2024 Speakers
 

January:

Kim Henderson, Director of Child, Family Adult Service – DSS
James Taylor, Ascend Non Profit

 

February

Mecklenburg County - Community Support Services | Housing Innovation & Stabilization Services

Karen Pelletier, Division Director

Pat’s Place Child Advocacy Center

Adam Levine  -  PPCAC’s anti-human trafficking program for adolescents

 

March

NAMI in Charlotte - Kate Weaver

Child Abuse Awareness Month Update

K'neadee Lester-Jackson, MSW, LCSW-A and Angelica Foster, GAL

 

April

OurBridge for Kids  --- Sil Ganzo, Executive Director

Arriving in a new community is always difficult. Refugees and immigrants face an especially tough time when they navigate new systems. Even though Charlotte is continuously improving its support services and its accessibility, refugee and immigrant families still have a hard time connecting with the basic resources they need to reach stability, develop a sense of belonging, and thrive.

We started ourBRIDGE for Kids in response to these challenges. Our goal is to address the social service gaps in order to help newly-arrived children and families start a new, fulfilling life in the Queen City.

 

Safe Alliance - Survivor Resource Center ---  Irene Massey - Survivor Resource Center Manager

The Survivor Resource Center is a temporary precursor for the highly anticipated Charlotte-Mecklenburg Family Justice Center, named The Umbrella Center. The Umbrella Center will be comprehensive in scope, offering a full range of services to survivors of domestic, child, sexual, and elder abuse as well as human trafficking. This center will serve as a walk-in center open to anyone who self-identifies as a survivor of abuse or victims who are referred.

 

May

Member Spotlight - Foster Care Awareness Month

 

Congregation for Kids (CFK) –

Nicole Taylor, Executive Director & Gen Bowden, Director of Programming & Development

 CFK mobilizes the community to be Champions for kids in the foster care system.

CFK has four simple pathways to help you become a champion for kids in foster care: Foster. Mentor. Serve. Give.

 

 

Foster Village of Charlotte –

Becky Santoro,  Co-founder/Co-director, Director of Growth & Development

 

June

Institute for Family – Children’s Home Society of North Carolina

Claudia Perry, Director

 

Institute for Family recognizes the foundational role that family plays in the lives of individuals, communities, and society. This is why we advocate for the well-being of all families. This is why we celebrate family in its many different forms.

 

 

​

August

NC Legislative Update:

Tiffany Gladney, NC Child

https://ncchild.org/what-we-do/can-update/

 

 

Back to School – CMS: Update on Student Programming and Prevention for 2024-25

Anna Priester, Crisis Prevention & Response Manager & Jessica Jacobs, Crisis Prevention and Response Coordinator

 

 

Partnership with NC Child – Becoming a Children’s Advocacy Network (CAN) HUB

We are talking with NC Child about becoming the Mecklenburg CAN HUB. The Leadership team has had several meetings with the NC Child team and the New Hanover CAN Hub. Based on these conversations, we would like to recommend that we sign a contract with NC Child for our membership.

 

 

In this meeting, we will discuss the following:

What is a CAN HUB, & Why does this make sense for our group?

What does that mean for our membership/does it mean we support only NC Child’s Legislative Priorities?

How would we make it work?

 

September

Victor Armstrong, Suicide Prevention

​

​