In this workshop, you’ll build a toolkit for helping youth, especially those from families with a lack of cultural literacy and/or low socioeconomic status, to gain knowledge of current events, develop critical thinking skills, build vocabulary, and create success with writing.  These skills are vital for students who would like to have professional careers.  Working in teams, you’ll learn fresh ways to facilitate discussions of current events relevant to youth, coach students as they form coherent opinions and craft verbal arguments, and create a blog to share students’ writing with the community.  You’ll find imaginative ways to prepare students to pursue professional opportunities, and create ongoing discussion around how to address these needs.  Co-presented by collaborators Cara Anderson-Ahrens, Director of Education, Southern Sudanese Community of Washington; Lynda Lavore, Educational Training Specialist and Pang Chang, Refugee School Impact Grant Project Director, School’s Out Washington; and Terrah Goeden, Site Coordinator for Burndale Center, Neighborhood House.

This powerful session blends mentoring, leadership and fitness training techniques: you’ll learn simple, teachable methods to create healthier, richer, longer, more rewarding lives for yourself and those you work with. This session is active, and is safe and welcoming for those at all fitness levels. Wear comfortable clothes and shoes, and bring your water bottle.  Former Husky football player and World Drug Free Powerlifting Champion, Willie Austin, is founder of the Austin Foundation, promoting health and fitness to Seattle's inner city youth and their families. Austin was awarded the 2008 Guiding Lights Weekend Mindful Mentor of the Year in recognition of his powerful record of success in changing the lives of young people.

The Hope for Youth Program provides a school-based Latino civil rights history and hip hop poetry course, and has an eleven-year track record of success. In this workshop, you will create your own hip hop poetry, and learn tactics for using the creative writing process as an effective strategy for building community and addressing complex social issues. You’ll experience first-hand how a culturally-competent civil rights history curriculum can empower youth (and adults) to combat current social justice issues. This action-packed session will be led by Alex Bautista, Hope for Youth Program Coordinator, and Irene Routté, Hope for Youth Program Assistant, with guest artist Asun aka Suntonio Bandanaz, ten-year staple of Seattle’s hip hop scene and teaching artist with 206 Zulu.

The Hope for Youth Program provides a school-based Latino civil rights history and hip hop poetry course, and has an eleven-year track record of success. In this workshop, you will create your own hip hop poetry, and learn tactics for using the creative writing process as an effective strategy for building community and addressing complex social issues. You’ll experience first-hand how a culturally-competent civil rights history curriculum can empower youth (and adults) to combat current social justice issues. This action-packed session will be led by Alex Bautista, Hope for Youth Program Coordinator, and Irene Routté, Hope for Youth Program Assistant, with guest artist Asun aka Suntonio Bandanaz, ten-year staple of Seattle’s hip hop scene and teaching artist with 206 Zulu.

William C. Bell is President and Chief Executive Officer of Casey Family Programs, the nation’s largest operating foundation with a mission focused solely on providing and improving—and ultimately preventing the need for—foster care.  Bell has nearly 30 years of experience in the human services field. Prior to joining Casey, he served as commissioner of the New York City Administration for Children’s Services. Bell has received many awards and honors for his leadership. He is a trustee for America’s Promise, and serves on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Youth at Risk, among many other public service positions.

In this session, you’ll learn practical techniques for inciting innovation and action in your community. You’ll practice finding personally relevant and rewarding solutions to large-scale social problems, develop a personal and collective toolkit of skills and interests, and learn tools for team-building and leadership. Alan Blickenstaff is Program Director at Youth Venture Seattle, an organization investing in young people, ages 12-20, to build youth-led, youth-driven, sustainable social ventures which directly attack real social problems. Co-presented by Youth Venturers: Nandie Oosthuizen, Founder of Hand & Heart, a non-profit organization for Boikarabelo orphanage in South Africa; Lisann Zentner, Founder of FIERCE: Female Identity Education & Reclaiming Creative Empowerment, providing high school-age mentors to middle school girls; and Tiffany Xu, Founder of The Beat, a weekly teen section of the Issaquah Press.

This workshop is an engaging, interactive discussion of the ways in which individual actions can help to end homelessness. You’ll learn about the multi-faceted reasons that people from diverse groups become homeless in King County, and the ways in which actions by individuals (advocacy, personal outreach, faith based supports, culturally-based organizing, and mentoring) can dovetail with institutional initiatives as a dynamic part of our region’s strategy to end homelessness. Presenters: Bill Block, Project Director of the Committee to End Homelessness in King County; Judy Lightfoot, creator of Freestyle Volunteer (meeting at cafes with isolated individuals who are homeless or mentally ill) and board member of Plymouth Healing Communities; Joe Ingram, a formerly homeless outreach worker who uses his personal empathy and doggedness to help homeless individuals find the supports they need to leave homelessness (60 so far this year alone).

