Empowering Communities: MidSOUTH’s Training for Change in Child Welfare and Beyond
MidSOUTH is a training and education organization that equips practitioners, providers, and advocates with the essential tools to empower oppressed and vulnerable populations and make community-wide improvement through continuing education in the areas of child welfare, healthy families / family support, prevention, and addictions.
Upcoming Courses and Conferences
Explore our upcoming training opportunities. Select a course title to learn more and register.
| Course Title | Date |
|---|---|
2025 Peer Recovery Conference: Commitment to ExcellenceInstructor: 2025 Peer Recovery Conference: Commitment to Excellence Location: Benton Event Center Description: This conference has a limit of 300 participants, so register as soon as possible. Please ensure you will be available to attend before proceeding with registration. An optional Pre-Conference Ice Cream Mixer will take place from 6:00-9:00pm on August 26th at the Fairfield Inn in Benton, AR. Registration will be available during this time. An All-Recovery meeting will be held on Wednesday and Thursday morning from 7am-8am in the meeting room on the bottom floor of the Fairfield Inn. The Awards Banquet will take place from 6:00-9:00 on August 27th. This will include appetizers, annual Peer Support awards, dinner, and national speaker, Justin Volpe. Come ready to celebrate and dress to impress! Awards Banquet tickets will be available on a first-come-first-served basis upon registration (limit 2 per person). 14 continued education hours will be offered during the 2025 Peer Conference. For more information contact: Amanda.M.Vardaman@dhs.arkansas.gov, Casey.Copeland2@dhs.arkansas.gov, or mjkirchner@midsouth.ualr.edu Scholarship rooms have previously been awarded. Recipients of scholarship rooms must register for the conference to attend and receive their room. | 8/27/25 to 8/28/25 |
Relapse Prevention PlanningInstructor: Relapse Prevention Planning Location: Zoom Webinar | 8/14/25 to 8/14/25 |
Community ToolboxInstructor: Community Tool Box Location: Four Points by Sheraton Little Rock Description: Community Tool Box Training helps individuals take action, teach, and train others in organizing for community development. Participants will learn how to assess community needs and resources, address social determinants of health, engage stakeholders, create action plans, build leadership, improve cultural competency, plan an evaluation, and sustain prevention efforts over time. The Community Tool Box is a public service of the University of Kansas. It is maintained by the Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas. | 8/4/25 to 8/7/25 |
Stimulant Use DisorderInstructor: Stimulant Use Disorder Location: Zoom Webinar Description: The increasing usage of synthetic stimulants has led to an escalating trend of mortality associated with stimulant use disorders. This session covers information from the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), evidence-based strategies, and standards of care to improve quality of care for individuals with Stimulant Use Disorder (StUD). The training reviews neurobiology and pharmacology of stimulant use disorders, harmful medical and psychiatric consequences, and evidence-based strategies for working with individuals, including interventions and observations. | 7/23/25 to 7/23/25 |
Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) TrainingInstructor: Mindefulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (More) Training Location: UALR - Reynolds Business Building 450 Description: MORE is an evidence-based, transdiagnostic therapy that unites complementary aspects of mindfulness training, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and principles from positive psychology into an integrative treatment approach for addiction, stress, and chronic pain. MORE’s therapeutic effects have been demonstrated in 15 clinical trials, and the MORE research program has been supported by more than $90 million in federal research grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute. MORE was developed by translating fundamental discoveries from cognitive and affective neuroscience into therapeutic strategies that reduce addictive behavior, emotional distress, and chronic pain, while simultaneously increasing healthy pleasure, meaning in life, and self-transcendence. MORE has been shown to be nearly three times as effective as standard therapy for treating addiction and chronic pain. Also, adding MORE to standard addictions care led to a 42% greater reduction in relapse back to drug use and a 59% greater reduction in treatment dropout than standard addictions care without MORE. | 7/7/25 to 7/8/25 |
Motivational interviewing (MI) WorkshopInstructor: Motivational interviewing (MI) Workshop Location: UALR - Reynolds Business Building 450 Description: Motivational Interviewing is a skill-based approach to having conversations with people in a particular way “about change and growth to strengthen their motivation and commitment." Learning objectives for the workshop 1. Describe the core principles or Spirit of Motivational Interviewing (Partnership, Acceptance, Compassion, Empowerment). 2. Build listening skills to recognize and evoke change talk (Desire, Ability, Reason, Need, and Commitment language) 3. Develop strategies to identify and address client ambivalence, sustain talk, and discord. 4. Apply MI microskills (open-ended questions, affirmations, reflections, summaries) in peer conversations. 5. Build competence in using MI scaling methods to enhance empowerment and commitment toward behavior change. 6. Guide conversations toward specific behavior change based on client values and motivation. | 6/26/25 to 6/27/25 |
Print Your MidSOUTH Training Certificates
Access and print your training transcripts for all MidSOUTH programs by following these steps:
- Click the button below to visit the Training login page.
- Log in to the online registration system using your credentials.
- From the “My Account” menu, click History to view your completed trainings.
- Click on Certificates to view your completed trainings (you can sort by Course Code, Course Title, or End Date by clicking on the individual headings).
- Click on Get My Certificate next to the course you need and a .pdf will automatically generate in a new window that you can then download or print for your records.
*To request a training transcript for all of the courses you have completed, or for a specific date range, please email registration@midsouth.ualr.edu with the transcript criteria needed and one will be provided to you.