NorthernRecharge2025

Join us to gain insights into the workings of your brain and the sensations in your body during times of stress. Learn strategies that will empower you to make meaningful shifts towards a more balanced life. Together, we will explore the calm of mindfulness, the resilience of thought control, the healing power of laughter, and the essential nature of caring connections. Unleash the potential of self-care as a superpower, creating a cycle of well-being that radiates positively to those around you. Through the act of caring for others, you strengthen your own well-being.

Looking for an engaging, creative activity that fosters connection, emotional growth, and teamwork? Create Perspective is the perfect workshop to inspire after-school programs. Designed to inspire students’ imaginations, this session uses visual arts and storytelling to explore empathy, relationships, and emotional awareness.
Through hands-on projects, participants use images and symbols to express themselves while building essential life skills like communication, conflict resolution, and teamwork. Mindfulness and positive psychology are woven into every activity, helping enhance focus, develop self-esteem, and implement healthy boundaries.
What you can expect:
Inspiring projects that drive engagement and creativity.
Practical tools for self-expression, wellness, and communication.
Evidence-based self-care strategies.
Activities that promote communication skills and foster a sense of community.
This workshop is designed to be fun, empowering, and impactful. This is a wonderful opportunity to express your stories, build confidence, and connect with others in meaningful ways!

Do you know what your work personality is? Ever wonder why there might be communication challenges amongst your team? This session will provide a Work Personality Questionnaire, with in-depth discuss to increase effective communication for the individual and the team. Attendees will learn strategies in managing communication by each work personality type and know how to communicate when under stress to avoid the five dysfunctions of a team. Through an engaging discussion, attendees will enjoy knowing their communication strengths and increase effective communication and confidence within your afterschool team.

This session is for anyone who has to do any sort of academic planning and struggles to make it engaging and to keep kids interested. We will use the concepts of TBRI (an attachment-based approach to behaviors derived from a trauma history) to create connection but create that connection using curriculum and academic content. This will start to give you the ideas and skills needed to nurture academic success while creating connection which will decrease the negative behaviors. You will leave this session with ideas you can immediately return to your program and use.

This session is designed for afterschool staff, educators, and program administrators who are seeking effective strategies to prevent and overcome burnout. Participants will explore practical, hands-on techniques to manage stress, set boundaries, and create sustainable work-life balance. Attendees will learn how to implement self-care practices, build supportive team cultures, and recharge their passion for youth work. Walk away with actionable strategies and resources that can be immediately applied to enhance personal well-being and improve program outcomes. Join us for a session that will leave you energized and equipped to handle the challenges of afterschool programming with renewed focus and resilience.

Did you know that when the well-known would-be substance-use prevention specialist William Shakespeare wrote that "the web of our life is a mingled yarn" he was actually writing about the Social Development Strategy? (It's absolutely true!) Come find out how. During this workshop, we will take a closer look at the Social Development Strategy as an essential youth protective framework and consider the five basic elements that together provide strong social development for young people: bonding, opportunities, skills, clear and healthy standards, and recognition. You will come to understand more clearly what young people need most to build good and healthy lives, and together we will learn how to use this strategy in our various communities to nurture more resilient humans and create stronger buffers around them. (And you might even learn a little more Shakespeare along the way!)

Now more than ever, our youth need social support and a sense of belonging outside of school time. This session explores how neuroscience can inform the way we facilitate learning experiences and healthy group dynamics. We’ll dive into the basics of neurotransmitters and their functions, the way stress affects the developing brain, and the link between mindfulness and emotional regulation. You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of the mind and an actionable toolkit of techniques to cultivate a culture of social growth.