When registering, you will pick Track 1, Track 2, Track 3, or Track 4. See the schedule below to see what Workshops are in each Track.
P.E.A.C.E. Summit Youth Program
The P.E.A.C.E Summit Youth Program has four tracks available to youth aged 13-17.
You can see the schedule, workshops, and register below.
Programming & Leadership
Workshop 1 Choices
Empowerment
While not a traditional workshop, this hour is designed to utilize both the sharing of life experiences and practical tools to empower participants to start reframing their “survival skills” as thriving skills.
Presented by: Kayann Foster
Healthy Boundaries
Boundaries can help you assert what you’re OK and not OK with. Many have found that setting boundaries improves your mental health and mood. Without limits, it’s hard to be self-aware and independent. During this workshop participants will discuss how trust, honesty, support, and good communication are needed to create healthy boundaries and positive relationships.
Presented By: Juanita Henry
Workshop 2
Understanding Trauma in Our Daily Lives
Trauma not only affects a person immediately but can cause issues days, weeks, months, and even years after the incident. How someone copes with their trauma and its effects can impact their everyday life, even if they don’t notice it themselves. During this presentation, participants will learn how trauma can manifest itself in our daily lives impacting communication and relationships. Participants will be provided with real life examples and scenarios, to help identify ways to move forward. Just because bad things have happened along the way, doesn’t mean we have to stay stuck in what happened. We can choose to think differently. To react differently. To interpret our world differently. To see our futures differently.
Presented By: Juanita Henry
Workshop 3 & 4 Choices
Activ8 Cre8ive Flow: Creation & Connection
This workshop is designed to help unleash your creativity and embrace the power of flow! In this fun and engaging session, we will explore the joys of creative expression and tapping into the present moment through body and mind connection. Participants will have an opportunity to self-reflect and discover their own unique creative expressions and bring this concept into their lives. You’ll be empowered to lean into the things you love in life and take an active role in your ability to be a creator! Let’s go with the flow!
Presented By: Carrie Speiser, MPA
Cool, Calm, Collected
Emotions are an essential part of who you are, but they can be messy, complicated, and downright confusing at times. There are many tools we can use to help regulate our emotions, one being a calm box. A calm box is a great tool that provides the time and the space to calm down from being upset. A calm box has a variety of emotional regulation tools, sensory items, and toys you can use to help regulate your emotions or to calm down from an upset. During this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to build their own calm box.
Presented by: Ebony Lenard, embrella
Journaling
Studies have shown that journaling can have a positive impact on our well-being – releasing stress while strengthening coping skills and building self-awareness, confidence, and resilience. During this workshop, we invite you into the storytelling mindset with the help of guided journaling prompts. We also share strategies for starting or deepening journaling practice. Give yourself dedicated time and space to write, reflect, and reconnect with what really matters to you. No writing experience necessary.
Presented by: Lisa Hartsgrove of Project Write Now
Paint & Create
Art, specifically painting, is a wonderful way to encourage self-expression. Participants will take part in a unique artistic experience that includes 45 minutes of basic painting instruction. All of the materials you will need to create your personal work of art will be provided. Your only job is to show up, relax, and have a great time! Our talented instructor will guide even the most artfully challenged painter to create a masterpiece.
Presented By: Anika Beckford, embrella
When registering, you will pick Track 1, Track 2, Track 3, or Track 4. See the schedule above to see what Workshops are in each Track.
Workshop Leaders
Anika Beckford
PACES Coach
Region 2
(Hunterdon, Middlesex
and Somerset Counties)
As a Bloomfield College and Montclair University graduate, Anika has achieved a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a Master of Social Work with a concentration in Children, Youth, and Families. This has allowed her to develop a perspective regarding the needs of our young people and the ability to facilitate change in their lives. Understanding how to navigate the various systems that impact their lives is helpful as a PACES Coach. Despite any challenges, she believes our young people can achieve their goals with the proper support in place. This is one of the reasons why she enjoys working as a PACES Coach with embrella!
Kayann Foster
Certified Community Health Professional
Kayann is a certified Community Health Worker as well as a certified presenter of the NJ ACEs Curriculum through New Jersey’s Office of Resilience. She has spent the last 6 years working at a large anti-hunger non- profit that serves Passaic County and Northern New Jersey. Utilizing her lived expertise in foster care and as a Domestic Violence survivor, Kayann’s passion is to help people understand and heal from trauma to help advance generational resilience.
Lisa Hartsgrove
Project Write Now
Lisa is a writer, visual artist, and the program coordinator for Project Write Now, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit transforming individuals, organizations, and communities through writing. She has been previously published in the Pitkin Review, the Atlantic Highlands Herald, and Collage, Brookdale’s literary magazine. In 2019, Lisa won first place in the Laury Egan HBAC Poetry Contest, and in 2014, she took third place in the Jersey Bayshore Writing Contest for flash fiction. Lisa encourages her students to be confident and to believe that writing can be fun. When she’s not writing or teaching, Lisa enjoys going to the beach, drawing, painting, and spending time with her cat. Lisa has her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College and her B.A. in English from Montclair State University. You can follow her on Instagram @spillingmyart or read her work on her website, lisahartsgrove.com.
Juanita Henry, LSW
Juanita Henry, LSW is a Compassionate and Service-Driven Professional with 20 years of experience developing and managing community-based programs that cater to the social, emotional and mental health needs of youth and young adults. An accomplished health-care professional, with experience in both clinical operations and program administration. Juanita is dedicated to providing quality-based services in a creative way that engages young adults to actively participate and apply the skills learned in their daily lives. Her motto: “Even one inch forward is progress.
Ebony Lenard
Scholarship Programs Manager
embrella
Ebony Lenard is the Scholarship Programs Manager with embrella. Within this position, she is responsible for the development and management of the New Jersey Foster Care Scholars (NJFC) Program and the promotion of scholarship programs offered through embrella. Ebony also serves as embrella’s Wraparound Administrator to assist with additional financial requests for our students. With more than twelve years of professional experience working with youth in foster care and a strong knowledge of post-secondary education funding, Ebony utilizes her skills to provide an opportunity for adolescents to pursue their education, post-secondary plans, and successfully transition to their next phase of adulthood.
Carrie Speiser, MPA
Youth Empowerment Activist,
Director and Founder, BTrue2U
Carrie Speiser, MPA is the Director and Founder of BTrue2U, a movement to empower teens to be true to who they are, to love themselves and others, and to live healthy and well. She has 20 years of experience in violence prevention and has worked with youth and those who support them by educating them about dating abuse, sexual violence, human trafficking, and child abuse. Carrie received her Master of Public Administration in Non-Profit Management from Seton Hall University and her undergraduate degree from the University of Hartford with a Bachelor of Science in Human Services. She is a passionate advocate for youth and an empowerment enthusiast for mental wellness.
When registering, you will pick Track 1, Track 2, Track 3, or Track 4. See the schedule above to see what Workshops are in each Track.