This participatory two hour workshop, you’ll have the opportunity to work at multiple levels through reflection (head) about your personal and organizational values, to engage in empathic listening (heart) and to examine how your work aligns with your actions in practice (hands). Participants will hear about how The Mockingbird Society’s values inform practice and then engage in small group discussion and role play to examine their personal and/or organizational values and purpose and the extent to which they inform their mentoring or social change approaches.  Presented by The Mockingbird Society: Jerry Bobo, Senior Network Representative; Ashlie Lanier, Senior Network Representative; and Wanda Hackett, Ph.D., Director of Family Programs.

This workshop will provide an overview of Washington’s Juvenile Justice System, describe past and current reform efforts and engage you in a discussion on the role of system reform in improving opportunities for system-involved youth.  Through interaction with those who've lived it, you’ll step into the shoes of system-involved youth and participate in a risk assessment activity.  Justice Bobbe Bridge is a former Washington State Supreme Court Justice, King County Superior Court judge, and former Chief Judge of King County Juvenile Court, and is recognized nationally as a leading advocate for foster care reform, domestic violence victims, truancy prevention, juvenile justice reform and a host of other issues.

Imagine: what if your enemy could become your ally?  This bold concept is the cornerstone of an inspiring workshop with master change-makers Jerilyn Brusseau and Bob Ness.  You'll learn how to create partnerships where they seem unlikely (or even impossible).  When her father served with the U.S. military in Vietnam, he could hardly have imagined that his daughter Jerilyn Brusseau would become an integral part of “Peace Trees Vietnam,” an organization that decommissions land mines and UXBs in Quang Tri Province and plants trees in their place. Ms. Brusseau lends her expertise in fundraising, data management, and donor relations to undo the consequences of war, and works with people of Northeastern Vietnam to reclaim their land and create a safer environment for future generations.  Bob Ness implemented one of the first business conference in the USSR and has continued work in post-Soviet countries including training Russians in US concepts of diversity, community leadership, and conflict resolution in Vladivostok. Efforts to establish trust and connection between unlikely partners have taken him to 45 countries and many cultures…such as Vietnam, Mongolia, Central Asia (Uzbekistan), Native American communities & inner cities and rural communities of the U.S. He is the immediate past chair of Leadership Tomorrow.

This great discussion will focus on the challenges behind recruiting male mentors.  A panel of local mentoring leaders, moderated by Hazel Cameron, director the 4C Coaltion and Chair of the Seattle Cares Mentoring Movement.  Hazel is also Chair of Washington State Mentors Provider Council; Reclaiming Futures Community Fellow; 2008 Bank of America Neighborhood Excellence Initiative Local Hero Award, and received a 2008 Presidential Volunteer Service Award.

In this workshop, you’ll build a toolkit for helping youth, especially those from families with a lack of cultural literacy and/or low socioeconomic status, to gain knowledge of current events, develop critical thinking skills, build vocabulary, and create success with writing.  These skills are vital for students who would like to have professional careers.  Working in teams, you’ll learn fresh ways to facilitate discussions of current events relevant to youth, coach students as they form coherent opinions and craft verbal arguments, and create a blog to share students’ writing with the community.  You’ll find imaginative ways to prepare students to pursue professional opportunities, and create ongoing discussion around how to address these needs.  Co-presented by collaborators Cara Anderson-Ahrens, Director of Education, Southern Sudanese Community of Washington; Lynda Lavore, Educational Training Specialist and Pang Chang, Refugee School Impact Grant Project Director, School’s Out Washington; and Terrah Goeden, Site Coordinator for Burndale Center, Neighborhood House.

Many culturally unique communities use community peers to educate, advocate, and connect group members to services.  SOAR, helping kids reach for the sky has utilized bilingual/bicultural members, or “Promotores,” for services to Latino teen parents and outreach and education efforts around early child development and developmental delays in the Latino, Somali, Vietnamese and Punjabi communities.  The workshop will provide an introduction to the model and its theoretical base; outcomes; challenges encountered in using this model and lessons learned in local projects; and ample time for Q&A and discussion.  Workshop participants will learn techniques for building partnerships that effectively engage communities and connect them with systems and services.  Presented by SOAR staff members Harla Tumbleson, Director; Mercedes Cordova-Hakim, Early Childhood & School ReadinessProgram Manager; and Kyla Lackie, School-Age Children & Youth Program Manager.

