CONFERENCE OVERVIEW

Parents who struggle with drug addiction, HIV and/or incarceration face many personal and institutional barriers to developing and maintaining healthy relationships with their children. The primary purpose of this national conference is to promote practices that help to strengthen these relationships, and minimize trauma and attachment disorders among infants and young children. 

Specifically, the conference will present family-focused, multi-disciplinary strategies that: (1) strengthen and support parent-child relationships to prevent separation due to substance abuse and/or HIV; (2) maintain parent-child relationships during necessary separation due to incarceration, substance abuse and/or HIV; and (3) rebuild parent-child relationships during reunification. 

The conference will include a combination of plenary and panel presentations, focused workshops, and interactive discussions that address the unique parenting challenges among families affected by substance abuse, HIV and/or incarceration; the importance of the parent-child relationship in a child’s development; and specific practice interventions in the three areas mentioned above—prevention, maintenance, and rebuilding. The development and refinement of systems and policies that support and promote effective practice also will be addressed. 

We expect approximately 250 participants to attend from the fields of social work, child welfare, substance abuse, public health, criminal justice, infant development and others. Whereas the conference will primarily target service providers, it also will be of interest to administrators, policy makers, and advocates interested in families.