THE YOUTH RESILIENCE SUMMIT

Lake Erie Council, Boy Scouts of America and Great Lakes Adventures is hosting a Youth Resilience Summit that will bring together professionals and community organizations for collaboration on how to minimize the impact of ACEs on the community. Working together, we will build youth resilience and help all children reach their full potential as empowered strong, healthy, happy citizens and future leaders.

The Youth Resilience Summit leverages the collective skills and expertise in the community to create and sustain safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for all children and families, we aim to prevent ACEs and help youth overcome negative childhood experiences.

Keynote speeches and breakout sessions will cover a range of topics including:

Suicide Prevention
Mental Health
Special Needs Strategies
Working Collaboratively with Law Enforcement

Online Safety
Bullying
Financial Literacy
Workforce Development

The summit will be presented to ALL organizations and individuals who work with youth including educators, coaches, youth leaders, law enforcement, clergy, and other community leaders.

KeyNote Speakers

Chelsea Elliott, MSW

Chelsea Elliott is the Founder and Creator of Somocom Lab & EQ Kids Crew. Somocom Lab’s mission is to build children’s confidence, resilience, and communication skills while supporting adults in creating emotionally safe and healthy environments for kids in their care. Chelsea has used her personal struggles with mental health as an opportunity to support others. As a child, she experienced trauma that turned her life upside down. This led to eating disorders, anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicidality. Through therapy, understanding how to experience and communicate her feelings, and using healthy coping strategies, she has overcome those challenges and wants to prevent those challenges and wants to prevent those challenges in other children. Elliot earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Cincinnati and a master’s degree in macro social work from Boston College.

Desimir Mijatovic, MD

Desimir Mijatovic, MD is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and pediatric pain medicine physician at the Cleveland Clinic. His career is dedicated to alleviating the suffering of children and adolescents struggling with serious physical and mental health conditions. With his unique background and training, he can understand the complex but important interaction between the body and the mind and the effects of stress injury on the developing brain. In his daily clinical practice, Mijatovic can see the significant affect that adverse childhood experiences have on the long-term health of children and adolescents and the importance of addressing these issues both clinically as well as societally. Mijatovic believes that outreach and education on this important topic can help empower children and families to improve the future and provide much-needed hope.

What are ACES?

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have a dramatically detrimental effect on a person’s lifelong mental and physical health and well-being. But there is hope and resilience might be the key. This is why we set out to create and host this summit!

By leveraging collective skills and expertise we can create and sustain safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for all children and families to prevent ACEs and help all children reach their full potential as empowered stronger, healthier, happier citizens and future leaders.