PEORIA, Ill. – In April, Peoria’s Center for Prevention of Abuse promoted Child Abuse Prevention and Sexual Assault Awareness month.
Later this week, they’re hosting a two-day conference on childhood trauma.
The Center’s Carol Merna says speakers at the “Light 2024” conference will tackle some important topics.
“Innovative campaigns, technology, prevention efforts, strategies in all efforts to help us recognize, respond to and also prevent childhood traumas,” Merna says.
“Light 2024” at the Par-A-Dice Hotel this Wednesday and Thursday is open to teachers, medical professionals, service providers and parents and anyone invested in our children.
The conference was originally planned as a multistate event, but Merna says someone is coming all the way from Uganda to participate in it.
Merna says counselors at the Center for Prevention of Abuse have seen more cases of childhood trauma in the last few years than ever before.
“Childhood trauma can be physical abuse, it’s emotional abuse, but it can also be growing up in a home where a parent has a drug or alcohol addiction, or there’s mental health issues, or homelessness. It’s anything that is an adverse childhood experience,” Merna says.
The “Light 2024” conference being held at the Par-A-Dice Hotel May 8-9, will feature speakers Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, author of “The Deepest Well” and author and activist Erin Merryn, founder of Erin’s Law.
To learn more about “Light 2024” or the Center for Prevention of Abuse’s services, click HERE.
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