Contact Linda Frame
(Charleston, WV) The West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy (WVCBP) will hold the first-ever West Virginia Summer Policy Institute (SPI) at West Virginia Wesleyan College the weekend of July 29-31.
The 2016 SPI will give West Virginia college students a chance to learn about vital policy issues affecting all West Virginians, network with fellow students and statewide policy leaders, and prepare for a future in a policy-related field.
During their three-day stay on the Buckhannon, WV campus, participants will have the opportunity to sit in on numerous forums on topics including budget and taxes, legislative and policy process, West Virginia’s health policy, policies on how to build West Virginia’s middle class, and race and public policy. Panel discussions will be held on moving to an intervention and prevention model for better youth outcomes, health care in West Virginia, and careers in public policy and administration.
The first evening of the SPI, July 29, is open to the public with a panel and movie screening on improving the state’s juvenile justice system.
6:30PM: Panel discussion – Moving to an Intervention and Prevention Model for Better Youth Outcomes. Panelists include Stephanie Bond with the Division of Juvenile Services; Eli Baumwell with the WV chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union; Kathy Szafran, President and CEO of Crittenton Services; Cindy Largent-Hill with the WV Supreme Court; Trudi Blaylock with PSI-Med; Jason Nicholas with the WV Public Defenders’ office; and WV Department of Health and Human Resources (invited). The panel will be moderated by Circuit Court Judge Joanna Tabit. The panel will discuss how West Virginia can move more toward an intervention and prevention model instead of an institutional model when dealing with adverse youth experiences.
9:00PM: Screening of the film Paper Tigers, an intimate look into the lives of selected students at Lincoln High School, an alternative school that specializes in educating traumatized youth. Set amidst the rural community of Walla Walla, WV, the film intimately examines the inspiring promise of Trauma Informed Communities, a movement that is showing great promise in healing youth struggling with the dark legacy of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES).
Both events are free of charge and will take place in the Virginia Thomas Law Center for the Performing Arts.
SPI attendees were chosen from a competitive application process that concluded in April. The event is targeted toward students currently enrolled in their junior/senior undergraduate programs and graduate degree programs at accredited public or private colleges and universities.