What do students learn in arts classrooms?  Let’s explore the practice of creative habits of mind, and address the intrinsic benefits of arts education.  We will engage in dialogue and exercises with an aim toward utilizing a common lens and language for arts learning that highlights transferrable skills, creativity and leadership…then we’ll take it one step farther by exploring how ensuring all youth (especially those in undeserved communities) have access to this kind of learning can bring about revolutionary social change. Tina LaPadula is Education Director and Teaching Artist at Arts Corps.  Lara Davis is Program Director at Arts Corps. 

If an individual is unable maintain a stable work life or take full advantage of opportunity, the problem often lies in his or her personal life -- marriage/divorce/custody issues, landlord problems, personal injury, employment disputes, or problems with the law.  Many citizens were never taught their basic legal rights and responsibilities, and this prevents them from meaningfully engaging in their communities, and in society as a whole.  This workshop provides an overview of the legal/civics environment with a focus on empowerment for our most under-served citizens and recent immigrants.  You’ll do role-playing on real-world case studies, and you’ll discover how a basic civics education can be a powerful boost for the individuals you serve.  Civil Survival Series founder Amanda DuBois is an attorney in Seattle. 

David W. Fleming, M.D., is Director and Health Officer for Public Health - Seattle & King County, a large metropolitan health department with 1900 employees, 39 sites, and a budget of $296 million, serving a resident population of 1.8 million people.  Programs and services range from core prevention activities to environmental health, community oriented primary care, emergency medical services, correctional health services, Public Health preparedness, and community-based public health assessment and practices. Prior to assuming this role, Dr. Fleming directed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Strategies Program. In this capacity, Dr. Fleming oversaw the Foundation’s portfolios in vaccine-preventable diseases, nutrition, newborn and child health, leadership, emergency relief, and cross-cutting strategies to improve access to health tools in developing countries. Dr. Fleming has also served as the Deputy Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as the State Epidemiologist of Oregon.  He has published on a wide range of public health issues, and has served on a number of boards and commissions and committees. Dr. Fleming received his medical degree from the State University of New York Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. He is board certified in internal medicine and preventive medicine and serves on the faculty of the departments of public health at both the University of Washington and Oregon Health Sciences University.

Building assets is a powerful way to change a life.  This workshop showcases asset innovations underway in Seattle and Washington State and encourages collaboration in support of new approaches that address the current financial and economic crisis.  You’ll be introduced to innovators who are currently delivering products and services that are building assets for low income people in the region through matched savings, entrepreneurship and self-employment, access to fair and affordable financial services and/or banking products—each of whom will demonstrate how the product and/or service works.  You’ll take away a new knowledge of current themes and ideas, innovative approaches and the implications for policy, philanthropy and practice in our region.  The workshop will be facilitated jointly by Andrea Levere, President of CFED (Corporation for Enterprise Development) and Bob Friedman, General Counsel and Board Chair, CFED and will involve presentations and exercises with asset development practitioners in the Seattle area and leaders in the fields of philanthropy, policy and financial services.

Body awareness can help children trust their instincts, make good decisions, manage their emotions, present themselves with confidence, and feel secure.  In this session, you’ll experience and discuss the physical sensations of tension and ease, become aware of your body posture, and track emotional sensations in your own body.  Then, you’ll cover the basics of Teaching Kinesthetic Awareness to Children through clear guidelines, stories and games, including Where Are My Elbows? (a game that helps children to calm down and internally organize when over-stimulated and out of control).  This coaching is invaluable for those working with children of all ages, and can be a helpful tool for nurturing mental health in populations with high levels of stress.  Caroline Goodell is in private practice as a multidisciplinary counselor, and has taught at Ashmead College and Antioch University in Seattle.

This participatory two hour workshop, you’ll have the opportunity to work at multiple levels through reflection (head) about your personal and organizational values, to engage in empathic listening (heart) and to examine how your work aligns with your actions in practice (hands). Participants will hear about how The Mockingbird Society’s values inform practice and then engage in small group discussion and role play to examine their personal and/or organizational values and purpose and the extent to which they inform their mentoring or social change approaches.  Presented by The Mockingbird Society: Jerry Bobo, Senior Network Representative; Ashlie Lanier, Senior Network Representative; and Wanda Hackett, Ph.D., Director of Family Programs.

