Our Highlights
Celebrating the Child Life Council 34th Annual Conference
Over 1,000 child life specialists and related professionals gathered in Orlando, Florida on May 19-22 to celebrate the Child Life Council 34th Annual Conference on Professional Issues. 
The conference is the largest gathering of child life professionals from around the globe each year, where attendees have the opportunity to take advantage of professional development sessions, connect with colleagues, and network with different vendors and organizations like enCourage Kids, who work towards the advancement of the child life profession.
Understanding Child Life
When a child is admitted to a hospital with a child life program, they are often greeted by a child life specialist, a pediatric health care professional who works with children and families in hospitals and other settings to help them cope with the challenges of hospitalization, illness, and disability. This can be hard for anyone to have deal with, especially children. That’s why it is important that you choose (if you can) the best hospital for you and your child to ensure maximum treatment and recovery. For example, if you live in San Francisco, you may want to check out this list of the best hospitals in the bay area to find one that you are likely to feel the most comfortable in. Whichever hospital you are admitted to though should offer their best services so that you are able to get onto the road of recovery.
“The child life profession encompasses caring for the whole child and family. In a family centered system, we look at children, teens, young adults, and their families as a whole and work with the strengths of that family to provide some normalization for their environment when they’re in the healthcare setting,” explained Gloria Mattera, Director of Child Life and Developmental Services at Bellevue Hospital Center. “We help them understand what is happening and we encourage them to use their family strengths to cope with their situation.”
Some of the wonderful professionals who stopped by our booth at the CLC Conference.
enCouraging Child Life
Child Life is at the forefront of our program creation at enCourage Kids. Partnering with child life specialists for over 30 years, we enthusiastically aid many child life programs through our Hospital Happenings, Care Rooms, Bear and Tablet Programs, and perhaps the most impactful, our Pediatric Hospital Support Program (PHSP).
“Our Pediatric Hospital Support Program uniquely supports programs and initiatives that assist Child Life and pediatric hospital programs in a myriad of ways. With over 788 projects supported to date, we are proud of the positive impact we’ve made for children facing medical challenges,” enCourage Kids Executive Director Michele Hall-Duncan announced.
For Child Life & Creative Arts Therapy Director Diane Rode, receiving a grant through PHSP has allowed her to create and implement programs that fit the needs of Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital, like KidZone TV. With KidZone TV, children confined to isolation rooms, sometimes for months at a time, are able to engage in therapeutic activities from their room connected directly to the broadcast studio.
Diane Rode posed for a photo with our enCourage balloon.
“Every day in our hospital there are probably 200 children that benefit in some way from the generosity of enCourage Kids. When you start to add that up, over a week, a month, a quarter, we’re talking about thousands and thousands of children and family members whose lives are impacted very favorably from enCourage Kids.”
Our Hospital Happenings, Bear Program, and Tablets promote continued therapeutic play and help to maintain normal growth and development for the child in the hospital setting.
“What I love about enCourage Kids is that we have the same mission, and that doesn’t always happen with other philanthropic groups or other entities that we interact with,” exclaimed Chris Brown, Director of Therapeutic Recreation, Child Life, and Creative Arts Therapies at NYU Langone Medical Center. “There is such a great synergy between child life and enCourage Kids because they enable us to initiate programs and have the supplies we need, like bears and tablets and things that meet our mission, and we know that the patients and families are the ultimate beneficiaries of that.”
This year, we offered the chance to win a brand new Tablet at the Child Life Council Annual Conference through our social media contest. Child life specialist Katie Franklund from Clear Lake Regional Medical Center in Webster, Texas, was the winner of the contest this year. Katie posed for a photo with our enCourage balloons and captioned her Instagram post: “Child Life is all about helping kids be able to say ‘I can!'”
Katie’s winning photo submitted to our social media contest.
