NAREN announced some exciting news at this year’s 10^th Annual Conference: The Upside Down Organization a subsidiary of The Children’s Guild, has assumed the role of operator of the National At-Risk Education Network (NAREN). Dr. Anthony Dallmann-Jones, NAREN’s founder, has retired as acting Director of NAREN.  He will remain in a consultant capacity, so as to be an integral part of our continued growth and commitment to professionals who work with at-risk students. Frank Kros, MSW, JD, Executive Vice President of The Children’s Guild and President of The Upside Down Organization, is NAREN’s new Director. Frank has stated that his goal is to continue to pursue NAREN’s mission of improving the experience of at-risk students by equipping, energizing and empowering the professionals who serve them.

The plan for NAREN going forward involves three critical strategies:

1. Expand the services we provide to NAREN associates;
2. Increase our outreach efforts to the at-risk educators in the United States and abroad and;
3. Facilitate the most innovative and experiential conference available to at-risk educators anywhere in the world!

What’s Next for NAREN?

While the quality of this year’s conference was outstanding, as always, the number of registered attendees was the lowest for a NAREN Conference in recent memory. We were informed by several attendees that the school budget was the largest contributor to this lower attendance and that several more from their schools would have attended if there had been finances to do so.

Still others, however, shared that the conference location is an expensive one to travel to and that “Florida in February” was sometimes viewed as suspect – i.e., more “beach time” than “learning time.” Certainly, the low attendance was heavily felt and increasing the attendance for next year’s conference is a top priority. We must increase attendance to sustain our growth and provide for the new initiatives outlined below. Additionally, a strong focus on building NAREN’s Associate numbers and reaching out to more non-traditional education organizations are important to strengthening and expanding NAREN’s support base.

Toward that end, we are introducing several initiatives outlined below. As we consider each of our supporters a vital part of NAREN’s success, we are excited about the potential for growth with your continued participation in NAREN’s efforts. Feel free to provide us with your feedback, or commit to personally helping NAREN grow and thrive.

2014 NAREN Conference

In the future, we want NAREN to be known as the most “experiential” conference available anywhere. From poverty simulations to at-conference lesson designing to creative problem solving of real issues to walking through a 3-D model of how the brain processes information, our goal is to inspire our attendees to exclaim “WOW!” when they attend a future NAREN Conference. We will have multiple opportunities for student sharing of what being at-risk means to them and how our approach to educating them can evolve. We’ll visit successful schools and observe directly what the professionals do there to achieve success.   We’ll offer the opportunity to participate in a service learning experience during the conference so we can work side-by-side with young people and contribute to a cause they deem worthy. Most important, we’ll keep our conference small and intimate to be able to provide these “Wow!” experiences. While we certainly need to grow beyond the 2013 conference numbers, we will be a conference accepting only a limited number of attendees in 2014 so that we can guarantee everyone an experience that won’t soon be forgotten.

We are in the process of determining the location and dates for next year’s conference. It appears there are two clear options: return to Panama City Beach, Florida or change the location to the headquarters of The Upside Down Organization/The Children’s Guild in Baltimore, Maryland.

The PCB location has been the only site for NAREN’s Conference thus far.  Ten years at the Edgewater Conference Center and Resort offered affordable room rates and “everything-on-one-site-convenience.” The February dates have been consistent for a decade and Florida warmth is an attraction to those seeking to escape northern winters.

Moving the location to Baltimore would allow NAREN to take advantage of The Children’s Guild Conference Center, a location that would have significantly less cost to NAREN. The conference center features a “3-D Brain Path Experience,” multiple examples of enriched educational environments, numerous break-out rooms and brain-based food menus. To take full advantage of the Baltimore-Washington DC area attractions including the Inner Harbor, Camden Yards, the US Capitol and the region’s rich history and culture, the dates for the conference would need to be adjusted so that the conference falls outside the winter months, probably no earlier than April and no later than October.  

2014 Conference Committee

Regardless of the location and dates, it would benefit NAREN greatly to get more people involved in the conference planning and facilitation by creating committees to work on conference planning year-around. Using planning committees, we believe, will result in innovation, increased quality and a greater sense of unity and ownership for the conference. Examples of committees would include: Outreach and Marketing; Conference Program; Social and Cultural Experiences; School Visits and Sponsorship and Exhibitions. Committee work would be done remotely by email, Skype and/or phone and, spread over a 10-12 month period with 3-5 members per committee and, consequently, involve a very manageable amount of time. The focus of the committees would be on making the 2014 NAREN Conference highly innovative in every aspect of operation to attract and retain energized, enthusiastic attendees. In particular, we want to create an exclusive “experience” that emphasizes NAREN’s intimate size and leverages the creativity and imagination of our non-traditional educators.

Outreach

NAREN has visibility in the alternative school field. It is from alternative schools that NAREN draws many of its associates and conference attendees. Clearly, NAREN has room to grow while still maintaining its intimate, grassroots culture. As we know, however, at-risk students are found in many places. Juvenile detention centers, residential facilities and group homes, special education schools public and private, charter schools and in-patient mental health programs are just a few of the types of education programs we can reach-out to and invite to join our efforts at NAREN.

Become an Associate!

We believe strongly that exciting things are ahead for NAREN. That is why The Upside Down Organization and Children’s Guild was so excited about the opportunity to manage NAREN following the retirement of Dr. Anthony Dallmann-Jones. We have a lot to offer and look forward to building a sustainable platform on which to improve and expand the services offered to our associates. In order to build successfully, we need you to become associates and to inform us of the services you most desire in return for that level of support. Won’t you please become a Professional Educator Associate, Supporter or any of our other levels of Associate support? Doing so will help us tremendously in helping you powerfully improve your work.

We look forward to continued growth for NAREN and welcome your support and participation.

1. How well IS your at-risk program doing? Assess your program against nine research-based criteria, and substantiate your greatness!
2. Program not going so well? Use the NAREN Nine to restructure your at-risk program according to research-based quality facets.
3. Want to build a new quality program for at-risk youth? Use the research-based NAREN Nine as a formative tool in developing new programs such that they will be excellent from the beginning.
4. NAREN offers the only process whereby you can certify your at-risk program against research-based criteria no matter what the rest of the school is doing. Authenticate and improve your at-risk program through the certification process, and then show it off to everyone!