Whole Health ED

"Harkin on Wellness:" Featuring Wellbeing in Schools
2024-04-03 09:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Parents Hall, Olmsted Center at Drake University, Des Moines, IA, United States
The Harkin Institute will present its annual “Harkin on Wellness” symposium, April 3, 2024 at Drake University. This in-person event will also be live-streamed. (See View Venue Website below.)
The keynote conversation for this event will be with US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy MD in a discussion with former Sen. Tom Harkin about the roles schools can and should play to address the persistent mental duress students are facing across the country.
The program and agenda were collaboratively developed by the Institute and WholeHealthED, building off their co-hosted June 22, 2023 webinar, “First Line of Defense: Confronting the Adolescent Mental Health Crisis through Interdisciplinary Whole Child Actions.” (A summary is here.)
The second keynote will be delivered by Kathleen Ethier, Director of CDC’s Division of Adolescent School Health (DASH). Two distinct panels will discuss:
—> the roles healthcare and mental health organizations are now starting to develop with the schools; and
–> the not-yet-well-known beneficial outcomes attained by students and faculty during participation in whole health learning practices like the school garden and mindful programs.
Centerpirece of the event: “Harkin on Wellness” team has selected 12 schools and districts from around the country whose work highlights the positive whole child outcomes students (and faculty) have experienced through participation in whole health learning activities.
See the complete Agenda, with speakers, here

Health & Well-Being Throughout the Lifecycle K-12: Whole Health Learning as Public Health Investment
2022-01-28 12:00 - 13:00 | Webinar
Register Here

Balancing Academics & Wellbeing During School Openings, 2020
2020-07-17 13:00 - 15:00 | Webinar
1 PM to 3 PM EASTERN
WholeHealthED advisors, partners and colleagues will come together to consider how to best assist educators, students and families as schools re-open — however and whenever that takes place — while facing continued behavioral, social, emotional and learning challenges compounded by COVID-19.
During this invitation-only discussion we will compile and summarize best practices and primary factors to distribute and to use in a follow-up webinar presentation to educators in August 2020 (date TBD at this posting) and for further collaboration.

Nature Preschool in the Urban Wild: Lessons from the Pacific Northwest.
2020-06-13 13:00 - 14:30 | Webinar
With Kit Harrington
Founder and Former Director, Fiddleheads Forest School,
University of Washington, Seattle, WA

• Kit will share the story of how socially and culturally responsive outdoor preschool programming came to shape a regional movement for nature-based education. She will cover the challenges of providing a quality early childhood program in a public park setting, focusing on the importance of community and place-based education in outdoor classrooms.
Kit co-founded of one of the country’s first urban outdoor preschools, the Fiddleheads Forest School at the University of Washington. In 2015, she founded the Washington Nature Preschool Association to support the regional growth of nature-based early childhood education. She also helped to pass and develop the first licensing regulations for outdoor preschools in North America, and was part of the writing team that crafted the field’s first professional practice guidebook.

Leveraging SEL to Reopen and Renew Your School Community During COVID-19
2020-05-22 13:00 - 14:00 | Webinar
CASEL CARES is a new initiative that connects the SEL community with experts to address how SEL can be most helpful in today’s circumstances.
Co-hosted with the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), CASEL will lead a timely conversation with school principals to discuss practical strategies to leverage social and emotional learning to re-engage students, support adults, rebuild relationships, and create a foundation for student-centered learning. Participants will learn more about an upcoming CASEL report that provides initial guidance and actionable recommendations to help school leaders plan for the SEL needs of all students and adults in the upcoming transition into summer and the new school year. Principals will also share how they are planning to use this guidance to reflect, innovate, and build on evidence-based practices as they prepare for a renewed school experience.
