On June 23rd, 2023 Niagara Region Children's Services hosted the Niagara Cares 2023 Early Learning and Child Care Conference. The purpose of this conference was to recognize, support and celebrate RECE's, child care staff, and administrators working in licensed child care and licensed home child care in Niagara Region.
The nearly 1,000 attendees had the opportunity to attend two keynote sessions and two breakout room sessions from twenty different presenters. This conference aimed to inspire and encourage staff and provide strategies to support self-care and well-being while offering engaging reflection opportunities.
"The conference was a wonderful way to connect, appreciate and stand together for our profession. Regardless of our role, we can all have a positive impact on the children, families and each other!! The organizers did an amazing job coordinating the entire event to keep the day flowing and minimizing wait times for meal breaks. This was an exceptional event. Thank you!!!"
"It was a wonderful day. I truly felt my profession was acknowledged, appreciated and cared for. Learned new techniques for self care and felt very inspired by some of the speakers. Thank you for a wonderful experience."
"I loved the food! Loved the keynote speakers! They had great energy and were interesting! The break out sessions were well planned and very good as well! I liked that I got to see friends I had not seen for quite a while and the networking! Overall, it was the best professional development event I have ever been to in the 25 years that I have been in this field! I was pleasantly surprised and felt like it was a much needed day for myself and colleagues! Cannot wait for next year's event!"
"I am in awe of your organizers. This event was so well organized and arranged. It takes a tremendous amount of work to pull off something with so many speakers, attendees, details on top of details. It was executed beautifully. It was a great day. My team had an amazing time and I personally feel reinvigorated about my ECE story."
