By the Coconino Coalition for Children & Youth
COCONINO COUNTY — While the Coconino Coalition for Children & Youth’s virtual “System Change Symposium” presentation on Oct. 22, 23 benefitted the more than 200 attendees in Northern Arizona and statewide, one attendee has been using lessons learned from the Symposium, and about CCC&Y’s free webinars in general, to share with a coalition of service provider agencies and others in Alaska.
“I was so excited.” to learn about the Symposium on Facebook,” said Rikki McKay, community coordinator, for the Alaska Department of Health | Division of Public Health, Healthy & Equitable Communities. “It’s so relevant to the work I’m doing.”
Rikki McKay, Community Coordinator Alaska Department of Health | Division of Public Health Healthy & Equitable Communities, enjoys some hike time in Alaska, above and some quality fishing time with her Mastador pet campanion.
McKay said she has shared the information she learned at the Symposium with fellow students in her “Introduction to Social Work” class as well as with the 15 or so members of a coalition of service providers in Alaska. “A lot of people” are learning about the Symposium and the Coalition,” she said. “It has gained appreciation far and wide.”
McKay said she was impressed with the variety of information provided at the Symposium.
Courtesy photos.
“It’s hard to choose one thing, but the presentation by Kevin Campbell was very informative,” she said.
Campbell, an American Child Protection, Health Care Innovator and co-founder of Pale Blue, developed Family FindingTM and Family SeeingTM, a set of strategies now used throughout North America, Australia, and Western Europe to convene, catalyze, and facilitate families, communities, and governments in their work to respond to the problems that most affect our lives and futures.
McKay was also impressed with the presentation by David Martinez III, director of Strategic Community Partnership, with Vitalyst Health Foundation, who talked about “What is Systems Change and Why They Fund It.”
The Coalition was one of four organizations in 2023 to receive a Spark Grant from Vitalyst Health Foundation. The grant allowed the Coalition to engage community members about the root causes of health concerns, and explore the Self-Healing Communities Model.
“The Spark Report on System Change is so relevant with the work of our community (resiliency) coalition,” she said.
McKay agreed barriers should come down between those who are service providers and those are seeking to collaborate to identify the root causes of problems impacting families.
“There should be no demonizing,” she said of David’s discussion on ‘Don’t Demonize the Top Row or Programmatic Work.’
“We are all working on the same goals,” she said.
Other attendees agreed the Symposium provided useful information for their organizations and clients, including the presentation by Iya Affo, founder of Heal Historical Trauma, provided examples of policy, systems and inequity.
“Excellent presentation. Her insight was spoken with great respect, understanding and realistic expectations in context with the past and present and future. Historical examples were provided that gave profound and meaningful significance. Thank you.”
Andrea Meronuck of Northland Family Health Center and Pearl Santillan of First Things First, presented “Showing Up for Change”.
“Both Andrea and Pearl presented the wisdom of attending to the vulnerabilities of our work. Each presenter provided realistic and compelling examples to support and engage in active discussions towards a more inclusive approach to work in the field.”
Dr. Sandra Solano, founder of Integro, talked about HeartMath, trauma and use for systems change work.
“Very informative and beneficial in regard to our overall understanding of our health.”
“I want to learn even more about what she was teaching.”
Overall, attendees gave the Symposium high marks.
“Extremely valuable. The complexity of of all the moving parts in effective services provision (including workers’ self care) was well presented. The general tone of the training was one of hope. Well done!
For more details on Symposium and the Coalition’s free webinars, please see: