Culturally Responsive Self-Care: Part 1

Monday, January 11 | 3:30-5:00pm | Trainers: Mary Anne Doan, Julie Nicholson and LaWanda Wesley

We begin by surfacing various sources of stress and trauma that the early childhood professional experience and the consequences for their health, functioning and wellbeing across personal and professional contexts. We then introduce several protective factors identified in decades of research that strengthen resilience so we can acknowledge the challenges we face while also emphasizing the many actionable steps adults can take to support their resilience, ability to cope and healing when facing adverse experiences. We discuss the problematic nature of current discussions of self-care as too limited and inauthentic for many in our respective fields. We describe why self-care should be understood as a central component of quality and ethical work in early childhood. We end by introducing the importance of practicing culturally responsive self-care.