LA Best Babies Network Takes on the ZERO to THREE LEARN Conference
With six poster showcases and a lecture session, LA Best Babies Network was all over the annual ZERO to THREE LEARN conference this year. The national event, held July 31 – August 1 at the Long Beach Convention Center, featured a variety of presentations focused on early childhood topics.
It kicked off with “Creating Space for Healing—Lessons From the Friendship Bench,” a plenary featuring psychiatrist Dixon Chibanda, who founded Friendship Bench, a program that has trained an army of grandmothers to provide mental health support in their communities.
Following the plenary, the LABBN team fanned out to attend workshops on topics such as fatherhood, community engagement, social media, supporting caregivers, and more. On both days of the conference, they made themselves available to answer questions about their poster presentations:
See LABBN’s poster presentations here:
- The Circle of Learning
Presenters: Patrick Flippin-Weston, Sharlene Gozalians, and Terrie-May Ruiz - Advancing Equity in Home-Visiting: Implementation and Recommendations of the Best Practices Hiring and Retention Guide for Increasing African American Staff
Presenters: Anna Ghukasyan, Laurel Murray, and Lynnette Marquez - Empowering Leaders: The Role of Technical Assistance in Family Support Program Success
Presenters: Kathryn Ewing, Jennifer Jimenez, and Faith Soltero - Data Visualization as a Tool to Identify Racial Inequities, Drive CQI, and Bolster Stakeholder Collaboration
Presenters: Delisa Young and Monica Charles - Improving Support Services by Sharing Results from a Multidisciplinary Collaborated Client Satisfaction Survey
Presenter: Helen Chan - The Important Role of Data/IT Professionals in Collaborating With Multiple Stakeholders to Inform Better Outcomes for Families
Presenters: Osvaldo Lopez and Jonathan Jimenez
On day two, the team attended the opening plenary, “Why Is Raising a Baby in the United States So Hard? And What We Can Do.” This featured Jackie Thu-Huong Wong, Executive Director of First 5 California, and Elizabeth Zamudio, Vice President of Education at Unidos US. The speakers looked at the state of babies and families in California and across the country, including a discussion of home visiting, child care, and other social support services.
The LABBN group attended sessions on the second day that focused on topics such as: working with undocumented families, early childhood mental health, and health equity. After lunch, the LABBN Communications team (Steve Nish, Amie Aguiar, and Helen Kontorousis) held a lecture session on “The L.A. County eDirectory: Connecting Families With Early Childhood Home Visiting.” The presentation included an overview of home visiting services in L.A. County and a demo of the eDirectory tool.
LABBN also enjoyed skill-building activities involving a ping pong table and air hockey in the cafeteria. The group saw many familiar faces at the conference and made new connections with others who support young children and their families, locally and around the world.
