Registration Open for Third Annual Social Services and Education Professionals Symposium, SEL4ME Platform Will Be Temporarily Unavailable Starting June 30

Registration Open for Third Annual Social Services and Education Professionals Symposium

The University of New England (UNE) College of Professional Studies and its partner Educate Maine are pleased to be hosting the Third Annual Education and Social Services Professionals Symposium, made possible through the generous support of its sponsor, Unum.

The event will be held on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, from 8 a.m. to

3:30 p.m. at UNE’s Innovation Hall, located at 772 Stevens Avenue in Portland.

This is a professional development conference for educators, social workers, and counselors who work to improve the social and emotional health of Maine youth. Admission is $35 per person, and participants will earn seven contact hours.

The event has a great lineup of all-new workshops and a wonderful lunchtime speaker: Julia Sleeper, Executive Director of Tree Street Youth Center.

Participants will be provided with breakfast and lunch. Two attendees will win gift certificates for the Samoset Resort and Cliff House Maine.

For more information and details about registration, please visit the event registration website or contact Tierney Matz at tmatz@une.edu.

SEL4ME Platform Will Be Temporarily Unavailable Starting June 30

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) SEL4ME platform, a free, comprehensive, pre-K-grade 12 social-emotional learning (SEL) program, will be temporarily unavailable as updates are made to the hosting platform. Starting on June 30, 2025, access to the SEL4ME modules will be put on hold. The Maine DOE apologizes for any inconvenience and will work to provide timely updates, as new information becomes available.

More information about SEL4ME

In response to requests for social-emotional learning (SEL) resources for staff members and students, the Maine DOE instituted SEL4ME five years ago. Since then, thousands of educators from across the state have accessed these resources.  

Designed to meet the unique needs of our state, SEL4ME has been developed by professionals with 50+ years of experience in education, student/parent engagement, and staff/administrator professional development.  Lessons are aligned with industry-established best practices and include more than 450 modules that cover pre-K-grade 12, scaffolded by grade. 

The SEL4ME team, consisting of diverse Maine experts and stakeholders, will continue to edit and develop new SEL content and will expand from classroom supports to include school and district-wide curriculum in the use of SEL as a primary prevention and trauma-informed practice. 

For more information about SEL4ME, please contact Maine DOE Climate, Culture, and Resilience Team Coordinator Bear Shea at w.bear.shea@maine.gov.