Over 750 people attended the Children, Youth, and Families at Risk (CYFAR) Conference in Baltimore, Maryland May 18-21. CYFAR 2009 keynote speakers included Francesca Adler-Baeder, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist, Human Development and Family Studies, Auburn University. Her inspiring keynote was entitled What’s love got to do with it? Children’s development in the context of their parents’ relationships. Bonnie Braun, Director of the Center for Health Literacy, University of Maryland gave the 4-H Family Strengthening Distinguished Lecture, Stories from the By-ways of Life: Tales of Hopes, Dreams and Things In-between. Chandra Ghosh Ippen, Associate Research Director of the Child Trauma Research Program, University of California, San Francisco, presented Designing Systems that Match the Needs of Diverse Families: Focusing on Attachment, Culture, and Trauma.
This year’s featured research presentations included Gary Evans, Professor of Human Ecology speaking on The Environment of Childhood Poverty. His presentation examined the role of physical and social factors in the lives of children growing up in poverty, arguing that the confluence of risk factors plays a particularly critical role in children’s lives. Dr. Evans’ research was recently featured in the Washington Post.
The other research presentations at CYFAR 2009 featured Deborah Leong, Professor Emeritus, Director Center for Improving Early Learning, Metropolitan State College of Denver, Self-Regulation and School Readiness: What Neuroscience Tells Us and How to Support its Development in the Early Childhood Classroom; Marc A. Zimmerman, Professor and Chair in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education in the School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Empowerment Theory and Adolescent Resilience: Applications for Prevention; and Jane D. Brown, Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, From Video Games to Facebook: Teens’ Health and the Media.
In one of the conferences many successes, nearly 100 CYFAR Conference volunteers joined with the neighbors of the Academy of Success, a community center targeting the underserved in Baltimore City, to build a KaBOOM! playground in Baltimore in just one day. This playground will provide a safe, healthy place for children to play and families to gather for years to come. Events also included a tour to the afterschool program at nearby Fort Meade. The Teen Committee organized a special community service project in which conference attendees wrote letters of encouragement to deployed U.S. Military Service Members. Teen conference participants assisted with the Learning Arcade, helping teach adults about integrating technology into their programs.
Keynote and research presentations will be available for online viewing. These web-video talks can be used as a springboard for continuing dialogue about the important challenges being addressed by those working with children, youth and families. June P. Mead is the CYFAR 2009 Conference Program Coordinator and Steve Goggin chairs the CYFAR 2009 Keynote and Research Committee.
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