On November 3rd, UNC Greensboro will host the 6th Annual North Carolina Infant/Young Child Mental Health Association (NCIMHA) Conference and Annual Meeting. This year’s conference is titled “Promises to Keep: Caring for Every Child’s Mental Health.”
The conference will review North Carolina’s progress towards the goals of ensuring nurturing relationships, positive experiences, and supportive environments for all children.
The event brings together early childhood professionals from a wide range of roles and settings, including psychologists, teachers, administrators, social workers, child protective services staff, child care workers, counselors, physicians, nurses, and academic researchers.
In the keynote session Dr. Rosemarie Allen, a national expert on implicit bias and culturally responsive practices, will speak on the disparate number of children of color expelled and suspended from early childhood programs and discuss methods to promote equity and access.
UNCG presenters will include Dr. Chris Payne, research professor and current president of NCIMHA, and Dr. Jessica Dollar and Dr. Harriette Bailey of the Human Development and Family Studies Department. Other distinguished presenters hail from the NC Department of Health and Human Services, national child health advocacy organizations, nonprofits, and beyond.
The conference is sponsored by NCIMHA in conjunction with UNCG and the Wake Area Health Education Center.
Two special sessions at the NCIMHA conference are also sponsored by Bringing Out the Best, a partnership between UNCG, the Guilford County Partnership for Children, and the Cemala Foundation that works to support the social and emotional development of young children in Guilford County.
Thanks to Bringing Out the Best, the two afternoon events — a special session by the keynote speaker and the screening and discussion of a film on adverse childhood experiences — will be available to Guilford County early care and education center directors and North Carolina pre-k teachers through a separate registration process, at no cost.
To learn more or register for the NCIMHA conference, go to https://www.ncimha.org/annual-conference/.
To learn more or register for the Bringing Out the Best section of the conference, contact Joy Scott at j_scott@uncg.edu.
Article author Hope Voorhees is a Media and Communication Intern with UNCG’s Office of Research and Engagement. She is a junior at UNCG, majoring in Psychology and Sociology with a concentration in Criminology.
