We hope you will join us from Monday, August 29th, through Wednesday, August 31st in person at the San Marcos Conference Center or virtually! The Texas Education for Homeless Children and Youth (TEHCY) Program Summit equips education professionals with cutting-edge tools and resources to make a difference in the lives of students experiencing homelessness. This year’s theme, Creating Connections, Building Bridges, will inspire attendees to strengthen school and community partnerships in order to provide the necessary reinforcements for systems that uphold student success.

Join us for specialized training on the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and the opportunity to earn approximately 11 CEUs, develop new skills, network, and engage with other education professionals from across Texas!

Last year’s summit welcomed over 1,000 education professionals from over 400 school districts across Texas, empowering new connections across the state. Read about last year’s summit on our blog post, Exploring the Road to Impact During TEHCY 2021.

TEA and Texas Network of Youth Services (TNOYS) believe we can best support students experiencing homelessness by elevating their voices and experiences. Guided by this principle, the TEHCY Program Summit engages youth and young adults as speakers, consultants, and facilitators throughout the summit. Attendees will have the unique opportunity to learn directly from youth and young adults with lived experience, putting the power of youth-adult partnerships into action.

We are pleased that this year’s conference is in partnership with TNOYS’ Young Adult Leadership Council (YALC). The YALC is a paid leadership development program for youth and young adults ages 16 to 25 with lived experiences in homelessness and other areas such as foster care and juvenile justice system involvement. Learn more about the YALC and TNOYS’ approach to youth engagement on the Youth Engagement page.

Register Here

TOPICS & CEUs

The summit will feature professional development tracks that are geared toward TEHCY subgrantees, school districts, charter schools, Educational Service Center (ESC) staff, and stakeholders.

Training Topics Include:

• McKinney-Vento fundamentals
• Connecting students to community services
• Advancing equity for special student populations
• Promoting academic success
• Trauma and resilience
• Collaborating with partners, state agencies, and other programs
• Case management
• Leadership training
• Best practices for program implementation
• American Rescue Plan implementation
• And more!

TNOYS provides continuing education credit hours for professionals. Summit attendees are eligible to earn up to 11 CEU hours throughout the 3-day event. TNOYS is an approved CEU provider for Licensed Social Workers (LSW), Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC), Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT), and Continuing Professional Education Providers (CPE). This summit is also approved for CEUs for the following substance abuse professional licenses: LCDCs, Associate Prevention Specialists (APS), Certified Prevention Specialists (CPS), and Peer Mentor/Peer Recovery Designation (PM/PRC) through our partnership with ConnectionsIndividual and Family Services.

SPEAKERS & AGENDA

We are excited to announce a dynamic lineup of speakers at this year’s event.

Gabe Salazar, Motivational Youth Speaker

Motivational Youth Speaker Gabe Salazar overcame poverty, gang influence, and homelessness to become a successful entrepreneur. He’s a highly, sought-after keynote speaker who has been inspiring teens, families, teachers and school administrators with a message of hope and dreaming big for more than 15 years.

After being mentored by his high school principal in South Texas, Gabe was rescued from gang influence and became the first in his family to go to college. He graduated from Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, TX with a Bachelor of Science. He began his career as an inclusion specialist for special education and behavioral students at an intermediate school in San Antonio, TX. He soon discovered his unique talent to speak to teens and families after performing a motivational assembly at his school. Today, he’s a professional speaker who travels all over the world to schools, teen conferences, churches and camps.

Gabe has spoken to millions of teens throughout his career including national tours for Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Taco Bell Foundation for Teens, U.S. Air Force Family Services, and Ford Salute to Education. Popular Hispanics Magazine recognizes him as America’s #1 Latino Youth Speaker.

Gabe lives in Dallas, TX with his wife, Nancy and four children.

Renée Wilson-Simmons, Accomplished Leader in Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences

Renée Wilson-Simmons, DrPH, is the founder of Healing Trauma, Reclaiming Joy, a firm that helps clients understand the life-long impact of childhood adversity and trauma on the health, safety, and well-being of children, their families, and their communities. Renée is a sought-after and engaging speaker on such issues as resilience and healing, ambiguous loss, and supporting youth through trauma-informed care.

