5th Annual Young Women’s Conference Held

The 2008 Young Women’s Conference will go down as the best attended Young Women’s Conference since the annual gathering was first launched in 2004 at the Fire Academy in Sayreville. On December 2nd, almost 200 Middlesex County high school students and faculty members came to the Crowne Plaza Monroe for the fifth annual Young Women’s Conference.  Titled “My Journey, My Voice: Empowering Young Women”, the conference provided young attendees with interactive educational activities designed to help them gain invaluable knowledge and resources to support them throughout their lifetime.

Many Coalition members exhibited at this year’s event, providing additional resources and information for conference attendees. Exhibitors included: Central NJ Maternal & Child Health Consortium; Girl Scouts of Central & Southern NJ; Institute for Prevention; Middlesex County Cancer Education & Early Detection Program; the Middlesex County Department of Health; Middlesex County Transportation Department; Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey; Princeton House; Raritan Valley YMCA; Rutgers University and UMDNJ’s Tobacco Dependence Program.

The 2008 Young Women’s Conference featured several workshops. For more information on these workshops please click here.

In addition to student workshops, separate workshops were held for faculty and presented by Rutgers University students and NCADD staff members. Attendees were also treated to a special dynamic performance of “Voices of US” by the NCADD Acts of Prevention theater troupe. “Voices” debuted at the First Annual Young Women’s Conference in 2004 and has since presented to thousands of students and professionals across the state. Several area organizations and companies helped support the event through donations. NCADD would like to thank these supporters including: Central NJ Maternal/Child Health Consortium; Johnson & Johnson; Liz Claiborne Inc.; State Farm Insurance.

Below are pictures taken at the 2008 Young Women’s Conference include: (Top picture) Linda Surks, Coalition Coordinator presents special recognition award to Nina Nieves, former Coalition Chairperson. (Second picture) Steve Liga, NCADD Executive Director welcomes attendees. (Third picture) Students from Rutgers Health Services make presentation to attending educators. (Bottom picture) Elizabeth Amaya-Fernandez, Health Education Specialist at Rutgers University presents during her Exploring Health, Culture, and Identity workshop.