EMU is offering a series of seven seminars designed to help persons sharpen their leadership and conflict management skills.

EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP), MA in business administration program and the Adult Degree Completion Program (ADCP) have teamed up with the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce and the Shenandoah Valley Small Business Development Center to focus on topics ranging from negotiation skills for a “win-win outcome” to dealing with various personality types in the office.

The seminars will begin late January, meeting 9 a.m. for noon on seven Fridays in classroom 211/212 of the University Commons. (See campus map.)

‘People-Handling Skills’

“In my 30 years in business, I’ve noted that the vast majority of middle and senior managers are highly competent in their fields of expertise, but some lack the people-handling skills they need to be fully successful,” said Allon Lefever, director of EMU’s MBA program and entrepreneur. “This seminar series will offer practical help in this arena.”

“It’s been a wonderful opportunity for EMU to work more closely with organizations like the Chamber and SBDC to add the element of the ‘people-side’ of business to their existing and excellent array of services,” said Susan Landes Beck, a CJP administrator and initiator of the series. “With these joint efforts, the Valley has a practical package of training opportunities for local persons who want to grow in all areas of their leadership, business, entrepreneurship and management skills,” she added.

Costs, Schedule and Registration

The cost is $59 per seminar or $349 for the entire series, with a 10 percent discount for Chamber members.

Instructors are seasoned faculty members from EMU’s CJP, ADCP and STAR (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilence) programs as well as from James Madison University and the Wharton, Aldhizer and Weaver law firm.

The schedule follows:

• Jan. 25: Leading Healthy Organizations in a Changing Environment;
• Feb. 1: Building Your Business and Your Integrity;
• Feb. 22, Cultural Awareness Matters: Effective Communication in Today’ s Diverse Workplace;
• Feb. 29: Personality and Communication Styles at Work;
• Mar. 28, Practical Leadership: Using Your Style to Effectively Lead;
• Apr. 11: Transforming Conflict Among Team Members;
• Apr. 25: Negotiation Skills for Leaders.

Persons attending the entire series will receive a certificate in organizational leadership.

To register or for more information, visit http://www.emu.edu/seminarseries or call 540-432-4651 or e-mail pi@emu.edu.

The kids here, they’ve all lost something. “I have an 8-year-old referred to me for depression, anxiety, not sleeping and not eating,” says Nanette Katz, a psychotherapist in New Orleans.

This boy’s home, she explained, was swept away like everything else in the 9th Ward.

What’s more, she says, “his story is typical.”

That was a year and a half ago, when hurricanes first drowned their city.

Slowly, New Orleans is recovering, rebuilding, rebounding – but people need restoration, too, Katz says.

That’s where a group from ²ÝÝ®ÉçÇø hopes to make a difference.

Vesna Hart

Vesna Hart spearheads a program created to help youth heal from the trauma in their lives, whatever its source may be.

It’s called Youth STAR because the program branched off EMU’s , a trauma program for adults.

The program’s latest training has focused on the needs of New Orleans. STAR has partnered with local organizations, hosted a youth retreat – and perhaps most importantly – trained others to spread its comprehensive approach to trauma healing, Hart said.

For that, Katz says she’s grateful. She consults with one of those partner organizations. That’s how she knows the needs of these kids. She’s seen the depths of their struggles.

That same boy, she said, also lost his dogs in the storm.

“They drowned. This is what haunts him,” Katz said. He can’t sleep alone; he can’t have lights out.”

Things are no better outside his home. The third-grader is failing math, like 10 others in Katz’s caseload.

The reason? “Math requires a high level of attention that so many of these kids cannot practice,” she said. “I walked into a classroom last week, and there were 8-year-olds sleeping on their desks, sucking their thumbs. ‘Please help them!’ the teacher asked me.”

“I can’t,” Katz replied. She can only see the ones who qualify for Medicaid.

A ‘Healing’ Spirit

There’s hope for these kids, Hart says.

“Trauma happens in all of our lives,” Hart said. “You can’t avoid it. But we can all do something to help.”

Community involvement is a core tenet of the program. “We believe everyone has a role in supporting youth who were traumatized,” Hart said.

At the most recent training, the curriculum was taught to a group of 18, mostly teachers, religious leaders and community workers, said Susan Beck, the marketing manager at EMU’s , where STAR began.

The group met twice, once in February and again in March.

For school counselors like Patrick Tubbins, the curriculum revealed hands-on tools suited for the situations he faces working in a New Orleans “recovery school.”

“I always look for tools to help children,” Tubbins said. Those tools include role-playing, artistic expression and conversation. They’re everyday things, but they help, he said.

Katz agreed.

“Listening, just listening to these kids helps,” she said. “The experience of empathy helps the children heal. Their biggest help is their own resilience. It’s amazing how the human spirit can heal.”

Stopping The Cycle

Recovery is happening “very slowly,” Katz said.

Tubbins has seen it at his school, where he counsels 15 youth a day. Bit by bit, he’s seen a few kids open up.

“You could really see the trauma she experienced,” Tubbins said of a teen who lived in the Superdome for a few days.

Too often, though, he says the kids stay silent. “Even though you may not be hearing the stories, we’re in crisis,” he said. “Trauma can be passed from generation to generation. We want to stop the cycle.”

Often, parents don’t know how to help their kids because they’re learning to deal with their own trauma, Katz said.

“Families are very busy rebuilding their homes, dealing with new jobs and new neighborhoods and they don’t have time or emotional resources to deal with their depressed or anxious children,” said Katz, who, like many of her clients, still lives in temporary housing.

“The storm changed everything,” she said. “We are trying to not give up.”