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Preventing Child Maltreatment Focus of Oct. 8-9 Duke Conference

Featured conference speaker Dr. David Olds also will present the Sulzberger Distinguished Lecture Oct. 10.

A conference on community prevention of child maltreatment will be held Oct. 8 and 9 at Duke University. Featured conference speaker Dr. David Olds also will present the Sulzberger Distinguished Lecture Oct. 10.

The two-day conference, sponsored by Duke's Center for Child and Family Policy, will be at the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, corner of Science Drive and Towerview Road on Duke's West Campus.

The conference has two purposes: to examine the state of knowledge and practice in the community prevention of child maltreatment and to formulate proposals for change. The 125 spaces for the conference have been filled. The Oct. 10 Sulzberger Lecture, about the Nurse-Family Partnership, will be from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Bay A of the Erwin Square Mill Building, 2024 W. Main St. Anyone interested in attending the Sulzberger Lecture may pre-register by visiting the center's Web site, www.pubpol.duke.edu/centers/child.

Presenters at the conference include leading scholars, practitioners and policy makers. Following each presentation, a moderator will facilitate discussion between the speaker and the audience.

The first day of the conference will have two sessions. Session one, "The Scientific Basis for the Community Prevention of Child Maltreatment," runs from 8 a.m. to noon. Session two, "Community Efforts to Prevent Child Maltreatment," is from 1:30 to 5 p.m. On Oct. 9, session three, "Policy Issues," begins at 9 a.m. and lasts through lunch. A list of presenters can be found through the calendar on the center's Web site.

Dr. David Olds is professor of pediatrics, psychiatry, preventive medicine and nursing at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. The Nurse-Family Partnership, once known simply as the "Olds Model," is a nonprofit organization serving 20,000 families in 20 states across the United States. The organization offers an evidence-based, nurse home visiting program that improves the health, well-being and self-sufficiency of low-income, first-time parents and their children. The partnership has been implemented in Guilford County, N.C., and efforts are underway to establish the program more broadly in the Carolinas.

The Nurse-Family Partnership has three major goals: to improve pregnancy outcomes by improving women's prenatal health; to improve child health and development by helping parents provide more competent care for their children; and to improve parents' self-sufficiency by helping them develop a vision for their futures, plan future pregnancies, stay in school and find employment.

The conference is supported by The Children's Initiative, a project of the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation. The Sulzberger Distinguished Lecture Series, begun during the 2006-2007 academic year, is endowed the Arthur Sulzberger Family.

For more information about Olds' presentation, the conference or the Sulzberger Distinguished Lecture Series, call (919) 613-9350 or visit www.pubpol.duke.edu/centers/child.