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Communities In Schools of the Dallas Region (CISDR) once again had the pleasure of participating in the 44th annual Adolescent Symposium of Texas hosted by Mental Health America of Greater Dallas. Our Senior Clinical Services Coordinator, Maddie Worley,  participated in the planning committee where organizations and practitioners from the Metroplex come together to map out relevant workshops, secure exhibits and bring in various sponsors for the full day event. This year, Maddie was tasked with chairing the brand new registration subcommittee, who worked to create a smooth and enjoyable check-in process for the almost 900 attendees from all over the DFW area. CISDR hopes to continue to be a part of the committee and the event.

The Keynote speaker, Charlie Appelstein, MSW, really started the day off on the right foot, with his engaging presentation about working with youth with emotional and behavioral challenges. The whole crowd loved his perspective and insight and his positivity and energetic spirit really set the tone for the rest of the day. With over 30 different workshops throughout the day, there was something for everyone. This year, it was nice to see some interesting topics such as, “How to incorporate Dungeons and Dragons into your toolkit for working with youth,” and “Creating supportive environments for LGBT youth.” The focus of most of the workshops was for you to leave feeling like you had some great tools to assist in working with your adolescent youth (in whatever setting you find yourself.)

The symposium is not only an event full of learning and growing your toolkit opportunities but is also rich with networking opportunities, as more than 60 vendors are setup for you to meet, mingle and learn about the services and support in the state or surrounding states that can offer resources to the youth and families you serve. Many of the vendors in attendance are already friends to CISDR, but new connections are always made and opportunities to continue supporting our students were discussed. In a community as large as DFW, it is hard to know about every single resource out there and this event does a great job at bringing as many as possible under one roof.

Mental Health America of Greater Dallas once again pulled off an amazing event that CISDR is excited to continue to be a part of!