Dominican University hosts African American and Latino Social Work symposium

Dominican University’s Graduate School of Social Work will present the African American and Latino Social Work Symposium on Wednesday, March 30, featuring a keynote address by Father Michael Pfleger, pastor of Saint Sabina Church. The symposium, which is co-sponsored by the Circuit Court of Cook County Juvenile Justice Division and Urban Imaging, will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Priory Campus Auditorium, 7200 W. Division Street, River Forest.

This fourth annual symposium will bring together representatives from social service agencies, academia and businesses to address the issues that are impacting the African American and Latino communities. In his morning address, Pfleger will discuss “Rebuilding the Garden Entrusted to Us.” Since 1968, Pfleger has lived and ministered in the African American community on both the west and south sides of Chicago. He has been the pastor at Saint Sabina Church on the south side since 1981, and has fought against several injustices such as the sale of drug paraphernalia, billboards that targeted children with alcohol and tobacco advertising, negative music that glorified violence and degraded women, and the easy access to guns.

Elba Aranda-Suh, executive director of National Latino Education Institute, will present a talk during lunch on “Socio-Economic Empowerment: Unleashing the Potential of our Communities.” The symposium will also feature a panel discussion on “Creating Healthy and Sustainable Communities.” Alex Perez, reporter for NBC5 News, will moderate the panel. The panelists will include: Ronald Holt, director of Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS); Jose Lopez, executive director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center; Francisco Ramos, executive director of Coalition of African, Arab, Asian, European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois; Amparo Del Socorro Castillo, training director and master trainer at the Midwest Latino Health Research Training and Policy Center at University of Illinois at Chicago; Leticia Villarreal Sosa, assistant professor of social work at Dominican; Jeanette M. DiBella, principal at Providence St. Mel School; and Stacey Kitson, associate director of Firman Community Services’ Maternal Child Health in Cicero.

Social service agencies, undergraduate and graduate students will give presentations in the afternoon. For a full list of all presentations and agencies, visit the symposium website at http://www.dom.edu/aals

The registration fee for the conference is $30, and up to five continuing education units are available for an additional fee. For more information or to register, contact Felicia Townsend, assistant dean of recruitment, admissions and marketing for Dominican University’s Graduate School of Social Work, at (708) 771-5298 or ftownsend@dom.edu.

Founded in 1901, Dominican University is a comprehensive, coeducational Catholic institution offering bachelor’s degrees through the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences and master’s degrees through the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, the Brennan School of Business, the School of Education, and the Graduate School of Social Work. The university also offers a doctoral degree in library and information science. In the 2011 issue of America’s Best Colleges, U.S. News & World Report ranked Dominican University in the top 20 of Midwest master’s level universities. The magazine also ranked Dominican as one of three Great Schools at a Great Price in Illinois.