Communication goal of social work conference

By Priscilla Castro
The Collegian

The annual social work conference this Friday hopes to build better community communication, said Jane Middleton, chair of the Department of Social Work.

The Department of Social Work will hold their annual social work conference in the Radisson Hotel in downtown Fresno.

This marks the fifth annual conference for the department.

Middleton said the general idea of the conference to have better communication with all parts of the community. “I hope it will foster community building,” she said.

She said it is important to have partnerships where people of the community can be in the same space and talk about what is important. In the afternoon those who attend will be allowed to participate in sessions led by the keynote speakers.

Three guest speakers are expected including Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, Deborah Nankivell and David Berns.

Aguilar-Gaxiola is a Professor of Internal Medicine at the UC Davis and was a psychology professor at Fresno State. He will talk about the demographic growth of the Latino population and the challenges that the health systems are going to face.

Berns is the Director of Arizona’s Department of Economic Security. Middleton said he is responsible for the El Paso Project in Colorado, which dealt with child welfare including special needs adoptions and foster care.

Nankivell is the CEO of the Fresno Business Council. Nankivell will discuss some of the problems Fresno is facing such as unemployment rate, the poverty rate and more. She will also discuss how to overcome dysfunctions and how to address the causes.

People who attend the conference should be able to identify ways we should work together, Middleton said. Middleton said they are expecting at least 200 people to attend. They should have a better understanding of how systems work, not to talk about it but actually do something.

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