The Rainier Scholars program develops tomorrow’s leaders by supporting promising students of color over an eleven year journey beginning at 6th grade with a 14-month rigorous academic component, followed by advocacy in placement, counseling and comprehensive support services through middle school, high school leadership development and college admissions and culminates with college graduation. In this dynamic workshop, you’ll learn about specific strategies that have proven effective in mitigating the opportunity gap, experience first-hand accounts from scholars, and engage in an active discussion around how the system can change when young people are supported in their journey. Presenters: Sumiko Huff, Academic Director of Rainier Scholars, is a former Seattle Public Schools Principal; Sarah Smith, Associate Executive Director of Rainier Scholars, is a former public school teacher.

Pramila Jayapal is the founder and Executive Director of OneAmerica, the state’s leading immigrant rights nonprofit organization. She is also a leading national advocate for immigrant rights and has won numerous awards for her work.

This creative workshop approaches the discussion of race and cultural differences using tools that include observation, listening, interview techniques, personal dialogue, creative writing, and visual art.  Participants will interview each other, create individual “I Am” poems, and build a large-scale collage including portrait photographs.  This workshop opens the door for participants to create change in their community, beginning at a very personal level.  Julie Keefe is a professional photographer who created the Hello Neighbor Project, using interviews and photographs to introduce children to their neighbors and ultimately neighbors to each other by displaying large-scale photographic portraits with text in six cities throughout Oregon, creating the state’s largest collaborative public art project.  Co-presenter Majik works tirelessly to bridge the opportunity gap in her Portland, OR community, as a founding advocate with Caldera, a thirteen year Parent Coordinator at Self Enhancement, Inc., a counselor at Planned Parenthood, and a Foster Parent to teenage girls for the last eight years. 

In today’s media environment, marketing is not “bragging”, it’s a strategic opportunity to leverage more support for your issue and raise awareness of your organization’s challenges and triumphs. In this engaging, collaborative, hands-on training session, you will gain a clear understanding of how to authentically communicate and promote the positive change you are making in the world. You’ll discover innovative and affordable marketing methods, and you’ll walk away with valuable tools, including your own one-page promotion plan, one-page press release/email pitch, innovative ideas for creating news, and step-by-step instruction on how to partner with the media. Whitney Keyes is former senior marketing manager for Microsoft, and is now a nationally recognized marketing consultant, sought after for her straightforward approach and commitment to social entrepreneurism.

This focused training session is perfect for teachers and mentors who want to help children prepare to take advantage of a lifetime’s worth of opportunities. You’ll gain tools to help children name and claim authentic interests and passions, and experience first-hand Authentic-i’s proven Be-Do-Have method for helping young people set their own goals. These powerful skills allow a child to tap into self-knowledge, providing a cornerstone on which his or her authenticity and academic foundation can be stabilized.  Cheryl Kilodavis is the founder of Authentic-i, a Seattle program that works with vulnerable youth in 3rd – 5th Grade; specifically, youth who come from poverty, neglect, or abuse, and lack a consistent role model in their life.  Co-presenters: Katie Powers, Fredricka Orrell, Karimah Stewart.

Using reflective writing and discussion, you’ll explore the issues around how colleges and universities can do a better job of addressing the opportunity gap. A panel will cover case studies from Seattle University’s pioneering strategies Fostering Scholars, First Generation Project, and Youth Initiative. You’ll learn how the resources of an educational institution can be mobilized towards bringing low-income youth to college (and helping them successfully use this opportunity), and you’ll discuss how the lessons learned at Seattle University could be applied in other settings. Kent Koth, Director of the Center for Service and Community Engagement at Seattle University and Special Assistant to the Provost. Carol Schneider, Director, Student Academic Services. Jessica McPherson, Program Coordinator for the First Generation Project in the Center for Service and Community Engagement. Victoria Rucker, Associate Director of Seattle University’s Center for Service and Community Engagement.

Many culturally unique communities use community peers to educate, advocate, and connect group members to services.  SOAR, helping kids reach for the sky has utilized bilingual/bicultural members, or “Promotores,” for services to Latino teen parents and outreach and education efforts around early child development and developmental delays in the Latino, Somali, Vietnamese and Punjabi communities.  The workshop will provide an introduction to the model and its theoretical base; outcomes; challenges encountered in using this model and lessons learned in local projects; and ample time for Q&A and discussion.  Workshop participants will learn techniques for building partnerships that effectively engage communities and connect them with systems and services.  Presented by SOAR staff members Harla Tumbleson, Director; Mercedes Cordova-Hakim, Early Childhood & School ReadinessProgram Manager; and Kyla Lackie, School-Age Children & Youth Program Manager.

