Interdisciplinary conference will address key issues impacting the Latino Community at both individual and contextual levels.
On April 25 – 27, 2016, the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health (CLAFH) at New York University’s School of Social Work will host “Sí Se Puede®: Social Workers United for Latino Advancement,” a three-day, interdisciplinary conference addressing key issues impacting the Latino Community at both individual and contextual levels.
The conference seeks to address contemporary health and social welfare challenges and opportunities facing the U.S. Latino community. Speakers will include national Latino researchers and scholars, social workers, and policymakers. Conference themes and core sessions include: health and mental health disparities, education, poverty, youth and families, migration, and Latino civic engagement. New York City’s first lady, Chirlane McCray, a noted proponent of mental healthcare services, will offer opening remarks.
The event will be held at New York University’s Kimmel Center for University Life (60 Washington Square South, New York, N.Y.). Admission rates and registration instructions can be found at socialwork.nyu.edu/sisepuede. In addition to the conference’s live, in-person presentations, its keynote presentations will be live-streamed, in an effort to share these discussions with a wide audience. Registration is required for both the event and the free live-stream.
This conference is co-sponsored by the NYU Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health (CLAFH) as well as the Latino Social Workers Organization (LSWO), an organization with a long history of providing quality continuing education, focusing on the recruitment and retention of Latinos in higher education. CLAFH develops and evaluates family based interventions for Latino populations. CLAFH has developed a national reputation for the development and evaluation of applied family based interventions for Latino families.
In addition, the conference is supported by media partner, Univision, which will live-stream proceedings of the keynote addresses to its national audiences.
Now in its sixth decade, the Silver School of Social Work at New York University, the home of CLAFH, has been a pioneer in training over 14,000 professional social workers and leaders in every field of practice, affecting lives around the world.
Latinos have become the largest ethnic, racial minority population in the United States. By the year 2050, estimates project nearly one-quarter of the U.S. population, or 102.6 million individuals, will be of Latino origin. The discrepancy between the importance of providing services to Latinos, given their growing numbers, and the preparedness of social workers for serving this population highlights workforce development and capacity needs.
The conference will convene both Latino and non-Latino social work students and professionals to discuss critical issues within the Latino community, the social work and broader human services and healthcare delivery communities, and the many places where these communities overlap.
Strategically based in New York City, CLAFH addresses the needs of New York’s diverse Latino communities in both national and global contexts. The center also serves as a link between the scientific community, Latino health and social service providers, and the broader Latino community. CLAFH’s most recent work was highlighted in The New York Times.
LSWO is focused on the recruitment and retention of Latinos in social work education nationally. Since its establishment, the LSWO Conference has been held in Chicago and is pleased to bring it to New York in 2016 for the first time.
An interdisciplinary audience from throughout the United States will come together in New York City to take part in in the on-going conversation on Latino advancement and to generate insights and actions to improving outcomes of one of the nation’s largest communities.
Distinguished keynote presenters include: Dr. Vincent Guilamo-Ramos (Co-Director/Founder, Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health; Professor of Social Work and Global Public Health; Director, PhD Program at NYU Silver School of Social Work), Dr. Luis Zayas (Dean of the School of Social Work and Robert Lee Sutherland Chair in Mental Health and Social Policy at the University of Texas at Austin); Dr. Flavio Marsiglia (Distinguished Foundation Professor of Cultural Diversity and Health at the Arizona State University School of Social Work and Director of the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center), Dr. Yolanda C. Padilla (Professor of Social Work and Women’s Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and Director of the Center for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice), and Dr. Leopoldo J. Cabassa (Associate Professor of Social Work at the Columbia University School of Social Work and Assistant Director of the New York State Center of Excellence for Cultural Competence at the New York State Psychiatric Institute).