Registration Now Open for Mental Health and Legal Practice: A Holistic View - The Legal Services Statewide Conference

Legal Services State Support is excited to announce that registration opens today for the 2022 Legal Services Statewide Conference — Mental Health and Legal Practice: A Holistic View. The conference will be held from Wednesday, November 2nd to Friday, November 4th, 2022, at Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center in Alexandria, MN. Conference plenaries will bring the community together to learn about mental health disparities in underserved communities, as well as the mental health challenges and opportunities we face as legal providers. Participants will also choose from breakout sessions that address skills-building and renewal to aid our personal and professional capacities as we work in a new legal landscape - informed and transformed by the pandemic. Attendees can earn up to 11 hours of Minnesota CLE credit, including up to 5 hours of elimination of bias and 1 hour of ethics credit.

The conference officially kicks-off on Wednesday evening, November 2, with special guest Dr. Remi Douah, founder and executive director of 846s.org, a non-profit supporting BIPOC youth-led initiatives for violence prevention, safety, mental health, and wellness. Dr. Douah will talk about his extensive work helping marginalized communities in South Minneapolis and how we can implement mental health care principles into our interactions with our clients.

Sharon Browning, Esq., attorney, educator, mediator and motivator, will deliver Thursday morning's keynote address, in which she will discuss the transformational power of non-egoic communication and the role of integrative listening in the work setting. She will describe non-egoic listening techniques and how they can be applied in legal settings to improve staff cohesion, morale, productivity, and wellness, as well as enhanced relationships and increased efficacy for clients. Browning will also present two one-hour break-out sessions designed to develop advanced communication skills for conference attendees who wish to delve deeper.

Other highlights of this year's conference include sessions from special guests Kimberly Merchant and Maha Syed of the Shriver Center Racial Justice Institute and Kay King of the National Alliance on Mental Illness - Minnesota.

Important Covid-19 Policy Information
State Support takes the health and safety of our legal services community seriously. As part of the registration process, every attendee is required to comply with in-person conference guidelines. These guidelines are detailed on our conference page (click the “Register” tab at the top of the page) and include proof of vaccination prior to the conference, as well as a negative Covid-19 test 72 hours or less before the start of the conference.

To register for the conference and find out more about breakout sessions, speakers, and social activities, visit our conference page and click on the Register tab. Then, just select your participant type. Our last in-person conference was in 2019, so we expect it to be well-attended. Register early as space is limited! See you at Arrowwood!

Dr. Remi Douah Kicks Off 2022 Statewide Conference

Join State Support and your colleagues in Alexandria, MN on Wednesday evening, November 2, 2022, at 7:00 p.m. as we kick-off the 2022 Legal Services Statewide Conference. Our featured speaker for the first night of the conference is Dr. Remi Douah, founder and executive director of 846s.org.

Dr. Douah is a Fulbright Scholar who hails from the Ivory Coast, West Africa, and a public health professional with experience in health systems strengthening, human-centered design, community health, disease surveillance, and research evaluation and monitoring. He has partnered with stakeholders in academic institutions, ministries of health, non-governmental organizations, and business and healthcare industries in Africa and the Caribbean to present and provide innovative and integrated public health solutions to address chronic and infectious diseases. Dr. Douah is currently an affiliate of the Minnesota Center for Design at the College of Design, University of Minnesota.

In recent years, and since the murder of George Floyd on May 25th, 2020, Dr. Douah has shifted his focus to address BIPOC mental health issues triggered by intergenerational racial trauma. Consequently, Dr. Douah established 846s.org in 2020 to focus on BIPOC youth-led initiatives for violence prevention, safety, mental health, and wellness. He utilizes his public health and human-centered design experiences to address mental health within the framework of social determinants of health, and co-creates a safe and nurturing environment to help BIPOC youth break down the stigma associated with accessing mental health therapy.

In his kick-off plenary, Prioritizing Mental Health in Underserved Communities, Dr. Douah will discuss how black, marginalized, and underserved communities experience historical barriers that prevent them from accessing mental health care. Dr. Douah will talk about his work helping these communities overcome barriers to care and to finding culturally competent therapists and mental health referral services. He will describe what he has found most important in his extensive work with marginalized communities in South Minneapolis, and will help us understand how we can implement mental health care principles into our interactions with our clients.

Stay-tuned for more information about this year’s conference, Mental Health and Legal Practice: A Holistic View, at Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center, November 2 - 4, 2022. Registration will open in mid-September.

NAMI to Present Conference Plenary on Mental Health in the Workplace

This fall’s Legal Services Statewide Conference will offer attendees a focus on mental health and legal practice as they gather with colleagues to reconnect, learn, and earn CLE credit. On Friday morning, November 4th, conference participants can attend two sessions presented by Kay King, community educator with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI Minnesota).

NAMI Minnesota is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of children and adults with mental illnesses and their families. For over 40 years, NAMI Minnesota has worked to promote the development of community mental health programs and services, change public attitudes about mental illnesses, improve access to services and increase opportunities for recovery.

In King’s plenary for the legal services community, attendees will learn the five things they can do to create a workplace that values good mental health. Participants will learn how to promote good mental health (including dealing with stress), the common symptoms of a mental illness, how attitudes and language impact people with mental illnesses, and accommodations for a mental illness. King will also present a breakout session on mental health “first aid” prior to the plenary.

Stay-tuned for more information about this year’s conference, Mental Health and Legal Practice: A Holistic View, at Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center, November 2 - 4, 2022. Registration will open in early September.

Sharon Browning, Esq. to Present Plenary at Statewide Conference

Legal Services State Support is pleased to announce that Sharon Browning, Esq. of JUST Listening will address attendees in a morning plenary at this year’s Statewide Conference. Browning is an attorney, former executive director of Philadelphia VIP, the hub of pro bono legal services in Philadelphia, and an educator in the sociology department at Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia. She is a trained mediator, as well as a retreat facilitator, trained spiritual guide, and motivator. Browning coordinates JUST Listening, a social enterprise fostering personal and social change and transformation through the practice and teaching of mindful listening and communication skills. The work of JUST Listening is twofold: the facilitation of training workshops, retreats, and ‘difficult’ conversations, focusing primarily on those working with marginalized individuals and groups, and the training for and supervision of Listening projects in which volunteers JUST Listen to people on the social margins.

In her plenary for the legal services community, Browning will discuss the transformational power of non-egoic communication and the role of integrative listening in the work setting. She will describe non-
egoic listening techniques and how they can be applied in legal settings to improve staff cohesion, morale, productivity, and wellness, as well as enhanced relationships and increased efficacy for clients.

Browning will also present two one-hour break-out sessions designed to develop advanced communication skills for conference attendees who wish to delve deeper. Listen to Browning’s recent podcast “Listening: An Act of Love.”

JUST Listening clients include the American Bar Association, State Bar of Wisconsin, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network, Legal Aid of Northwest Texas, the American Association of Physician Liaisons, National Nursing Centers Consortium, City of Philadelphia Department of Public Health and many more.

Stay-tuned for more information about this year’s conference, Mental Health and Legal Practice: A Holistic View, at Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center, November 2 - 4, 2022. Registration will open in early September.