State Education, Child Advocacy Leaders to Take Part in Conference at UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Children’s advocacy leaders and education experts will meet on Tuesday, Jan. 26, at The University of Alabama to address child and family needs and to explore ways to improve the quality of life in Alabama.

Tuscaloosa’s Promise, Challenge 21 and the Tuscaloosa County Children’s Policy Council will host the 10th annual “Doing What Matters for Alabama’s Children Conference” at the Bryant Conference Center at UA. The conference will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 3:30 pm.

Speakers at the conference include Rhonda Mann, policy and research director of VOICES for Alabama’s Children; Nancy Buckner, commissioner, Alabama Department of Human Resources; and Dr. Thomas R. Bice, superintendent of education for the state of Alabama.

“The idea is, as a community and state, we have an obligation to make things better through ideas and projects that people can implement in their community,” said Teresa Costanzo, Tuscaloosa’s Promise committee member and adjunct instructor in the UA School of Social Work. “We hear that from our participants all the time, and we’ve experienced tremendous growth.”

Dr. Charles Nash, vice chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs, UA System, will moderate the first discussion, “The State of Schools for Our Children,” which will feature Dr. Peter Hlebowitsh, dean of the UA College of Education, as one of three panelists.

The conference also will feature a panel on the well-being for children in Alabama. Afternoon breakout sessions include advocacy, ethics, human trafficking, public charter schools, facilitating teachers and parents as leaders, recognizing early-onset mental illness in children and adolescents, identifying and communicating with our Hispanic community, and the promises of addiction and recovery (a look into the adolescent mind).

Registration is $40 and includes lunch and a T-shirt. CEUs are available. Registration can be completed at http://training.ua.edu/children or by phone at 205/348-3000.

More than 29,749 homeless students were enrolled by Alabama preschools and K-12 schools in the 2012-13 school year, an increase of 68 percent from the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

The conference illuminates the issues facing children and the programs and policies that address those issues, Mann said.

“There’s no question that we have a high rate of poverty for children in Alabama, but there’s a critical lack of resources,” Costanzo said. “The growing areas of which to address are mental health, substance abuse, parenting issues – families in crisis or distress due to economy. The conference has held discussions and breakout sessions on these issues for the past several years.”