This participatory two hour workshop, you’ll have the opportunity to work at multiple levels through reflection (head) about your personal and organizational values, to engage in empathic listening (heart) and to examine how your work aligns with your actions in practice (hands). Participants will hear about how The Mockingbird Society’s values inform practice and then engage in small group discussion and role play to examine their personal and/or organizational values and purpose and the extent to which they inform their mentoring or social change approaches.  Presented by The Mockingbird Society: Jerry Bobo, Senior Network Representative; Ashlie Lanier, Senior Network Representative; and Wanda Hackett, Ph.D., Director of Family Programs.

What do students learn in arts classrooms?  Let’s explore the practice of creative habits of mind, and address the intrinsic benefits of arts education.  We will engage in dialogue and exercises with an aim toward utilizing a common lens and language for arts learning that highlights transferrable skills, creativity and leadership…then we’ll take it one step farther by exploring how ensuring all youth (especially those in undeserved communities) have access to this kind of learning can bring about revolutionary social change. Tina LaPadula is Education Director and Teaching Artist at Arts Corps.  Lara Davis is Program Director at Arts Corps. 

In this workshop, you’ll build a toolkit for helping youth, especially those from families with a lack of cultural literacy and/or low socioeconomic status, to gain knowledge of current events, develop critical thinking skills, build vocabulary, and create success with writing.  These skills are vital for students who would like to have professional careers.  Working in teams, you’ll learn fresh ways to facilitate discussions of current events relevant to youth, coach students as they form coherent opinions and craft verbal arguments, and create a blog to share students’ writing with the community.  You’ll find imaginative ways to prepare students to pursue professional opportunities, and create ongoing discussion around how to address these needs.  Co-presented by collaborators Cara Anderson-Ahrens, Director of Education, Southern Sudanese Community of Washington; Lynda Lavore, Educational Training Specialist and Pang Chang, Refugee School Impact Grant Project Director, School’s Out Washington; and Terrah Goeden, Site Coordinator for Burndale Center, Neighborhood House.

Ready to launch your dream? This hands-on training will help you build the deep passion and energy you’ll need to successfully initiate your new venture, along with project management skills and structured methods for creating smart partnerships. You’ll leave this workshop with specific actionable items for your project, an inspiring support network of fellow workshop participants, and a toolkit of knowledge that you can start implementing immediately. Emma Le Du is originally from France, and has worked in Project Management for Microsoft and Amazon, in Microfinance with the Grameen Foundation, and for the UNDP in Laos. She co-founded TINFA (Technology and Information For All), a non-profit closing the digital divide in schools in Guatemala and Colombia, and coordinates a dynamic community group for Latino families at her daughter’s school in Seattle.

Andrea Levere is president of CFED (Corporation for Enterprise Development) and drives the pursuit of its mission to build assets and expand economic opportunity for low-income people and disadvantaged communities. CFED designs and operates major national initiatives that aim to expand matched savings for children and youth, bring self-employed entrepreneurs into the financial mainstream and turn manufactured housing into an appreciating asset. She was formerly the Chair of the Board of the Ms. Foundation for Women, and currently serves as the Board President for ROC USA, LLC (Resident Owned Communities USA).

Building assets is a powerful way to change a life.  This workshop showcases asset innovations underway in Seattle and Washington State and encourages collaboration in support of new approaches that address the current financial and economic crisis.  You’ll be introduced to innovators who are currently delivering products and services that are building assets for low income people in the region through matched savings, entrepreneurship and self-employment, access to fair and affordable financial services and/or banking products—each of whom will demonstrate how the product and/or service works.  You’ll take away a new knowledge of current themes and ideas, innovative approaches and the implications for policy, philanthropy and practice in our region.  The workshop will be facilitated jointly by Andrea Levere, President of CFED (Corporation for Enterprise Development) and Bob Friedman, General Counsel and Board Chair, CFED and will involve presentations and exercises with asset development practitioners in the Seattle area and leaders in the fields of philanthropy, policy and financial services.

Blending aspects of yoga, meditation, neuroscience and mindful communication, this workshop looks at Somatic Intelligence—the ability to accurately perceive and interpret the body's rich library of sensory input—as a bridge between people of diverse cultures. This workshop will give you direct experience of near universal feeling-states of anger, joy, shame and more, and teach practical ways to better handle stress, care for yourself and meet your needs and the needs of the ones in your care. No special skills are required. The practices are available to every person, regardless of circumstance. Mark Lilly is the founder and Board President of Street Yoga, a non-profit serving at-risk populations in Portland and Seattle. 

