The March Program Spotlight features the Special Education Department’s programs and services. Narrated by Terri Locke, Director of Special Education and Alternative Placements, the video demonstrates how CSIU staff and programs serve our communities through the lens of CSIU values.
Community Youth Suicide Prevention Forum
On Tuesday, Mar. 14 more than 170 people from across 17 school districts, several non-public schools and over 20 community agencies gathered at the Campus Theatre in Lewisburg to learn about national, state, and local data related to youth suicide and the resources available in the Susquehanna Valley to support schools and youth-facing community programs.
The event included a partial screening of the PBS documentary Facing Suicide and a WVIA-created video about a Bloomsburg University student’s struggles with mental health. These moving stories were followed by a panel discussion led by WVIA Vice President, Chris Norton. Panelists Dr. Samuel Faulkner, Geisinger, Tia Dreckman, Milton Area School District, Thor Edminston, Warrior Run School District, and Jennifer Jones, CMSU Behavioral Health and Developmental Services answered audience questions about available resources and best-practice approaches to dealing with the emerging youth mental health crisis.
The event was made possible through the efforts of the region’s Mental Health and Resiliency Community of Practice and was the first of many opportunities for districts and agencies to receive training, curriculum, and resources through the CSIU’s Impacting Mental Health Practices Across Communities Together (IMPACT) Grant.
For the 2022-2023 school year, the special education and early childhood departments have partnered with the Perry County Council of the Arts program to provide arts to benefit all students within CSIU classrooms. The Council for the Arts awarded these opportunities through grants that were made possible through Perry County. The council located artists and provided resumes of individuals who were willing to travel to the Susquehanna Valley region. Through partial grants from the Perry County Council of the Arts, this helped to bring the artists into our educational programs. These artists have visited CSIU center-based programs to conduct dancing as well as mural painting. The students have really enjoyed dancing as a way for them to experience movement through the arts.
Extra Learning Opportunities Conference
More than 400 of Pennsylvania’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers program grantees gathered for the in-person annual conference at the Hilton Harrisburg on Feb. 21-23, 2023. The event included workshops on accelerating learning, cross-system collaboration, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, identification, outreach and engagement and student well-being. In the keynote address Hasan Davis, J.D., shared his own transformational journey and how afterschool staff and other “hope dealers” made a difference in his life and helped him on a path to success. All participants were invited to the neighboring Whitaker Center for a documentary titled “Wings Over Water” that illustrated the symbiotic relationship between our earth’s waterways and bird life. Presentations from the PA Department of Education and the Evidence Resource Center (ERC) were also provided.
Upcoming Board Meetings: April 19, May 17, June 21
