Father Gregory Boyle, CEO of Homeboy Industries, talked about about street gangs and intervention approaches Wednesday at the 29th annual Children’s Network Conference at Ontario Convention Center.
ONTARIO >> “Father disengagement” — the fact a large number of Inland Empire families live each day without a father in the home — was cited as a key problem in the region at the two-day 29th annual Children’s Network Conference that opened Wednesday at the Ontario Conference Center.“We really want to bring an awareness to one of the biggest negative social trends here in the Inland Empire, being father disengagement,” said Lesford Duncan, co-chairman of the Inland Empire Father Involvement Coalition. “We see that 35 percent of all homes are absent of fathers, so we want to bring awareness to that and we also want to encourage county agencies and community-based organizations and attendees of this conference to really implement father-friendly practices within their organization.”Another key focus at the conference was homelessness.Kent Paxton, homeless policy adviser for San Bernardino County, said there are about 36,000 children, or 12 percent of the student population, are homeless. The event, he said, is a way to raise awareness, and provide an opportunity for all attending agencies to connect and work together toward helping the homeless. “It’s a huge macro-issue from an economic standpoint that we get policy makers and program providers to grapple with, but day to day, it’s being able to work together to collaborate and identify those families, and provide housing for them to get them off the street,” Paxton said. “We’re doing a lot of that with our partners.”Hundreds of social service providers from around the region, and as far north as Canada, attended the conference for professionals providing services in the fields of social work, mental health, juvenile justice, child development, child welfare, medicine and nursing. “This event is actually one of the Inland Empire’s premier training events and it just brings people together, “ said Kristy Loufek, Children’s Network community and event coordinator. “It just brings people together. Most of use work with children who have been affected by trauma in some way and so social workers, mental health clinicians, we have safety and law enforcement personnel and nurses.”Loufek said most attendees are local.“I’ve heard other people go to other conferences out of state and they always say the information here is very up-to-date so we’ve got some cutting edge stuff going on in San Bernardino County,” she said. #AD_text{ font-size: 11px; color: #999999; } Advertisement About600 from those fields of services were expected to attend the event on Wednesday and today.
Rose Domingo, outreach and campaign coordinator with the California Victim’s Compensation program, which helps pay providers and families for health expenses, traveled from Sacramento to attend the conference.
“It’s an excellent opportunity for providers to help children who have been injured to receive the type of treatment they need in order to heal,” Domingo said.
Nearly 50 workshops at the Ontario Convention Center highlighted issues facing children in the county that also included bullying, domestic minor sex trafficking, school safety, Internet safety, and youth suicide prevention.
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The conference featured Father Gregory Boyle, the founder and CEO of Homeboy Industries, which helps former gang members make a positive change in their lives with job training and support.
The Children’s Network of San Bernardino County, according to its mission statement, works to improve the quality of life for children at risk who, because of behavior, abuse, neglect, medical needs, educational assessment, and detrimental daily living situations are eligible for services.
Information: www.sbcounty.gov.