This workshop gives voice to a broad consortium of community groups in Seattle, working under the mayor's Youth Violence Prevention Initiative.  Mariko Lockhart, the initiative's Director, recently completed a yearlong research project as a Robert H.B. Baldwin Fellow, examining the role of race in the work of Communities In Schools, one of the ten largest youth serving organizations in the U.S. In her prior position as President & State Director of Communities In Schools of New Jersey (CISNJ), she connected needed community resources with schools to help young people succeed. During her tenure, CISNJ developed a nationally recognized youth arts training program that won the prestigious Coming Up Taller Award from the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

Using reflective writing and discussion, you’ll explore the issues around how colleges and universities can do a better job of addressing the opportunity gap. A panel will cover case studies from Seattle University’s pioneering strategies Fostering Scholars, First Generation Project, and Youth Initiative. You’ll learn how the resources of an educational institution can be mobilized towards bringing low-income youth to college (and helping them successfully use this opportunity), and you’ll discuss how the lessons learned at Seattle University could be applied in other settings. Kent Koth, Director of the Center for Service and Community Engagement at Seattle University and Special Assistant to the Provost. Carol Schneider, Director, Student Academic Services. Jessica McPherson, Program Coordinator for the First Generation Project in the Center for Service and Community Engagement. Victoria Rucker, Associate Director of Seattle University’s Center for Service and Community Engagement.

Imagine: what if your enemy could become your ally?  This bold concept is the cornerstone of an inspiring workshop with master change-makers Jerilyn Brusseau and Bob Ness.  You'll learn how to create partnerships where they seem unlikely (or even impossible).  When her father served with the U.S. military in Vietnam, he could hardly have imagined that his daughter Jerilyn Brusseau would become an integral part of “Peace Trees Vietnam,” an organization that decommissions land mines and UXBs in Quang Tri Province and plants trees in their place. Ms. Brusseau lends her expertise in fundraising, data management, and donor relations to undo the consequences of war, and works with people of Northeastern Vietnam to reclaim their land and create a safer environment for future generations.  Bob Ness implemented one of the first business conference in the USSR and has continued work in post-Soviet countries including training Russians in US concepts of diversity, community leadership, and conflict resolution in Vladivostok. Efforts to establish trust and connection between unlikely partners have taken him to 45 countries and many cultures…such as Vietnam, Mongolia, Central Asia (Uzbekistan), Native American communities & inner cities and rural communities of the U.S. He is the immediate past chair of Leadership Tomorrow.

Are you looking for more support in the work you do?  Learn how to harness the "Power of Contribution" through an interactive game.  Learn to cultivate advocates for your work by contributing to others!  As a realtor, developer and philanthropist Thach Nguyen founded The Contribution Network to inspire and empower others. A Vietnamese refugee who once lived in a homeless shelter, Nguyen became a real estate agent in 1991. Through his legendary determination and persistent door knocking, he became one of Washington state’s top real estate producers. He became a millionaire at age 27, three years ahead of his aggressive schedule. Through Thach Real Estate Group he and his team continue to help families buy, sell and invest in real estate, and through The Contribution Network he shares the secrets he has found to success.

Charles J Ogletree, Jr., the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and Founding and Executive Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, is a prominent legal theorist who has made an international reputation by taking a hard look at complex issues of law and by working to secure the rights guaranteed by the Constitution for everyone equally under the law. The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, named in honor of the visionary lawyer who spearheaded the litigation in Brown v. Board of Education, opened in September 2005, and focuses on a variety of issues relating to race and justice, and will sponsor research, hold conferences, and provide policy analysis.

Looking for a way to help young people engage, collaborate, build skills in critical thinking, conflict resolution and problem solving, and experience a tangible success? Through role-playing exercises (based on real cases studies), you will practice techniques for engaging, motivating and instructing marginalized teenagers—including those with low academic skills and general disinterest in school work—based upon proven methods developed over a ten year period. Gil Petitt is a recipient of The President’s Service for the creation of a computer literacy program for underserved Seattle-area residents, and spent nearly a decade teaching basic business and interpersonal skills to homeless teenagers at the Seattle Emergency Housing Service shelter, where the Youth Entrepreneurial Program was developed.

The Hope for Youth Program provides a school-based Latino civil rights history and hip hop poetry course, and has an eleven-year track record of success. In this workshop, you will create your own hip hop poetry, and learn tactics for using the creative writing process as an effective strategy for building community and addressing complex social issues. You’ll experience first-hand how a culturally-competent civil rights history curriculum can empower youth (and adults) to combat current social justice issues. This action-packed session will be led by Alex Bautista, Hope for Youth Program Coordinator, and Irene Routté, Hope for Youth Program Assistant, with guest artist Asun aka Suntonio Bandanaz, ten-year staple of Seattle’s hip hop scene and teaching artist with 206 Zulu.

