As a result, the Audacious Foundation will fund and hold a three-day Director’s Retreat on October 6-8, 2022 in San Luis Obispo. It will begin at 3pm on Thursday afternoon and conclude with lunch on Saturday.

The Retreat will provide 60 SBC-based ECE center directors with plenty of time to network and meet with each other, plus time to get re-inspired through new information about timely topics including:

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• Updated Whole Child Education Strategies - This workshop will feature the latest in outdoor and nature-based programming for programs at every level of current outdoor implementation.
• Addressing Challenging Behaviors - Directors are seeing an influx of new challenging behaviors linked to many impacts of the pandemic on you children. We will discuss them and learn new approaches that support children's full and healthy development.
• Proven Strategies for Teacher Satisfaction & Engagement - This workshop will provide dozens of low-cost and no-cost ways to retain the teachers you have as well as how to gain their engagement and buy-in to your quality standards and program philosophies.
• How to Re-ignite Your Authentic Leadership - Covid has presented many, many challenges to us all. This workshop will provide a process and safe space to reflect on where you are now and who you want to be as a leader, as well as a list of tools to inspire yourself and allow you to inspire your team.
• And Much More!

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This event will emphasize:

• Time for meeting other directors for on-going support after the event,
• Time for self-reflection plus sharing for those who are comfortable doing so,
• Hands-on activities,
• Providing tools and information that can be readily transferred to teachers once the director returns to their program,
• two FUN evening events, plus
• gifts for your center!

This Retreat is unlike a regular conference!  It is being designed by a former ECE program director who was in the field during Covid. This event takes your current, unique needs in mind and includes the recent input of over 20 current SBC ECE directors and stakeholders so you can be sure that this content is exactly right and worthwhile for you.

A key component of the Retreat for center directors is the opportunity to tour model ECE programs that are providing innovative, high quality early education.  On Saturday morning, we will divide our group into three sets of 20 directors and visit three centers for inspiration and fresh ideas. 

Another highly useful tool provided at the Retreat will be the Best Practices Handbook that will contain innovative ideas from participating centers that directors can take back to share and implement with their teams.

The event is being underwritten by the Audacious Foundation including all content, all meals, and a shared suite hotel room (with two sleeping areas) for two nights. All that attendees need to provide is their own transportation to and from the event, and to email in a page of a best practice or practices from their program to share with fellow attendees in the Best Practices Handbook. More information on this will be provided to attendees to make this step simple.

For those who need professional development hours, this event will provide documentation to support your accumulation of development hours.

This in-person event is being designed for your safety even if there is a Covid surge in Fall. In addition to following any required mandates at the time, our meeting rooms have been selected to allow for attendees to be spaced out comfortably during our workshops. The sleeping rooms at our all-suites hotel allow for roommates to sleep in two separate rooms if desired. We are very sensitive to the need for everyone to stay safe during the Retreat and we are committed to doing so.

In the meantime, if you have questions, please reach out to Early Childhood Education Retreat Director Adrianna Foss at Adrianna@audaciousfoundation.org.