Expert on youth violence to speak at conference hosted by Texas Head Start-State Collaboration Office

January 5, 2000

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AUSTIN, Texas—An early childhood educator's conference hosted by The Texas Head Start-State Collaboration Office at The University of Texas at Austin's Charles A. Dana Center will feature a nationally known expert on youth violence. Guest speaker Robin Karr-Morse will speak on issues involving violence and young Americans at 12:30 p.m. Friday (Jan. 7) at the Renaissance Austin Hotel, 9721 Arboretum Blvd.

Karr-Morse is co-author, with Meredith Wiley, of Ghosts in the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1998). The book presents startling evidence of the link between abuse and neglect experienced by children during the first three years of their lives and the development in later years of violent behavior.

The conference is titled "Training the Early Childhood Trainer: New Directions" and runs from 9 a.m. Thursday (Jan. 6) through 1 p.m. Saturday (Jan. 8.) at the Renaissance Hotel. About 250 trainers, consultants, college instructors, educators, early childhood teachers and organization personnel who plan and provide training programs to staff members in Head Start programs, as well as child care and public school prekindergarten programs, are expected to attend. The fee for the full conference is $225, or $75 per day.

The Dana Center is a unit of UT Austin's College of Natural Sciences. It is dedicated to strengthening education and civic life in Texas. It serves as an incubator of programs designed to support local and state agencies, school districts and civic organizations. The Texas Head Start-State Collaboration Office is a federally funded program supporting statewide partnerships among Head Start, child care and public school prekindergarten programs.

Note to Editors: For more information, contact Christine Webster, program coordinator at the Head Start-State Collaboration Office, at (512) 232-2257, the UT Austin Office of Public Affairs at (512) 471-3151 or the Renaissance Austin Hotel at (512) 343-2626.