Child & Youth Mental Health Conference - Service Providers

This Eventbrite registration is for the second day of the Village Initiative’s two- day conference dedicated to strengthening child and youth mental health supports across the West Shore and Sooke region. This day will feature tailored sessions for frontline service providers.

📍 Spencer Middle School | 🗓️ Nov 21, 2025 | ⏰ 8:30 am – 4:45 pm | 🥪 Lunch included

A full day dedicated to frontline community workers who support children, youth, and families. Topics will include:

• Emerging issues in child and youth mental health
• Practical tools to strengthen frontline practice
• Strategies to support staff well-being
• Opportunities to connect and share with peers across the region

This gathering is more than a conference—it is a space to build connections, share knowledge, and work together toward a stronger, more resilient community for children, youth, and families.

Info: Plenary Session: Burnout and vicarious trauma are increasingly acknowledged challenges amongst youth service providers. This session will teach tangible steps to take to identify burnout and enforce professional boundaries and will inform staff about the shared responsibility between employers and employees to foster a healthy workplace, highlighting the employer’s role in supporting well-being.

Info: Plenary Session: Technology, especially AI and social media, can provide useful tools for everyday life. Given young people are increasingly engrossed within their digital lives, it is essential to understand how this reality shapes them. Based on global research, we will discuss how various forms of technology positively and negatively impact young people. We will share practical strategies for frontline workers on supporting young people to build healthy relationships with technology, including AI and social media.

Info: Plenary Session: Grief can arise from many different experiences of loss and is not only tied to death. This session will allow us to explore different types and sources of grief and will teach child and youth service providers tangible skills for supporting families through experiences of loss.

Info: In this keynote, we will learn about the importance of neurodiversity affirming support and how child and youth service providers can take a strengths-based approach to supporting neurodiverse children and youth.

Info: This panel will bring together experts who work with diverse groups of children, youth, and families who all have diverse needs. They will discuss tangible skills service providers can teach to caregivers so they are able to support their own children and youth and will explore the utility of peer support groups to help caregivers feel less alone. This session is also offered at 3:30 pm.

Info: This session is designed to offer frontline service providers with practical, adaptable tools and frameworks to support clients affected by complex trauma, particularly those impacted by displacement, cultural loss and collective adversity. Special care will be given to reflect the realities of working with newcomer and Indigenous communities. This session is also offered at 3:30 pm.

Info: This panel will bring together experienced professionals to discuss what attachment may look like throughout different developmental stages, specifically, they will discuss how to maintain attachment throughout adolescence. The panel will also discuss how to recreate attachment in the event that it is lost. This session is also offered at 3:30 pm.

Info: Many mental health services are not equipped to support neurodiverse children and youth, and many disability supports are unable to support with mental health. This workshop will provide tangible tips that frontline service providers can integrate into their mental health interventions with neurodiverse children and youth. This session is also offered at 3:30 pm.

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Host or Publisher The Village Initiative