Supporting Our Youth Through Collaborative Conversations and Learning Sessions
These workshops are focused on youth, where parents, educators, counselors, health practitioners and more can join in collaborative learning sessions for supporting the healthy development of our young people.
What you’ll learn: This course will guide one through eight modules that will help you to hold yourself and others in compassion. These practices will foster the development of social and emotional skills: grounding techniques, managing emotions, developing self-image, learning and using nonviolent communication, perspective taking, mindfulness and meditation, non-judgmental awareness, and gratitude. One will have the opportunity to express themselves using drawing, writing, theater and improv, physical movement, and engagement with nature. They will witness how anger functions as a mask for our underlying feelings and how our lives change when we express the feelings underneath anger. You’ll learn why our brains and bodies react impulsively; often we feel like our only choices are to fight, flee, or freeze. As you use the practices, we engage each month, you will find that instead of reacting impulsively, you’ll be able to step back and choose how you want to respond, even in difficult situations. Another way to say this is: you’ll add more tools to your toolbox and instead of being controlled by your circumstance you’ll gain freedom to respond in ways that feel good to you. The premise is this: when we develop our ability to care for ourselves, our compassion for ourselves and others grows.
OMA’s goal is to create collaborative conversations regarding the impact of trauma on one’s cognitive, emotional, and physical development as well as their interpersonal relationships and life choices. We will strive to identify needs and plan for systemic change in youth development and education programs in the Pittsburgh area.
Through collaborative conversations and learning sessions, we can grow and develop greater awareness about the needs that exist for healthy youth development. We are dedicated to teaching youth how to recognize and effectively manage their emotions in order to mitigate and prevent harmful effects of early childhood adversity and trauma. In order to do this, adult mentors and educators must be trained in these skills.
Participants will have the opportunity to learn a variety of holistic skills that can be used to support the healthy development of mind, body, and spirit—their own and that of youth.
We are committed to transparency, openness, honesty, respect, trust, active engagement, collaboration, communication, inclusivity and equity for all.