Child Abuse Advocates Gather for Penn State Conference

Child abuse specialists will be sharing ideas at Penn State’s second annual Conference on Child Maltreatment which starts Wednesday morning.

The conference is called “Protecting Pennsylvania’s Children by Building Multidisciplinary Investigative Teams/Child Advocacy Centers.”

The keynote speaker will be Teresa Huizar, executive director of the National Children’s Alliance (NCA). “Teresa has dedicated her career to the protection and advocacy for children,” says Lucy Johnston-Walsh, in a news release. Johnston-Walsh is director of the Children’s Advocacy Clinic at the Penn State Dickinson School of Law.

The NCA is the accrediting body for 750 child advocacy centers across the country. The centers coordinate the work of law enforcement and child welfare professionals to create a child-focused approach to child abuse cases.

Joining the daylong discussions will be district attorneys, children and youth service administrators, law enforcement officials and Penn State faculty members.

This is the second year for the program. There are two goals; translating research into real-world practice and helping people involved in child protection to network and collaborate with Penn State faculty.

Last October, the University held its inaugural conference on child maltreatment. Experts in child sexual abuse and child trauma research participated.

This year’s event will be held at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. Attendance is by invitation only but you can watch online beginning at 9:00 a.m. by clicking HERE.

The conference will also be streamed live to the HUB Auditorium between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Human Development and Family Studies Professor Sarah Kollat will be at the HUB to answer questions and to moderate discussion.