National 4-H Headquarters, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) of the US Department of Agriculture held its annual Children, Youth, and Families at Risk Conference—CYFAR 2008, May 6-9 in San Antonio, Texas. The well attended CYFAR 2008 conference was hosted by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service/ Texas A&M System. June Mead chairs the Program Committee; Steve Goggin chairs the Keynote and Research Committee.
This year’s conference featured three inspiring keynote speakers, four youth and family research presenters, 85 interactive workshops and computer labs, and the Program Showcase and Learning Games Arcade, spotlighting the most successful CYFAR community programs and latest technology. The CYFAR Pre-conference offered in-depth professional development on a diverse set of topics ranging from working with Native Americans to Web 2.0 technology. The third CYFAR/KaBOOM! Playground Build took place at El Carmen Society for Community Advancement. In a one-day building blitz, about 250 volunteers from the CYFAR Conference and the local community transformed an empty lot into a safe and healthy playspace for children and their families, as a lasting contribution to the San Antonio community.
In the opening keynote, Dr. Donna M. Beegle, President, Communication Across Barriers, shared her personal experiences of growing up in poverty, her research, and development of curriculum for improving communication across poverty, race, gender and generational barriers. The third annual 4-H Family Strengthening Distinguished Lecture sponsored by National 4-H Headquarters, National 4-H Council, and Annie E. Casey Foundation featured Don Bower, Professor, Dept. of Child and Family Development, University of Georgia. James P. Comer, Professor of Child Psychiatry, Yale University, presented the closing keynote and discussed a model that enables parents, educators, and communities to collaborate and promote good child development and learning.
Further Information
Check back for the online event presentations on the CYFERnet website.