Strengthening

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

The Foundation has always been an advocate of professional development. We are pleased to be able to offer a variety of ongoing opportunities for learning and professional growth, focused on subjects related to promoting healthy living. 

We invite you to take advantage of these programs to help you make an even greater impact in your career and your contributions to our community.

Resilience

Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Kenneth Ginsburg, M.D., M.S. Ed

Dr. Ginsburg is a pediatrician specializing in Adolescent Medicine at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He also serves as Director of Health Services at Covenant House Pennsylvania, an agency that serves Philadelphia’s homeless and marginalized youth.

Dr. Ginsburg lectures widely to national and international parent and professional audiences. His most recent books include, "Building Resilience in Children and Teens: Giving Kids Roots and Wings," published by The American Academy of Pediatrics and “Letting Go with Love and Confidence: Raising Responsible, Resilient, Self Sufficient Teens.” In addition, he is the editor of the American Academy of Pediatrics Textbook and Video Production "Reaching Teens: Strength-Based Communication Strategies to Build Resilience and Support Healthy Adolescent Development." He also has over 100 other publications, including 29 scientific articles.

He is currently working closely with The Boys and Girls Club of America, which serves over 5 million youth, to incorporate resilience building strategies into their programming.  He is also working with The National Congress of American Indians and Boys and Girls Cubs in Indian Country to adapt the resilience model into a culturally appropriate strategy to serve Native American Youth.  He has also been honored to work on behalf of those who serve America, preparing military parents, health professionals, counselors, and teachers to incorporate stress reduction and resilience building strategies as they care for the nation’s nearly 2 million military affiliated children.  His greatest honor is to be the parent of two teenaged daughters.

For more information on Dr. Ginsburg, visit his website. 

Join educators and community members who meet to discuss resilience

Since November 2011, the Foundation has convened resilience working groups in order to educate and learn roles, language and worthwhile initiatives regarding resilience. Two distinct groups of educators and community members have now merged into one group and meet to discuss and learn from each other several times a year. 

Learn more about experts leading the Foundation's resilience group and how to get involved.

An expert in the field of social/emotional learning, Thom Stecher works with many schools and organizations nationally to help embed social/emotional learning (SEL) into daily school life for students. Mr. Stecher has responded to educator requests to create social/emotional toolkits by grade level in order for school staff to have the capability to embed that type of learning into the school day without additional curricula. The first SEL toolkit for grades K-5 was completed in Fall 2014. The second SEL toolkit for grades 6-8 was completed at the end of 2015 and presented to the educator and community resilience group in Winter 2015. The SEL toolkit 9-12 was completed in Spring 2016.

Active Learning & School Health

Participate in meetings with area faculty, staff and administration

Plan to attend and learn from school wellness leaders through a peer share meeting. Stay tuned for upcoming event details!

Promote mutual support of wellness ideas

Superintendents meetings mirror School Collaborative meetings and aim to promote mutual support of wellness ideas, from the top down and bottom up. All superintendents are invited to attend, participate and take advantage of the same valuable information provided to their staff.

Stay tuned for upcoming meetings.

To learn more, please contact hbrown@pottstownfoundation.org.

Join the discussion and collaborate with like-minded educators

 August 14, 2019

The Healthy Bodies Healthy Minds Institute nurtures interdisciplinary teams of educators and administrators in the adoption of physical activity as a learning tool. With a focus on planning and implementation, leading neuro-scientists, educators and psychologists will present evidence-based research and practical knowledge for participants to creatively incorporate movement in their teaching practice.

Breakout sessions will address specific physical activity components, techniques for integrating movement into the classroom, nutrition topics, community partnerships for schools, staff wellness and best practice models from around the nation.

For more information, contact Howard Brown at hbrown@pottstownfoundation.org

Non-Profit Organizational Capacity

Find professional development workshops

The TriCounty Community Network (TCN) strives to educate its members and the community on a number of topics. Part of the organization's mission is to build its partners' skills and abilities to sustain and improve their efforts in serving the community. 

To find upcoming professional development workshops hosted by TCN please visit: https://tcnetwork.org/events/

Develop stronger skills for stronger non-profits

Click here to view the 2016-17 Excellence in Nonprofit Leadership Series- exclusively for Greater Pottstown Area nonprofit board members, executive directors, emerging leaders and other staff.

Brought to you by the Foundation and The Nonprofit Center at La Salle University's School of Business. 

Access a variety of materials on non-profit topics

The Pottstown Regional Public Library is a  Funding Information Network partner of the Foundation Center.  This partnership provides free local, public access to the Foundation Directory Online ProfessionalFoundation Grants to Individuals Online, and Philanthropy In/Sight.  A collection of print materials is available on topics such as grant-seeking basics, proposal writing, how to approach a foundation, and non-profit fundraising. 

For more information, please visit http://ppl.mclinc.org/nonprofit.html.