2022 CAAP Conference: Ready for a New Tomorrow
Community Action Association of Pennsylvania’s 2022 conference, Ready for a New Tomorrow, lasted from October 18-20, 2022. This conference allowed the network to gather in person with CAAP for the first time since 2019. We shared a lot of laughs and smiles and made many new connections. Seeing so many come together for the betterment of their community and those they serve was a beautiful thing.
Pre-conference day started with executive leadership meetings where financials and bylaws were Pre-conference day started with executive leadership meetings where financials and bylaws were reviewed, new board members were voted in, and Geoff Nicholson gave a presentation on value-based care from WellSpan Health. Simultaneously, a poverty simulation train-the-trainer session was happening, led by Rhiannon Noecker from Community Action Partnership of Lancaster and Eileen Abillar from Bucks County Opportunity Council. This training will allow our Community Action Agencies to conduct poverty simulations within their communities.
On the first official day, once everyone was checked in, registered, and given fantastic swag bags, we officially kicked our conference off with an opening from our CEO, Beck Moore. Beck welcomed everyone, got everyone excited about being together in person, and discussed what CAAP has been doing since he became the CEO in December. Our keynote speakers were David Saunders and Aubrey Juris from the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Office of Health Equity to discuss the Social Determinants of Health and how they impact community-level work. This keynote identified the following nine Social Determinants of Health; socioeconomic status, education, racism and discrimination, food security and nutrition, housing, built environment, access to health care, environment hazards, and safety. Small groups discussed and then shared with the room which of these Social Determinants of Health Community Action agencies should focus on and how they should collaborate with other organizations to address them.
The breakout sessions for day one lasted one hour. They featured a wide array of topics for attendees to choose from, such as language justice, Community Action and workforce services, inclusive leadership, collective impact in food distribution, strategic planning, from conflict to collaboration, language access policies, fundraising pre and post-pandemic, salary assessment, and more. We ended the evening with an optional outing at SpringGate Vineyard. We gathered by a warm fire on an enclosed porch and enjoyed casual time getting to know one another, enjoying some food truck dinner and a drink on the house, and cheering on the Phillies. It was the perfect way to end a fantastic day.
We started the final day off with some relaxation with Denina Bautti, a mindfulness teacher, trainer, and facilitator. Denina defined mindfulness as “awareness without judgment- not trying to stop thoughts, feelings, emotions, but being a witness to hold space for whatever arrives in the present moment.” Additionally, she talked about the brain and how it physically responds to stress. Some mindfulness exercises remind us of all that we carry in our bodies as we experience stress and that your brain can be re-trained and physically trained through mindfulness techniques. After this, we moved on to the final breakout sessions. These topics included re-imagining service delivery, housing location for mental health individuals and children, a work premise of 100% pay/90% hours/100% output, messaging, storytelling, collaboration in a multi-generational work environment, and managed care connections with Community Action agencies. Our conference ended with closing remarks by Inez Titus from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services Office of Income Maintenance.
Overall, CAAP is thrilled with how the conference went! We had almost two hundred in attendance and have received overwhelmingly positive feedback. We were able to collect amazing, donated raffle baskets from all over the state and give them away to some very excited attendees. Also, this conference allowed us to show everyone what we do. More importantly, it allowed us to lift the vital work within our Community Action Agencies across the commonwealth. It was inspiring, energizing, and new connections were created that made us more than ready for a new tomorrow. We want to thank everyone who presented and attended, and we hope you will join us next year in October 2023 at the Eden Resort in Lancaster, PA.
One last HUGE thank you to our photographer, Brian Nguyen from CAPLanc! Check out all the fantastic moments captured here. To download use DOWNLOAD PIN: 7417