Working With Youth Ain't Easy: Overcoming Barriers to Better Nutrition

How do we engage youth in healthy behaviors? This workshop will focus on how to engage and empower youth to make more healthy choices, particularly healthy food choices. The workshop will include three scenarios that depict common obstacles to making healthy choices. It will also provide an opportunity to identify relevant educational tools for youth.

When Life Gives You Lemons … How Do You Make Lemonade? Dealing With the Stressors of Urban Youth

How do the daily challenges that urban youth face impact their lives? This workshop will address both family and community stressors dealt with by urban youth. The discussion will explore coping strategies used by youth as well as potential resources and the availability of outreach programs.

It's Not You, It's Me … No, It's Us; Relationships, Communication and Collaboration in Community Health

What keeps health care and social service professionals from engaging in meaningful dialogue with their patients/clients? How is health and literacy education a source of empowerment? This workshop will use a case study to explore how communication and interdisciplinary collaboration affects relationship building among professionals and their patients/clients.

Creating the Community Classroom: Contextual Determinants of Healthy Living

This workshop will focus on the complex factors that are involved in education. How can we extend the education of children and promote healthy living by connecting the community/neighborhood, the formal education system, and family life? Workshop participants will be looking at how teachers, mentors, spiritual leaders, parents, media, and the physical infrastructure can help children continue to develop and reinforce positive messages.

Why the *#@! Are You Staring at Me Like That?

How do we transform our perceptions of ourselves and others in a way that enhances self-value and self worth, especially when thoughts of not being good enough, smart enough or worth enough prevail?
This workshop will focus on how our perceptions of ourselves and others are shaped and how we can shift our perspectives in order to foster a healthier sense of who we are and acknowledge our contributions to the world.

"Where's Your Head At?": Strategies for Supporting Mental Health

What strategies can we employ to support our mental health? What strategies can we employ to support the mental health of others? The workshop will explore mental health issues along with the myths and stereotypes surrounding mental health. Using case studies, the efficacy, acceptance and validity of strategies used to identify and address mental health issues will be discussed.

Games Unplugged: Playing With Virtually Nothing

What are ways to engage children with limited materials? What skills or values can we gain from games?
This workshop will focus on how games can foster team-building, leadership, engagement, social development and mental health.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Healthy Food

What are the barriers to healthy food choices? This workshop will engage participants in a variety of activities that will explore the attitudes of children and adolescents to food and nutrition. Barriers to healthy eating such as family habits, traditions, and the general culture of the U.S. along with community and economic barriers will also be explored.

Faulty Foundations: How People Fall Through the Cracks

What are the disparities people experience in their lives? What factors help shape these disparities and what are some ways to overcome them? This workshop will explore the impact of disparities and barriers that people might encounter in their everyday lives and engage the participants in identifying ways to address these disparities.

Aging IS Sexy: New Perspectives for Change

How can we keep the appeal of aging alive? This workshop will focus on innovative activities that promote overall health (socially, physically, and mentally) for the aging population.

About Our Guest Speaker

Wendell Pierce grew up in New Orleans's historic Pontchartrian Park, a section still suffering bitterly from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Undeterred by bureaucratic delays, Pierce leveraged his visibility as a respected actor and the narrator of the documentary "When the Levees Broke" to launch a community-driven approach to rebuilding. Pierce founded the Pontchartrain Park Community Development Corporation (PPCDC), a nonprofit entity constructing eco- and budget-friendly replacement homes. The PPCDC opened its first model home in May 2010. Pierce brings passion and commitment to the task of revitalizing his former neighborhood—one of the oldest African-American communities lost to the floods of Katrina.