In Mississippi, We Do Hope.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Mississippi needs to do a lot of things. In the scheme of things, are you sure hope is really all that important?”

My answer is an emphatic, “Yes!”

However, I’m not going to write too much about the science and power of hope itself which was the focus of this year’s Mississippi Juvenile Justice Conference. If you would like to know more about the specifics behind the science and power of hope, you can find my previous thoughts here and here.

I also encourage and invite you to read this great write-up on the conference penned by PACESConnection staff writer, Carey Sipp, who attended virtually. If you would like to watch a short media clip of the event, reporter Sabria Reid from the Gulfport, MS, WXXV news station interviewed Dr. Chan Hellman and others on the importance of hope and the plans for spreading the science and power of hope throughout Mississippi.

What I want to share are four lessons I learned from having been one of the event planners of the three-day conference.

1.         Cooperation is key.

Over three days more than 1200 people participated in the conference. The attendees were comprised of juvenile court judges and referees, child protection services employees, school attendance officers, and youth services officers from all 82 counties in Mississippi. Well, almost all.

Ideally, every county would have been represented and everyone who attended would routinely work and collaborate together. However, a few people didn’t attend the conference and we know people don’t always work well together.

Sure, it would be easy to bemoan this fact, but to do so would overlook that the vast majority of people who attended did function well as a team. They provided a visible example of how, when we are willing to eliminate work silos, we can, instead, surround a child with incredible help.

Cooperative and collaborative teams embody synergy, learn from each member, and draw strength from diverse skills and experiences.

Thankfully, it was obvious there were many cooperative and collaborative teams who were willing to shift their paradigms and embrace a new approach to a complex problem.

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