Juvenile justice and child welfare issues will be the focus of two upcoming national conferences.
The Washington, D.C.-based Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is sponsoring the “Conference for Children's Justice & Safety Unite, Build, Lead” October 10-14 in National Harbor, Md.
The four-day forum will bring together juvenile justice practitioners and policymakers from across the nation to review current trends and promising practices in juvenile justice. The “Conference for Children's Justice & Safety Unite, Build, Lead” will feature workshops, plenaries and keynote sessions beginning October 12.
Topics covered will include crimes against children, anti-gang strategies, children's exposure to violence, disproportionate minority contact, girls' delinquency, tribal youth programs, emergency planning for juvenile justice, faith-based and community involvement, mentoring, truancy and bullying and substance abuse.
During two pre-conference days, October 10–11, OJJDP will lead sessions, highlighting juvenile justice research; youth trauma, recovery and resiliency along with preventing child sexual exploitation. For more information, visit the 
Child welfare workers are also invited to participate in the 23rd Annual ”Crimes Against Children Conference” (CACC) in downtown Dallas this summer.
The forum is slated for August 8 – 11 at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel. Organizers say the goal of the conference is to provide practical instruction using current information, the newest ideas and most successful intervention strategies available to help professionals responsible for combating the many and varied forms of crimes against children. Over 20 years ago, CACC started with just 50 attendees and two speakers provided training to a small group of law enforcement professionals. Conference faculty has now surpassed 200 with a variety of workshops presented each year.
In addition to traditional topics in the field of crimes against children, this year’s event will feature unique tracks of computer lab training for professionals working on internet-related crimes against children. Since 1988, professionals involved in the investigation, prosecution and treatment of crimes against children have received training at this conference. Last year marked record attendance each year with an all-time high of nearly 3,500 participants. For more information, visit the conference website.
Hello J:
Actually, Pete Colbenson, the JJIE.org community organizer, and I as the executive director of the Center for Sustainable Journalism will be attending this conference. The program looks great. I plan to do some interviews with key folks there. Have any ideas who I should meet?
Thanks for the information!
JJIE
Here’s one more juvenile justice conference that may be of interest to your readers-
The National Coalition for Juvenile Justice is holding its 2011 Annual Spring Conference, May 20-24, 2011. This year’s conference will be held at The Liaison Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.
This year’s conference theme is “Fair & Equal Justice: Alternative Sentences and Sanctions for Youth.” The conference will feature speakers, panels and workshops addressing current themes and trends in juvenile justice sentencing reform, touching on the needs of status offenders, juvenile life without parole, policies and reforms resulting in positive family and community outcomes, sentencing reform and efforts to reduce racial/ethnic disparities, and more.
Complete info is available at
http://www.juvjustice.org/conference_11.html