33rd Annual IUN Forum on Child Abuse and Neglect

The planning committee is delighted to announce that we will once again be able to hold the forum IN PERSON this year for the first time since 2019. This year’s forum will begin, as before, with coffee and donuts at 8:30 AM. After the opening plenary session at 9:00 AM, there will be one round of workshops and a short closing plenary featuring the annual Cherish the Children award. The event will end at 12:15 PM – in time to organize a lunch meeting somewhere with colleagues that you may not have seen for a while! As before, social work CEU’s and certificates of attendance will be available.

This year our keynoter will be Dr. Stacey Patton, Research Associate Professor at the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University. She is a noted journalist, author, researcher, speaker, and college professor that you may remember from her 2012 appearance at the forum. Dr. Patton is an adoptee, child abuse survivor, and former foster youth. The title of her keynote speech is “Let’s Talk About Race and Corporal Punishment”.

Workshops will include: an update on local child welfare policies and procedures from DCS Director Twan Stokes and Judge Thomas P. Stafanic as well as sessions on issues and services for immigrant families; LGBTQIA+ Issues and Services; Prevent Child Abuse Lake County’s Abuse and Neglect Framework Project; plus a special session on a new brain development educational app developed by Keynoter Stacey Patton.