Navigating toward prosperity is the theme and title for a series of three conferences taking place in mid-September across the Upper Peninsula.
And the human services, government, education and other professionals who are doing the navigating are going beyond just talking about it at these conferences: they're starting up local mentoring programs to steer the U.P.'s poorest people in the direction of self-sufficiency.
"What we're really trying to do is educate the community in a new way," says Jennifer Dunton, community resource coordinator for the Chippewa/Luce County Department of Human Services. "We want to have a local solution to help folks that are struggling."
The three conferences take place Sept. 14 at the Kewadin Casino in Sault Ste. Marie, Sept. 15 at the Holiday Inn in Marquette, and Sept. 16 at the Rozsa Center in Houghton, and are hosted by each area's Department of Human Services as part of a poverty reduction coalition, working on issues raised in a statewide poverty action initiative in 2008.
They'll feature
Donna M. Beegle, author of
See Poverty…Be the Difference, which is a resource book for professionals who work with people in poverty.
The all-day conferences include lunch and are free to attend, but pre-registration is required because of limited space. They are open to anyone interested in poverty issues. To register for the Sault Ste. Marie conference, contact
Jennifer Dunton at 906-635-4103; for the Marquette conference, contact Annette Elmblad, at 906-228-0722; or for the Houghton conference, contact Louisa Mills at 906-337-3302.
Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Jennifer Dunton, Chippewa/Luce County Department of Human Services
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