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Quirky Kid supported the 2012 British Columbia Alternate Education Association conference in Vancouver, connecting its child psychology and publishing work with educators supporting young people in alternate education settings.
The annual Challenge & Change conference was held on 19 and 20 January 2012 at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre.
A contemporaneous professional-development calendar published by the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation records the conference dates, venue and keynote by physician and author Dr Gabor Maté.
The British Columbia Alternate Education Association is a Provincial Specialist Association of the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation and supports educators working in alternate education across the province.
Connecting with educators supporting complex student needs
Alternate education settings often work with young people whose school experience has been affected by learning, behavioural, social, family or mental health challenges. For Quirky Kid, supporting the conference created an opportunity to connect with professionals working closely with adolescents who may need flexible and individualised approaches to engagement.
The event also provided an international setting in which Quirky Kid could share its emerging psychology-informed resources and learn from educators working in a different school system.
An early international education milestone
In 2012, Quirky Kid was still in an early phase of expanding its work beyond Australian psychology clinics. Therapeutic cards, child-development resources and educational programs were beginning to reach professionals through publishing and distribution as well as direct clinical work.
The Vancouver conference sits within that broader development, alongside early publishing activity in Frankfurt, New Zealand and other international professional settings.
Quirky Kid’s historical company record documents its support for the BCAEA conference. Independent conference records confirm the event itself, while the exact form of Quirky Kid’s sponsorship or support is retained conservatively from that contemporaneous company record.
A Canadian relationship that continued
Quirky Kid returned to British Columbia in 2015 for professional workshops with Richmond Addiction Services Society and further engagement with the alternate education sector.
Read about Quirky Kid’s 2015 youth workshops in Canada.
Together, the two visits form an early part of Quirky Kid’s international history of sharing psychology, educational resources and professional learning beyond Australia.
