TRC Training, Professional Development, and Networking Opportunities
The TRC supports training, professional developmental, and a national network of AIAN early childhood researchers, practitioners, and other individuals invested in the health and well-being of young Native children and families through the following:
In collaboration with TRC partners at the Brazelton Touchpoints Center, the TRC hosts periodic Virtual Learning Circles. Virtual Learning Circles gather around a particular topic of interest, using readings to spur conversation and reflection and special
guests to deepen the group’s learning and connection to the content. In October 2021, the TRC launched its first Virtual Learning Circle with a focus on Indigenous Research Methodologies. Participants were joined by Dr. Shawn Wilson who has
written extensively on the topic. View the Participant Guide for the Virtual Learning Circle on Indigenous
Research Methodologies to see the reading list and questions explored by participants. The next TRC Virtual Learning Circle, held in May 2022, focused on Indigenous land-based learning and featured three sessions with educators and researchers working in Indigenous early childhood settings in the U.S. and Canada. Recordings from the land-based learning sessions are available on our Publications and Resources page. For more information on the TRC Virtual Learning Circles, contact Dr. Josh Sparrow.
The Native Children’s Research Exchange (NCRE) Conference and Network were established in 2008 with funding from the Society for Research in Child Development. Continuation and subsequent growth of NCRE activities have been supported by funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and with TRC resources. Conferences were hosted annually from 2008 to 2017 and biennially thereafter, with the last conference in 2019. The 2021 conference has been postponed until September 2022 due to the COVID pandemic. In lieu of a 2021 conference, a small NCRE Working Group convened virtually from December 9-10, 2021. The Working Group developed a conceptual framework to highlight the challenges and opportunities with respect to preventing and addressing substance use and disorder in the lives of Native children, particularly considering the events of 2020 and beyond, including the COVID-19 pandemic, racial injustice and reckoning, the climate crisis, and the ongoing drug epidemic. A forthcoming call for submissions for a special issue of the journal Adversity and Resilience Science was also drafted as part of the Working Group convening.
More information on the NCRE Conference and network, including past conference themes and agendas can be found on the NCRE website. To be added to the NCRE listserv and receive updates on the conference and other opportunities relevant to research on Native child and family health and well-being, contact Dr. Michelle Sarche.