Colorado State University School of Social Work Offers Free Resilience Workshop Post Waldo Canyon Fire

Colorado State University’s School of Social Work is offering a free professional development workshop from noon-4:45 p.m. Friday, April 5, in Colorado Springs. The workshop will help people in the social work field focus on personal and community resilience after the Waldo Canyon Fire. The workshop will be held at the Tim Gill Center, 315 E Costilla St.

Lisa LaDue, licensed social worker and professor in CSU’s School or Social Work, will present. The workshop is hosted by the School’s Center for Lifelong Learning and Outreach Education, which provides research-based professional development opportunities for social workers and social service providers throughout Colorado.

“Colorado communities have had multiple challenges to face over the past year, and the concept of resilience – at the personal and community levels – arises with paramount importance. Social workers are in particularly central positions to address personal and community resilience in their varied roles within their communities,” LaDue said. “This presentation will address fundamental concepts and practices that help develop and maintain resilience as part of preparing for, responding to and recovering from large-scale disasters.”

LaDue has more than 15 years of experience as a disaster behavioral health responder, disaster and mass fatalities training and planning facilitator, and consultant regarding disaster-related trauma. She has responded to catastrophic disasters including the attack on the Pentagon in 2001, the Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake. LaDue has provided mass fatalities curriculum, training and consultation for more than 20 major jurisdictions across the United States, focusing on incorporating practices to reduce human suffering and increase personal, family and community resilience.

As a member of a volunteer fire department actively engaged with northern Colorado’s High Park Fire last summer, LaDue brings an unusually broad perspective to this presentation – as a social worker, a firefighter and as a member of a community that experienced tremendous loss during the Colorado wildfire season of 2012.

Documentation of attendance will be provided.

Seating is limited, so registration is required by March 29. Contact Malynda Sherwood at malynda.sherwood@colostate.edu or (970) 491-6203. The $9 optional lunch may be ordered at the time of registration and must be paid for (cash only) on the day of workshop.

The School of Social Work is in Colorado State University’s College of Applied Human Sciences.

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