The annual What Works Conference, hosted by the Children's Coalition for Northeast Louisiana, drew more than 320 professionals and students in education, counseling and health care fields Thursday at the West Monroe Convention Center.
Lynn Clark, executive director of the Children's Coalition, said the sessions were designed by asking community partners what their employees most need to know. As a result, the conference has two tracks: adolescent health and safety and early childhood health and safety. The adolescent track included sessions on substance abuse, addiction treatment and sexually-transmitted infections. The early childhood track focused on child abuse reporting, infant mental health development and physical health for toddlers.
The three keynote sessions delved into human trafficking along Interstate 20, Internet crimes against children and how adverse childhood experiences affect adult health later in life.
Dr. Ryan Pasternack, who works in adolescent medicine at Louisiana State University, led the session on sexually-transmitted infections. He said a big barrier for parents, counselors and health workers to having "the talk" with teens is that they don't know who the next person to contact should be if a teen discloses a need for additional services. He said knowing the next step in the chain regarding health care or counseling can help.
A good way for parents to deal with talking about teens' health is to schedule time for difficult discussions on a regular basis. That way, he said, they conversation can involve constructive planning, not just be reactionary.
Clark said participants came from a broad range of local organizations, and more than half are local university students.
Katie Archer, an applied child development major at Louisiana Tech, said she looks forward to using what she learned in the early childhood track to help identify signs of abuse and assist children in need of aid.
Child life major Kadeja Johnson, who also attends Louisiana Tech, said the classes opened up her understanding of several subjects. While she had base knowledge of brain development, she appreciated knowing more about how what a child is exposed to shapes them versus how their genetics shape them.
Peggy Kirby, executive director of the Louisiana Foster & Adoptive Parents Association, said the organization sponsored seven parents attendance at the event.
Kirby has been a foster parent for almost 30 years and helped about 100 teenagers. She said a majority of the teen girls she's helped have come from a history of sex trafficking, which is an issue along the I-20 corridor. She said foster parents having a deeper understanding of what the teens are going through helps in the long run.
She said these teens have an immense knowledge of a world the foster parents don't understand, a lot of knowledge about online communications and usually have low self-confidence. The parents need to be there to offer encouragement.

The 4th annual What Works Conference will be held Thursday, January 28, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the West Monroe Convention Center.

Lynn Clark explains the importance of children's health and safety at this year's "What Works Conference." This year's focus is "Healthy Living" and will include an emphasis on not only mental and physical health, but also on healthy relationships, according to Executive Director of the Children's Coalition Lynn Clark.

"We're really excited because there are so many needs and so many ways to define health, that this year's topics really came from our community when we asked them: What would be useful to you?" says Clark.

The conference is designed to echo local initiatives by the Coalition such as infant care and adolescent addiction.
Presentations include "Look Beneath the Surface: Human Trafficking Along I-20," "Building Baby Brains," and "Internet Crimes Against Children: Internet Safety."

The adolescent series of sessions features presentations such as "STIs in Northeast Louisiana: Adolescent Friendly Health Services."

Clark explains, "What we wanted to do was really define 'health' and 'healthy living' broadly. So that we were looking at physical health, we were looking at mental health, we were looking healthy relationships, and we were looking at how our community can support that."
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The closing keynote presentation is "Adverse Childhood Experiences: Where Do We Go From Here?" focusing on how adverse childhood experiences affect not only the health of the individual, but also have an inter-generational affect as well.

Parenting can be a challenge.  Finding what works depends on several factors.  This weekend, the Children's Coalition of Northeast Louisiana hosts the "What Works" conference at the Monroe Civic Center.

"It's really important that all children have caring adults in their lives," said Coalition Executive Director Lynn Clark.  "We've reached out to educators, nurses, social workers, and others to create a nurturing environment in their professional lives for children."
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The conference begins Thursday night with a Dad's dinner event. On Friday, conference sessions are held with the theme: Parent Is A Verb.  Clark says, "being a parent is not just a label, but is an action."  A special presentation this year is from Share Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support.  Topics including the grief process and the rights of parents are discussed in this session.