Author of Spilled Milk will Speak at Lehigh Valley Early Care & Education's October Conference

The Lehigh Valley Early Care & Education Professional Development Day Planning Committee is busy planning the eighth annual professional development day for early childhood educators in Northampton and Lehigh counties. The theme of the all-day conference, which will be held at Lehigh Carbon Community College, on Monday, October 13, 2014, is “Protecting the Children: Yours, Mine and Ours.”

“Although geared to meet the needs of early education practitioners, the conference will provide people from all walks of life with information and skills for keeping children safe from abuse,” says Denise Continenza, a member of the conference planning board.

Kelly Randis, a Pennsylvania State University graduate and a certified expert in the field of domestic violence, will be one of the conference speakers. She’s a survivor of childhood abuse and the author of Spilled Milk, a book she wrote based on her experience.

Randis hopes that conference participants will walk away with tools they can share with abused children to urge them to come forward.

“Knowing about the free services in my county would have contributed to me coming forward sooner. I always thought that services could be expensive and I didn’t know about the role of a guidance counselor. Kids need to know the roles of certain people in their communities and how these people can help them,” says Randis. “My goal is to do something different by empowering kids to take action.”

Teachers are now mandated reporters, who because of their profession are more likely to be aware if someone is being abused, and therefore need to come forward to report the abuse. Kids who lash out physically or emotionally might raise red flags for teachers, although some abused children might exhibit none of these behaviors. The ones who slip under the radar are the ones whom teachers need to create a “safe environment” for, says Randis.

“I was an honors student, on the cheerleading squad, and I held a job. I wasn’t the textbook example of a child being abused. How do we get these kids to tell us things? A safe environment will invite children to be more open in terms of communication goes,” says Randis.

Other speakers include Kim Checkeye, President of Truth for Women; Teresa Olsen, PA Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics; Beth Bitler, PA Family Support Alliance and Alexa Livelsberger, PA Coalition Against Rape.

This professional development day for early childhood educators was started eight years ago through collaboration with Penn State Cooperative Extension and child care center directors who wanted to be able to provide the professional development hours required of early childhood educators during a daylong conference.

To attend the conference you must pre-register at http://extension.psu.edu/youth/betterkidcare/events and pay the conference fee of $35.00. No walk-ins accepted the day of the conference. The registration fee includes continental breakfast, lunch, afternoon refreshments, all sessions and hand-outs.