Using reflective writing and discussion, you’ll explore the issues around how colleges and universities can do a better job of addressing the opportunity gap. A panel will cover case studies from Seattle University’s pioneering strategies Fostering Scholars, First Generation Project, and Youth Initiative. You’ll learn how the resources of an educational institution can be mobilized towards bringing low-income youth to college (and helping them successfully use this opportunity), and you’ll discuss how the lessons learned at Seattle University could be applied in other settings. Kent Koth, Director of the Center for Service and Community Engagement at Seattle University and Special Assistant to the Provost. Carol Schneider, Director, Student Academic Services. Jessica McPherson, Program Coordinator for the First Generation Project in the Center for Service and Community Engagement. Victoria Rucker, Associate Director of Seattle University’s Center for Service and Community Engagement.

Using reflective writing and discussion, you’ll explore the issues around how colleges and universities can do a better job of addressing the opportunity gap. A panel will cover case studies from Seattle University’s pioneering strategies Fostering Scholars, First Generation Project, and Youth Initiative. You’ll learn how the resources of an educational institution can be mobilized towards bringing low-income youth to college (and helping them successfully use this opportunity), and you’ll discuss how the lessons learned at Seattle University could be applied in other settings. Kent Koth, Director of the Center for Service and Community Engagement at Seattle University and Special Assistant to the Provost. Carol Schneider, Director, Student Academic Services. Jessica McPherson, Program Coordinator for the First Generation Project in the Center for Service and Community Engagement. Victoria Rucker, Associate Director of Seattle University’s Center for Service and Community Engagement.

James H. Shelton III is the Assistant Deputy Secretary responsible for Innovation, managing a portfolio that includes most of the Department’s competitive teacher quality, school choice and learning technology programs. Previously, he served as a program director for the education division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Immediately prior, Mr. Shelton was a partner and the East Coast lead for NewSchools Venture Fund. Before joining NewSchools, Mr. Shelton also co-founded LearnNow, a school management company that later was acquired by Edison Schools. He spent over four years as a senior management consultant with McKinsey & Company. Upon leaving McKinsey, he joined Knowledge Universe, Inc., where he launched, acquired, and operated education-related businesses. Mr. Shelton holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Atlanta’s Morehouse College, as well as master’s degrees in business administration and education from Stanford University.

This fully experiential workshop promises to re-design the way you lead and re-invent the way you teach. You’ll practice simple replicable methods (applicable in classrooms or in working groups) and Open Space Technology protocols to create community and build a collaborative learning environment that truly fosters intrinsically motivated, self-directed learning. Andy Smallman is the founding director of Puget Sound Community School, an independent school in Seattle’s International District for students in grades 6–12. The traditional school model relies on external motivators and a hierarchy of power that damages young peoples’ desire to learn, stifles creativity, and cultivates passivity and conformity. Andy has spent 15 years proving that progressive education works for young people of all races and all socioeconomic backgrounds. 

A huge barrier to opportunity exists when minority youth come into repeated, disproportionate contact with law enforcement.  This solutions-focused workshop will cover the latest in implicit social cognition and trauma research and how these factors aggravate challenging conditions for minority youth. Specific attention will be paid to successful re-trainings with law enforcement personnel, as well as successful trauma trainings inside Massachusetts schools.  You’ll experience a mock "Trauma Sensitive Schools Training" and learn how trainings in implicit social cognition and trauma, provided in concert, can provide leaders, educators, officers, students, parents and advocates with the tools necessary to implement a fairer and more humane climate inside schools.  Presented by Johanna Wald and Rob Smith of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School.

This session offers an overview of the human and economic interconnections between devastating opportunity gaps and the crisis of mass incarceration. All too often, the men, women and children who land in prison have been failed by the social institutions that are meant to serve them. But when we, as change agents and teachers, can seize the rare opportunity for transformative education provided by education behind bars, the individual and community benefits are manifold. Rev. Dr. Kaia Stern is Director of the Pathways Home Project at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School. Her focus on transformative justice has facilitated work in numerous prisons in various states over the last decade and a half.

Professional and volunteer work in human services and social justice is a vocation to many of us... and over the years, the challenges of the work can blur our vision.This workshop offers a chance to re-connect with your purpose. You'll learn to: trust your own voice; cultivate and trust your imagination; understand the changes in your path over the course of your working life; and sustain the passion that drives you towards making the world a better place. Sent to the United States in 1980 by his mentor, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to avoid imprisonment for his anti-apartheid activity, Robert V. Taylor is an openly gay, white South African Episcopal priest, and has spent a lifetime helping others leave a footprint of compassion in the world. His new book I’m Spiritual Not Religious: Making Sense of Finding Meaning offers a path towards an integrated spirituality informed by global sources. 