“My child life department is little, with just two of us,” Katie told us. “We are a community hospital, so we don’t have as many amazing resources as some of the larger children’s hospitals. Therefore, we are super excited about and grateful for this tablet!”
We are proud to partner with these incredible professionals and continue to establish programming to help make a difference in the lives of the children and families they work with every day.
Learning and Connecting Through the CLC Annual Conference
The Child Life Council Annual Conference is a chance for child life professionals and students from all over the world to attend educational and inspiring professional development workshops. These sessions often provide new and unique ideas on programming, specialty care, ethical practices and other related topics that each attendee can take back and implement in their home hospital. Continuing professional development is beneficial not to just people who want to advance their knowledge, but for teachers as well. Going onto sites such as HTTPS://DOMINICANCAONLINE.COM/ (Dominican University of California) can show teachers how they can build upon their current skills with online courses, professional development is for everyone!
For newcomers and students, the First Timer/New Member Orientation is a great opportunity for new professionals to join veteran council members and staff for an overview of the Child Life Council and the Annual Conference on Professional Issues, and learn how to make the most out of the networking opportunities and professional development that the conference offers. The council also offers workshops to support and prepare for the transition from student to professional, discussing what to expect as a child life specialist, what support is available through the council and community, and how to be successful in the child life career.
And while there is phenomenal educational content, the networking opportunities that the conference provides to specialists is “what it’s all about,” according to veteran child life professional Barbara Romito. Barbara is the Director of the Child Life Program at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and has been in the field for 26 years.
“I think the connections and networking opportunities and what you gain from other colleagues and organizations throughout the world, who are all devoted to the same mission of helping children and families, is the most important part of this conference. You can make connections here that generally a lot of people cannot make in their own setting. There are really no other opportunities like this for child life specialists.”
Child life specialists Diane and Shani (below) are a great example of the wonderful networking opportunities provided by the conference, as the two met up for the first time this year. These women bring something special to the profession, as they have both taken their skills to the internet in the form of child life blogs. Diane is located in Florida and is the creator of Adventures in Child Life, a blog where she provides ideas, news, and information about the Child Life profession to her readers. As a full time mom in New York, Shani gives helpful tips and new ideas on raising and working with children in her blog Child Life Mommy. Both women help spread the joys of the child life profession through their online communities and have given many child life specialists ideas to enhance their skills and programming.
Child Life bloggers Diane (left) and Shani (right) meet up for the first time at this year’s CLC Conference.
Attending the conference for the first time under our new name and branding, enCourage Kids had the opportunity to meet new child life specialists, like Diane and Shani, and reconnect with old friends and colleagues during the exhibit hall receptions.
“I was overwhelmed by the support we received at the conference from the entire Child Life community. I love that we will be able to spread some of our programming to pediatric patients across the country,” Michele shared. As enCourage Kids grows, we are thrilled to begin expanding our Bear and Tablet programs to hospitals outside of the tristate area.
The Future of Child Life
Child life specialists can now be found in locations beyond hospitals and clinics. Camps, dental offices, schools, and mental health institutions have all began implementing child life practices to secure the best interest of the children and families they serve.
As the profession grows, so does the organization. The opening session of the Conference revealed that the Child Life Council is now the Association for Child Life Professionals (ACLP), with a brand new logo that enhances the messaging of family.
“This has been a while in the making, and it has been great to get input from so many members on how we can become a better membership organization. We are a family, in our own organization and in what we do to support other families, so the new name and logo fits perfectly and was very well received,” shared Ellen Good, Manager of the Child Life Department and Arts for Healing Program at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Ellen has been a member of the Child Life Council, now Association for Child Life Professionals, for many years and has previously served as the association’s president. Ellen, along with many other members of the association, believes that the organization is continuing in a positive direction and that the reveal was another step forward in rebranding the organization.
The Association for Child Life Professionals will continue its mission of supporting child life professionals as they empower children and families to master challenging events related to health care, and enCourage Kids is proud to partner with such an incredible community.