Renée is the former executive director of the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) Awareness Foundation in Memphis, Tennessee, an organization that supports and develops innovative strategies to prevent trauma and toxic stress, decreases mental health stigmas, and promotes systems-change to advance prevention efforts and racial justice. She also implemented Parenting in the Pandemic: Tools for Surviving and Thriving, a series of interactive online sessions that promoted good mental health and family bonding that garnered 5,000+ views.

Previously, Renée served for six years as director of the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), a nonpartisan public policy research center at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She has also led initiatives to improve child and adolescent outcomes at Evidence2Success and with Plain Talk/ Hablando Claro, an initiative that works to increase access to age-appropriate reproductive health services and resources.

Renée earned a doctorate in public health, with a concentration in maternal and child health, from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Agenda

In addition to the keynote speakers, this year’s agenda features over 40 engaging sessions and opportunities to network. Take a look at the schedule-at-a-glance below, and stay tuned for the complete program preview coming soon.

Monday, August 29th: Summit Day 1

• 8:00 am – 8:30 am: ESC Pre-summit Meeting Check-in (Available only for ESC Pre-summit Meeting Registrants)
• 8:30 am – 11:30 am: ESC McKinney-Vento Pre-summit Meeting (Closed Meeting for ESC Staff)
• 11:30 am – 1:00 pm: Lunch on Your Own
• 10:00 am – 1:00 pm: Check-in and Registration Open
• 1:00 pm – 2:15 pm: Welcome + Keynote: Gabe Salazar
• 2:30 pm – 3:45 pm: Breakout Sessions
• 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm: Breakout Sessions
• 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm: In-Person Networking Reception (Optional, Open to All)

Tuesday, August 30th: Summit Day 2

• 8:00 am – 9:00 am: Check-in and Registration Open
• 9:00 am – 10:15 am: Welcome + Keynote: Renée Wilson-Simmons
• 10:30 am – 11:45 am: Breakout Sessions
• 11:45 am – 1:15 pm: Lunch on Your Own
• 1:15 pm – 2:45 pm: Breakout Sessions
• 3:00 pm – 3:45 pm: Keynote Panel Discussion: Creating Connections between Students and School Staff to Build the Bridge to Success
• 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm: Breakout Sessions
• 5:15 pm – 6:00 pm: Virtual Networking Event (Optional, Open to All Virtual Attendees)
• 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm: Regional ESC Networking Events (By Invitation Only)

Wednesday, August 31st: Summit Day 3

• 8:30 am – 9:00 am: Check-in and Registration Open
• 9:00 am – 10:30 am: Breakout Sessions
• 10:45 am – 11:30 am: TEHCY Closing Remarks and Door Prizes

Click the link below to view a preview of the summit program:

EXPERIENCE

After two years of hosting the TEHCY Program Summit virtually, we are thrilled to announce a hybrid experience for this year’s event! Participants have the option to join in-person, or log on to our virtual platform to watch the full conference from anywhere.

As planning gets underway, the health and safety of all attendees is our top priority. The TEHCY Program Summit team is adopting preventative measures to protect against COVID-19, and we will follow all applicable health and safety recommendations throughout the event. Additional details and guidance will be shared on our website and with registrants as the conference date gets closer.

All attendees will have access to the complete range of recorded sessions and workshops, and the hybrid format will allow for representations across every Texas region.

American Sign Language interpreters will be available for the summit. Please contact us at summit@tehcy.email to request interpretation services.

HOTEL

The TEHCY Program Summit takes place at the San Marcos Conference Center, which is within the Embassy Suites at 1001 E McCarty Lane, San Marcos, Texas. Summit attendees may book reservations through the TEHCY Program Summit reserved room block. You may also book reservations by calling 1-800-445-8667.

A discounted room rate of $96 + tax per night is available Sunday, August 28 – Wednesday, August 31 for summit attendees. Registrants are responsible for making their own hotel reservations through the reserved room block, which is available until Monday, August 22nd, or until the room block is full.