Highly Mobile, Highly Motivated! Staff Summit
Supporting students through unexpected terrain
Grab your gear and join us for an unforgettable day of learning, connection, and inspiration at the Highly Mobile, Highly Motivated! Staff Summit. Supporting students on their journey often means helping them navigate unexpected terrain, find a safe path forward, and know they are not traveling alone.
Together, we'll explore practical ways to engage, encourage, and empower highly mobile, unaccompanied, and McKinney-Vento-identified students while helping educators feel better equipped to support the students and families they serve.
Who Should Attend?
This summit is open to all educators and campus staff from TEHCY Homeless - SSA member districts. McKinney-Vento liaisons, counselors, principals, administrators, teachers, support staff, and anyone who works with students are encouraged to attend.
You do not need to be a McKinney-Vento liaison to benefit from this day.
Summit Details
- Date
- Wednesday, December 9, 2026
- Time
- 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
- Location
- Region 7 ESC
Cedar Rooms - Workshop
- #412321
- Lunch
- Lunch will be provided.
- Cost
- Free for TEHCY Homeless - SSA members.
You may be part of a student's support system before you even know their story.
Students experiencing homelessness or housing instability may interact with many people across a campus. Building awareness throughout the school community helps more educators recognize needs, create connections, and guide students toward the support available to them.
Supporting students is a team effort. Awareness, connection, encouragement, and compassion across an entire campus help students experiencing instability know they have people walking alongside them.
What You'll Explore
Build practical knowledge and confidence to support students whose paths to school may look different from everyone else's.
Engage
Find meaningful ways to build trust and connection with students experiencing mobility, homelessness, or housing instability.
Uplift
Explore approaches that affirm students' dignity, strengthen a sense of belonging, and help students feel seen and supported.
Support
Strengthen your understanding of how campus staff can respond to barriers and connect students with meaningful support.
Empower
Leave with ideas that help students move forward with greater stability, opportunity, and confidence.
Diane Nilan
Diane Nilan has devoted decades to giving voice and visibility to children, youth, and families experiencing homelessness. She founded HEAR US Inc. in 2005 and has traveled extensively throughout the country documenting homelessness, particularly in communities and situations that can easily go unseen.
Her work includes homelessness advocacy, shelter leadership, national presentations, documentaries, writing, policy work, and educational outreach. Through HEAR US, Diane uses firsthand stories and lived experiences to help educators and communities better understand the realities facing students and families without stable housing.
Her keynote will challenge, encourage, and equip participants to see highly mobile students more clearly and consider the role each educator can play in helping them move forward.
Read Diane Nilan's full biography on the HEAR US websiteExplore resources before the summit gets underway
Arrive ready to explore. At the beginning of the day, attendees will have an opportunity to browse helpful resources and materials from last year's YLS event. Take a look, gather ideas, and add a few new tools to your professional toolkit before the day's learning begins.
Help every student find their way forward.
Lace up your boots, bring your sense of adventure, and join educators from across the region for a day focused on engaging, uplifting, and supporting highly mobile students.
Register for Staff Summit 2026Contact Us
For additional information about the summit, registration assistance, or TEHCY Homeless - SSA services, please contact the Region 7 ESC team below.
