CORE Executive Director and Board Chair to Present at The National Independent Living Conference
For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Bethesda, MD – Executive Director of the Coalition for Residential Education (CORE), Nicholette Smith-Bligen and Board Chair and Vice President of Methodist Children’s Home, Moe Dozier will give a presentation today at the 24th Annual “Growing Pains 2011” National Independent Living Conference at the Gaylord Texan Convention Center in Grapevine, TX. Smith-Bligen’s proposal, “Residential Education: A well kept secret of positive outcomes for youth” was selected by the Daniel Memorial Institute, host of the conference, aimed to help social services programs and professionals enhance their work.
“As we continue to grow and raise awareness about residential education (RE), CORE is taking new, strategic steps to highlight our member programs and generate more awareness around the life-changing impact of residential education,” said Smith-Bligen. “CORE will work to address and assuage any concerns about RE and identify more opportunities to support our members.”
This will be CORE’s first time presenting at the National Independent Living Conference, which is attended annually by youth service and independent living professionals, emancipation workers, and youth ages 15 and older. Smith-Bligen will lead the workshop with the support of Dozier, who will provide cogent comment and insight on the benefits of RE programs.
She will also make visits to Texas RE member programs, accompanied by fellow board member, Kelly Mills, who is based in Texas. In addition, she will be having meetings coordinated by Dozier with key stakeholders, leaders, and professionals working in RE.
“Together with CORE’s board, I am working to scale up efforts to advocate on behalf of our members while providing new tools to better serve economically and socially disadvantaged youth,” said Smith-Bligen.
The workshop on residential education will begin at 2:45 p.m. CDT. To get more information on the conference, please email coreinfo@residentialeducation.org or call (301) 656-6101.
Founded in 1994 and based in the Washington, DC area, Coalition for Residential Education (CORE) is the national nonprofit organization that serves economically and socially disadvantaged children through residential education programs. CORE passionately believes high-quality residential education should be added to the scarce options available to these children, their families, and our communities.