Early brain science shows chronic stressors in families, such as poverty and exposure to violence, must be addressed for children to learn and thrive as healthy adults. To achieve the healthiest outcomes for our youth, local leaders and organizations are working to advance outcomes of children in the San Joaquin Valley.
“A Call to Action: Building a Regional Children’s Alliance,” will be the message presented at the Central California Children’s Institute’s Regional Children’s Summit from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, May 2, at Fresno State’s University Dining Hall.
The summit will examine progress in improving educational, health and social well-being of children in the eight San Joaquin Valley counties since 2010, when the last summit took place.
Attendees will include those in K-12 education, businesses, local governmental leaders, faith-based organizations and health and social services.
“We would like to identify new opportunities and strategies for continuing to move our regional children’s agenda forward, including building a regional infrastructure,” said Dr. Cassandra Joubert, director of the Central California Children’s Institute at Fresno State. “The Central California Children’s Agenda is a consensus document that frames our collective work. We now need to create an infrastructure that can support our region’s goals and our policy priorities for children and families.”
The Children’s Agenda, originally developed in 2010, unites Valley child advocates around a set of goals and strategies.
Key issues identified in the agenda include the need to strengthen early psychosocial and emotional development of children, decrease negative youth social behaviors (such as gang violence, teen pregnancy, substance use and high school dropout rates) and the need for stronger, more effective parent engagement.
The summit will feature guest speakers Dr. Cassie Hartzog, a post-doctoral scholar at the Center for Regional Change at University of California, Davis and Kendra Rogers, managing director of early childhood policy at Children Now.
Hartzog will present community priorities for supporting children and families as identified through town hall meetings held in the Valley. She’ll also discuss the regional analysis of children’s issues conducted by UC Davis and supported by Sierra Health Foundation, one of the event’s sponsors. Rogers will also discuss regional approaches that could align with state strategies to improve outcomes for children.
A screening of one segment of the PBS documentary “Raising of America” will be shown during the lunch hour.
The Central California Children’s Institute will also be celebrating its 15th birthday. Formed in 2001 under the guidance of Dr. Ben Cuellar, former College of Health and Human Services dean, the institute has worked to leverage the University resources to improve the well-being and quality of life for Valley children, youth and their families. At the time, Valley Children’s Healthcare, also an event sponsor, served as a key partner in advocating for the need to have a collective voice on behalf of children and their families.
Tim Curley, director of community and government relations at Valley Children’s Healthcare, will moderate the event.
“Our goal moving forward is to create a strong alliance of organizations throughout the region that will continue to advance the goals and policy priorities of the Central California Children’s Agenda,” said Joubert.
Joubert recently received the Bruce D. Perry Spirit of the Child Award for her “efforts to develop and provide services for children, promote joy and safety for children and their families and continuously nurture and work to safeguard the spirit of the child.” She was presented this award by the Napa Infant-Parent Mental Health Fellowship Program at UC Davis.
For more information, contact Wendy Davis at 559.228.8727 or wdavis@csufresno.edu.
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