Youth and Families Summit focuses on contemporary issues, positive change
Health economist and obesity expert Dr. Eric Finkelstein addressed the summit.
Photo by Becky Kirkland
Issues facing North Carolina’s youth and families were the focus of a unique conference Nov. 19 and 20. That’s when N.C. State University’s 4-H Youth Development and Family and Consumer Sciences Department hosted the second North Carolina Summit on Youth and Families at the Sheraton in downtown Raleigh.
“This conference, the only one of its kind in our state, is targeted to professionals and volunteers from business and industry, government agencies and community-based non-profit organizations,” said Dr. Marshall Stewart, head of the 4-H Youth Development and Family and Consumer Sciences Department in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “The summit’s goal is to examine critically the current status and future direction of our state’s youth and families.”
The 2008 summit’s theme was “Creating the Future of North Carolina’s Youth and Families: Advocacy, Leadership and Collaboration for Positive Change.” Stewart said the summit looked at three critical contemporary issues facing the state’s youth and families: strengthening economic opportunities, striving for educational excellence and improving health and well-being. The summit also focused on creating the future of our state’s youth and families through leadership, advocacy and collaboration.
Featured speakers were Dr. Harold Hodgkinson, director of the Center for Demographic Policy at the Institute for Educational Leadership in Washington, D.C., and Dr. Eric Finkelstein, health economist and obesity expert in the Research Triangle Institute’s International Public Health Economics Program. Hodgkinson is one of the nation’s leading demographers; Finkelstein co-authored The Fattening of America: How the Economy Makes Us Fat, if it Matters, and What to Do about It.
—Art Latham
“This conference, the only one of its kind in our state, is targeted to professionals and volunteers from business and industry, government agencies and community-based non-profit organizations,” said Dr. Marshall Stewart, head of the 4-H Youth Development and Family and Consumer Sciences Department in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “The summit’s goal is to examine critically the current status and future direction of our state’s youth and families.”
The 2008 summit’s theme was “Creating the Future of North Carolina’s Youth and Families: Advocacy, Leadership and Collaboration for Positive Change.” Stewart said the summit looked at three critical contemporary issues facing the state’s youth and families: strengthening economic opportunities, striving for educational excellence and improving health and well-being. The summit also focused on creating the future of our state’s youth and families through leadership, advocacy and collaboration.
Featured speakers were Dr. Harold Hodgkinson, director of the Center for Demographic Policy at the Institute for Educational Leadership in Washington, D.C., and Dr. Eric Finkelstein, health economist and obesity expert in the Research Triangle Institute’s International Public Health Economics Program. Hodgkinson is one of the nation’s leading demographers; Finkelstein co-authored The Fattening of America: How the Economy Makes Us Fat, if it Matters, and What to Do about It.
—Art Latham