IU Northwest to Host Youth Violence Conference May 9

rot1Indiana University Northwest is proud to once again be a partner in the Annual Youth Violence Prevention Conference on Friday, May 9. The conference will take place from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. on the IU Northwest campus in the Savannah Center.

The theme for this year’s event is “The Right to Peace; Have the Courage to Take the Right Path” and will feature a keynote address in the Bruce W. Bergland Auditorium by James Garbarino, Ph.D., a Maude C. Clarke Chair in Humanistic Psychology at Loyola University in Chicago.

Garbarino is a researcher who focuses on issues in the social ecology of child and adolescent development. He has a long-standing interest in a wide range of violence-related issues. In 1991, he undertook missions for UNICEF to assess the impact of the Gulf War on children in Kuwait and Iraq, and has served as a consultant for programs serving Vietnamese, Bosnian and Croatian children.

He also serves as a scientific expert witness in criminal and civil cases involving issues of trauma, violence, and children. In all these issues, Garbarino is concerned with how developmental processes are shaped by the human ecology in which they occur, and has a particular interest in matters of spirituality and identity in this process.

Following the keynote address, additional adult workshops include the following topics:

“Emotional Effects of Domestic Violence”
“What Parents Should Know”
“Violence and Community Impact”
“Youth Suicide Prevention”
“Bullying”
“A Revival of Hope”

Youth workshops include the following topics:

Performance Poetry by Distinguished Gentlemen of Spoken Word
“Gang Awareness and Consequences”
“Education-Path to Success”
“Guns and the Law”
“Substance Abuse”
“What is a Healthy Relationship?”
“Impact of Violence on Your Community”
“The Future is You, Reaching Your Potential”
“Blueprint to Peace”
“Hip Slop and (C)rap Music”
“A Revival of Hope”

The conference is a collaboration between IU Northwest, the University Park/Glen Park Weed and Seed initiative, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northwest Indiana, Edgewater Systems for Balanced Living, Methodist Hospitals, Community Organizations for Families and Youth (COFFY), and the Gary Police Department.

The workshop is free to all, but for those seeking Continuing Education Units (CEUs), the fee is $25.

Registration is required for this event as space is limited. To register, or to learn more about the 2014 Youth Violence Prevention Conference, please contact Mary Lee at (219) 980-6702.