By: Nichole Giovanni, Early Childhood Administrator
The Prevention Initiative team was honored in San Diego at the Parents as Teachers International Conference, October 2024. The honor was due to the work accomplished by the team in October 2023 when they received the Blue Ribbon for completing the 23 essential requirements at 100% and 93 of the 100 quality standards at the Blue Ribbon Reception.
The team also gave an “amazing” presentation to a crowd of over 150. The presentation “Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Teams” provided the team an opportunity to approach this presentation as they do whenever they pull together to host families at group connections. Saturating the room with team members (in matching team T-shirts) so that attendees felt welcomed and appreciated for being there. Some team members greeted attendees at the door with bookmark giveaways that illustrated Tuckman's Stages of Team Development. Other team members greeted attendees and helped them find seats for the presentation.
There was a panel of three team members and some team members sat in the front row and provided helpful insight and reflections throughout the presentation. Several attendees shared their positive feedback and appreciation during the presentation itself, including shedding a few tears while speaking. If there was any downside to the presentation, it would be that there was such great audience participation and feedback that the team was unable to finish our slideshow, just touching on the great team building efforts and supervisor support that is received that makes the Prevention Initiative team the unique and effective team that they are.