Free event hosted by Neighbourhood Trust - August 28th

We at the Neighbourhood Trust are hosting a free event which is centred around parenting and the challenges that it can bring.

Below are the speakers involved and we wondered if you might consider advertising it through your school network.

Keynote Speaker

Pio Terei (from ‘Parenting Place’) – Building Awesome Whanau (Parenting Place)

Back by popular demand – well-loved entertainer Pio Terei shares his heart, stories and practical parenting knowledge. As co-creator of the widely popular Building Awesome Whanau, Pio focusses on positive solutions and shares vital messages about happy, healthy family life in a way that really clicks with the audience.

Morning Workshops

Blended Families Part 1 (Adele & Mike Cornish)

The perfect workshop for couples in a stepfamily and those preparing to blend. Mike and Adele Cornish (Author, Speaker and Relationship Coach) bring a wealth of experience to the topic of combining families and share strategies that will assist you to build healthy step-relationships, help children adjust, and avoid common pitfalls along the way. Discover essential keys to your stepfamily’s success. Be equipped, refreshed and inspired towards success! Note, Part 2 follows on from Part 1 and will include a question and answer time.

Understanding Aggression in Children (Sandy Hitchens)

Sometimes it can feel like extreme aggression in children can erupt from nowhere - the smallest thing can lead to an outburst that often leaves adults feeling helpless in the midst of it all. Based on Dr Gordon Neufeld’s relational, developmental approach, this workshop will explore the sources of this aggression, what is happening underneath the behaviour and how we can work with it. It is about helping you, as the parent, to regain your posture as parent – and to hopefully show you how you are truly the best answer for your child and their development.

Sandy Hitchens is a counsellor working in Christchurch primary schools and in private practice. Her work is pre-dominantly with children, teens and/or their parents. She is also a Neufeld Institute Course Facilitator.

Youth Mental Health & Wellbeing (Hailey Smith from ‘I am Hope’)

‘I AM HOPE’ Youth Ambassador, Hailey Smith will be speaking about mental health and what you can do to support your loved ones. She will be sharing her own journey through various mental health struggles to provide an understanding about the biggest problem in mental health today; an overactive inner critic. From her own experience, she will also be giving insight into what her parents did that helped and what didn’t help, to hopefully provide some tips and tricks to take home with you to help your friends and whanau.

Parenting through Grief (Adrienne Wood from ‘Heart Sync’)

Everyday parenting is tough enough, but how to cope when we add in grief? Whether it be the loss of a loved one or the loss of something or someone significant to us, we often wonder as parents, how will I cope? Adrienne lost her own father as a child and has done much reflecting since on what to do with big emotions. This talk will cover both how to manage your own big emotions as a parent, and how to help your child with theirs. Adrienne is a parent consultant with a particular interest in children with complex and challenging behaviours. She is a Faculty member with the Neufeld Institute and runs her own business: www.heartsync.co.nz

Afternoon Workshops

Blended Families Part 2 (Adele & Mike Cornish)

(Follows on from the morning’s “Blended Families Part 1” workshop)

The perfect workshop for couples in a stepfamily and those preparing to blend. Mike and Adele Cornish (Author, Speaker and Relationship Coach) bring a wealth of experience to the topic of combining families and share strategies that will assist you to build healthy step-relationships, help children adjust and avoid common pitfalls along the way. Discover essential keys to your stepfamily’s success. Be equipped, refreshed and inspired towards success!

Wrestling with an Octopus – Supporting Children with Dyslexia and Other Learning Difficulties (Beth Beamish)

Beth was in her forties when she recognised dyslexia was behind many of her embarrassing bloopers. Drawing upon her design and creative writing background, Beth uses humour, illustrations, and personal stories to show how dyslexia affects much more than spelling, reading, and writing. Her ten tips are backed by research and over a decade of experience helping her son overcome his learning challenges. She is an award-winning author of short stories and teaches creative writing.

Connecting and Communicating (Judith Keir from ‘Neighbourhood Trust’)

Judith will draw on her 30+ years as a parent, teacher and counsellor, to share ideas on how to create a family charter. Whether you are a family of 2 or 12, it’s helpful to think about the values and feelings you want to honour in your whanau. This fun and practical session will guide you through the process of producing a meaningful record of how your family would like to be with one another. Highly collaborative and where everyone gets heard, this is the perfect opportunity to connect and communicate.

Parenting in a Digital Age (Christian Gallen from ‘Attitude’)

What are young people even doing on their devices? How can I help keep them safe online? How can I help to support them in a world I don’t fully understand? This workshop will helpanswer these questions and more. This presentation will empower parents to understand what’s going on for their young person and how they can help them navigate the adolescent years in a rapidly changing world. Presented by Christian Gallen from ‘Attitude’ who has spoken to over 100,000 teenagers about making good choices online and offline. If you are concerned with the impact of technology, social media, gaming and their safety online then this presentation will give you the tools and insights you need to confidently raise happy and resilient children.

Additional Information

During the day we will also have people and resources from a number of community organisations that support parents and families so that you can find out what is available that might support your whanau.