Conference Set On Youth Violence

SOUTH SALEM, N.Y. — Experts from law enforcement, mental health, education, the media and youth services will gather in Stamford, Connecticut on November 15 for a conference that will present viable approaches to the prevention of youth and school violence.

The conference, entitled “Youth Violence: Preventative Solutions and Strategies for Schools and Communities,” is being presented by Kids Care Clubs, a New Canaan based organization, in cooperation with the Girl Scout Council of Southwestern Connecticut and the Connecticut Yankee Council of Boy Scouts of America. Kids Care Clubs, a 10-year old national charity, was founded in New Canaan and promotes compassion and volunteerism in children through community service clubs.

“Youth and school violence are big concerns for parents, for educators and for all of us in the community who see this issue as a threat to the development of healthy, caring young people,” said Deborah Spaide, president and founder of Kids Care Clubs. “We have heard about the causes; now we want to hear the solutions. Kids Care has gathered the experts who offer these solutions — and probably for the first time in one place.”

Keynote speakers for this one-day event include Robert Curnow of Littleton, Colorado, whose son Steven was killed in the library at Columbine High School, and David Nee, executive director of the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund of New Haven and a member of the National Funding Collaborative on Violence Prevention. Mr Nee will discuss the roles of the business and nonprofit communities in the quest to curb youth violence.

The morning panel will discuss the question “How can the education community and parents/family prevent violent behavior and develop compassion in kids?” Panelists include Dr Pamela Riley, director of the National Center for the Prevention of School Violence in Raleigh, N.C.; Dr Steven Berkowitz of the Yale Childstudy Center; Dr Robert Horwitz of the Connecticut Psychological Association; Dr Richard Johnson of Waterbury Hospital; Boy Scout executive Douglas Krofina; Betsy Keefer, executive director of the Girl Scout Council; and Eric Dawson, president of Peace Games, a safe schools and community service program based in Somerville, Massachusetts.

An afternoon workshop will focus on the impact of the Internet, the media, advertising and the entertainment industry on youth violence. The panel includes Alan Carroll of the FBI’s National Infrastructure Protection Center, which is responsible for Internet safety; Cliff Frazier, director of the Martin Luther King, Jr Center for Nonviolence in New York City and a former music industry executive; George Carey of Just Kids, Inc., an advertising firm that recently completed the Kid “Id” survey; Stamford Police Chief Dean Esserman, a member of a national law enforcement initiative called Fight Crime/Invest in Kids; and Mr Nee.

Attendees will also be invited to participate in one of two post-conference workshops. The first, called “Warning Signs and Protocols for Potentially Violent Situations,” will be led by Joanne McDaniel, assistant director of Government Relations and Research at the National Center for the Prevention of School Violence, and FBI Supervisory Special Agent Ralph A. DiFonzo, Jr. The second, which will focus on conflict resolution and peer mediation techniques, will be led by Mr Frazier and Oyanike Winstead from the Martin Luther King, Jr Center for Nonviolence and Dorothy DeLo, peer mediation trainer, and a team of student mediators from Stamford High School.

The day-long event will be videotaped and information collected will be combined in a publication that will be distributed nationally early next year.

The conference will take place Monday, November 15 from 9 am to 3 pm at the Sheraton Stamford Hotel, 2701 Summer St., Stamford. The event is expected to attract parents, educators, business leaders, health and law enforcement professionals and youth service providers. Tickets to the conference are $30, including lunch. For an invitation or to learn more about the event, call Kids Care Clubs at 914/533-1101.