Many culturally unique communities use community peers to educate, advocate, and connect group members to services.  SOAR, helping kids reach for the sky has utilized bilingual/bicultural members, or “Promotores,” for services to Latino teen parents and outreach and education efforts around early child development and developmental delays in the Latino, Somali, Vietnamese and Punjabi communities.  The workshop will provide an introduction to the model and its theoretical base; outcomes; challenges encountered in using this model and lessons learned in local projects; and ample time for Q&A and discussion.  Workshop participants will learn techniques for building partnerships that effectively engage communities and connect them with systems and services.  Presented by SOAR staff members Harla Tumbleson, Director; Mercedes Cordova-Hakim, Early Childhood & School ReadinessProgram Manager; and Kyla Lackie, School-Age Children & Youth Program Manager.

A huge barrier to opportunity exists when minority youth come into repeated, disproportionate contact with law enforcement.  This solutions-focused workshop will cover the latest in implicit social cognition and trauma research and how these factors aggravate challenging conditions for minority youth. Specific attention will be paid to successful re-trainings with law enforcement personnel, as well as successful trauma trainings inside Massachusetts schools.  You’ll experience a mock "Trauma Sensitive Schools Training" and learn how trainings in implicit social cognition and trauma, provided in concert, can provide leaders, educators, officers, students, parents and advocates with the tools necessary to implement a fairer and more humane climate inside schools.  Presented by Johanna Wald and Rob Smith of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School.

Gaps in access to health care are devastating, and constitute a crisis for many individuals and communities in the Seattle area. In this interactive training, you’ll experience the whole picture of local disparities in health care, and you’ll learn how grassroots community organizing techniques, along with policy change and advocacy, can be used to address the issue. You’ll enjoy an interactive board game, a rich discussion on how health care inequity is being addressed in our local community, and role-playing to build your community organizing skills. Workshop by Joshua Welter, Lead Community Organizer and Fatima Morales, Community Organizer at Washington CAN!, the state’s largest community organization with 35,000 members. Washington CAN! works for racial and economic justice, with a particular focus on health care, immigrant rights, and racial disparities in health.

Whether you are living or working with teenagers, your success as a mentor, friend or family member depends upon your courage, curiosity, and commitment to your own healing work. We each carry unhealed wounds (self-judgments, shame, and self-esteem issues) from our own teen years which can get in the way of our relationships with teens. In this workshop you will learn powerful practices and acquire new perspectives that will free you to be more effective in assisting young people to live into their full capacity. Please bring a photo of yourself as a teenager to this workshop. Linda Wolf is Founder and ED of Teen Talking Circles, a photographer, author, and recipient of the Athena Award for Excellence in Mentoring.  Co-presenters: Eric Kuhner & Genevieve Wolf Smeeth of Teen Talking Circles.

Pastor Patrinell Wright is the Pastor of the Oneness Christian Center in Seattle, and founder and Director of the Total Experience Gospel Choir. The Choir, which began as a class in gospel music at Seattle’s Franklin High School in 1973, now enjoys international prominence.  Since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, Pastor Wright and the Choir have visited several times to rebuild lives and property.  Pastor Wright has received a number of awards, among them the Governor’s Ethnic Heritage Award, Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award, Mahalia Jackson Community Service Award and Edwin Pratt Award from the Urban League of Greater Seattle, and Living Legend Award from Seattle Center.  ABC News named her one of the ‘Persons of the Year’ for 2007.

How do you bounce back in the toughest of circumstances?  In this interactive, practical workshop you’ll learn to shift your energetic field to change your thinking, mood and perspective.  Learn how to navigate through difficulties even when the pressure is on!  Learn how to access the best of yourself even when you feel triggered and the situation seems unfair.  Originally a counselor-coach, Colby Wilk recognized that there was a power beyond traditional therapeutic methods that could shift what seemed unchangeable – the very core of a person.  Through intuitive healing, counseling and coaching, Colby teaches participants to create a powerful, magical relationship to themselves and to life.  He has developed a national prevention curriculum proven to reduce substance use and violence among youth, and created training programs that significantly reduce the recidivism of juvenile offenders. His work has been recognized with a KCTS Golden Apple Award, Hilary Clinton’s Growing Up Taller award, and a PBS documentary on youth leadership.