Start the School Year Strong: Professional Development Series for Child Care Providers

University of Missouri Extension is offering two virtual professional development opportunities designed to help child care providers strengthen resilience, support mental well-being, and build practical skills they can use in their work and everyday lives.

WeCanPROSPER Resilience Training (WRT) is a research-based training grounded in a long tradition of resilience enhancement science that enables participants to improve personal stress management, clarify their resilience needs, identify relevant supportive resources, and build skills to enhance resilience during their daily routines. After registration, participants will receive an email confirmation with instructions on how to access the personal resilience assessment tool to begin building a personalized Resilience Portfolio. The assessment should only take 10-12 minutes and is designed to be completed before the training. 

Changing Our Mental and Emotional Trajectory (COMET) is a community training that recognizes rural values of neighbor helping neighbor, and communities being their own best resource, especially when concerned about another's emotional and mental well-being. During the training, participants learn a natural way to talk with a friend, a neighbor, or an acquaintance about difficult topics. Participants will receive a conversational guide and learn the importance of being "the other person". There is also time allocated to practice the COMET intervening questions and plan how to use COMET to have conversations about another's well-being.

Cost: $50 registration fee (includes both trainings)

Dates/Times: Wednesday, September 16, 2026; 6:00-7:30 PM & Thursday September 17, 2026; 6:00-7:30 PM

Location: Virtual via Zoom

Contact: Sarah Barks, sbarks@missouri.edu or Emily Poncher, emilyponcher@missouri.edu

If you need accommodations to support your learning, contact your instructor or the University's Office of Accessibility and ADA at 573-884-7278.