Learn How Poverty and Toxic Stress Affect Children

New One-Day Workshop

This Summer at Seattle University, Aug. 11

Register Now!

Forty-five percent of Washington state public school students receive free/reduced lunch, which indicates family financial stress, and this can pose extra challenges for school professionals who want the best outcomes for their students. This summer, Seattle University’s Project on Family Homelessness will offer its first-ever one-day workshop on the effects of poverty and homelessness on child development and related educational implications, “Poverty and Toxic Stress in Children: Educational Implications for School and Social Service Professionals.”

The workshop — Thursday, Aug. 11, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. in SU’s Student Center 210 — is designed for school professionals, social workers, counselors, nonprofit employees, housing authority staff and others who work with schoolchildren. School Psychologist and researcher Perry Firth, Ed.S., is the instructor; more on Perry below. The workshop is a condensed, more affordable version of the professional development class previously offered.

The cost is only $45, and full scholarships are available. Lunch will be provided. For a scholarship code, please contact Perry Firth at firthp@seattleu.edu.

Register here: toxicstressworkshop.eventbrite.com 

For more information, please contact Perry Firth, or consult the flier. Deadline to register is Friday, Aug. 5, 5 p.m.

About the Instructor

Perry Firth is a school psychologist who has been serving as researcher and project coordinator on the Seattle University Project on Family Homelessness. She has a master’s (education specialist) in school psychology from Seattle University, and also completed one year in Seattle University’s Community Counseling graduate program.

She has a research background in trauma, PTSD, child homelessness and toxic stress, and counseling from a preventive and wellness perspective. She is a published author in the areas of school shootings, counseling for wellness and prevention, and child and family homelessness. Her series for Firesteel on poverty and homelessness in public schools — and the nine infographics that accompanied it — gained an international audience.

Perry has consulted on possible solutions to mitigate the effects of stress in children’s lives and is especially interested in how the chronic stress of childhood poverty influences child development, academic achievement, and adult outcomes. Perry has also presented to national conferences on the relationship between poverty, homelessness, and toxic stress in children. This September Perry will enter the University of Washington’s Ph.D. program in School Psychology.