out the logistics of offering two different versions of the same event.

The in-person conference gives professionals a choice in which sessions they want to attend. Warren emphasized a few sessions that will take place in person and as part of the virtual line-up, which features one breakout session at a time versus the choice of three for the in-person event.

One such session is "Avoiding Burnout During Chronic Stress," which will aim to examine sources and outcomes of long-term stress and how people can mitigate the effects of chronic stress in their lives.

Gary Russell, Evergreen's youth shelter program director, will be presenting "Parenting 'Tough' Kids" in person and virtually talking about effective parenting, instilling family values and assessing safety.

Though not technically part of the conference, Warren also plugged an in-person-only cyber safety seminar taking place at 6:30 p.m. that Thursday after the conference.

Free to the public and open to anyone grades six and up, information technology teacher Kent Mollberg will present modern safety issues as they relate to technology including cyberbullying, textual harassment and online predators.

Mollberg is leading a similar breakout session during the conference, "Helping Make Smart, Safe and Ethical Choices While Using Technology," which is also part of the virtual line-up.

"With COVID, we've been blessed to have a virtual environment," Warren mentioned. "It's a chance to offer a virtual option for those who maybe don't feel comfortable attending the in-person conference."

The in-person conference will also be observing standard COVID protocols including mask-wearing, social distancing and enhanced cleaning procedures. All events are subject to change without notice.

A full schedule breakdown of the upcoming Evergreen conference can be found at www.evergreenyfs.org.

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