Strengthening Families Summit June 8 – 9The event, The Kansas Strengthening Families Summit, will take place Wednesday, June 8, on the campus of Newman University, 3100 McCormick, and Thursday, June 9 on the campus of Friends University, 2100 W. University, both in Wichita. The event will feature a keynote address by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, and a variety of presentations, speakers and workshops designed to gather the latest research about and the most effective approaches to making Kansas families stronger and healthier.
The event will gather together national, regional and state experts, policy makers, community leaders, and social service practitioners and clinicians who are committed to taking informed action to help strengthen Kansas families. The summit is designed to collect the latest research on the social and economic impact of healthy family relationships, learn about current evidence-based practices to strengthen families, and build new connections for state and community collaboration.
“A large focus of the summit will be to capture as much of each participants’ comments throughout the two days as we can, and to assimilate this into priorities and an action plan to benefit families in Kansas,” said Mike Duxler, Ph.D., a summit organizer who is associate professor of social work at Newman University and program manager of Marriage for Keeps, Catholic Charities, Wichita. “We want to share our collective expertise in the area of marriage and family, with the dual purpose of applying research findings and identifying innovative and impactful strategies that have a proven track record.”
Duxler noted that Brownback, who will join with members of his cabinet to speak at the summit, has stated that two main goals of his administration are to turn the economy around and to strengthen families, and that one can’t be done without the other.
Duxler said as many as 400 people are expected to attend the summit, representing many professions, groups and fields of interest, including medical, faith, African-American, Hispanic, business, government, the legal system, education, and many others. The summit is funded entirely from in-kind support from universities and financial contributions from local businesses and non-profit groups.
On June 8, sessions and presentations by nationally and regionally known speakers will take place during the day at Newman University, while 10 to 12 critical conversation forums made up of topic-specific issues related to family strengthening will take place in the evening. The evening forums will be held on the campuses of Newman, Friends, Wichita State University and the Kansas University Medical Center-Wichita, with no more than 15 people per group led by a national leader in each respective area. On June 9, the summit will feature a variety of sessions and topic-specific workshops led by many summit participants who spoke June 8. All workshops will take place on the Friends University campus.
This entry was posted on Saturday, May 7th, 2011 at 5:19 pm
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