First Annual Teen Safety Summit scheduled for October 2

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Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III and his office’s Underage Drinking Task Force will be conducting its first annual Teen Safety Summit. (sjnaustin.org/)

The event will take place on Friday October 2nd, 2015 from 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Taunton, 700 Myles Standish Blvd., Taunton, MA 02780. District Attorney Quinn and Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye will offer opening remarks beginning at 9 a.m. Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye will also provide remarks. The media are invited and encouraged to attend.

The event is a free conference to bolster education and bring awareness to various risk issues that today’s teens face. Topics include underage drinking, suicide, mental health, opiate addiction, gang violence, cyber safety and more.

The conference will engage more than 200 people of all ages, backgrounds, and professions. Attendees will include middle and high school students from across the county, law enforcement, court personnel, youth-based organizations, healthcare providers, social service providers, prevention specialists, school personnel, college administrators, public officials, lawyers, and parents.

A series of workshops will be offered by expert speakers and organizations specializing in various fields. These workshops will be geared to both youth and adults, designated according to two different workshop tracks: Youth/Community and Law Enforcement.

The event’s keynote speakers will be Richard Guerry and Kathi Meyer-Sullivan. Guerry is the founder of the Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication (IROC2). He comes highly recommended and is an accomplished educator in his field. His focus is on developing a digital “consciousness” in order to prevent and avoid various issues that come from digital communications. Meyer-Sullivan is a moving public speaker as a parent who has lost a daughter to underage drinking. Her emphasis is on underage drinking prevention and social host liability for parents and adults.

Other speakers include Assistant District Attorney Katie Rayburn, who will talk about the alarming statistics and dangers surrounding “binge drinking;” Certified Peer Specialist Tracy Pacheco Medeiros, who will discuss her own personal journey to recover and grow after a suicide attempt; Bristol County Regional Coalition for Suicide Prevention Director Annemarie Matulis, who will educate workshop attendees on suicide prevention and signs that someone you love may be considering suicide; Jess Roscoe of the Students Against Drunk Driving National Program will discuss successes of the SADD STRONG program and will give attendees the tools to implement these core programs in order to make positive change in your school and/or community; Caroline Wilichoski and Jack Carey, both of whom are investigators with the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, will speak about the state’s Social Host Law; Laura Washington of Fall River’s Stanley Street Treatment and Recovery, will lead a workshop discussion about opiate addiction; And members of the Fall River Police Department’s Gang Unit will provide the audience with an understanding of how to identify the difference between different gang members and show how sometimes a gang member is not just identified by the colors that they wear.

Attached are full bios for each keynote speaker, a full schedule of the day’s event and a list of workshop descriptions.

Registration may be found online at www.bristolda.com or directly at http://events.smartcrowdz.com/2015TeenSafetySummit. For more information, contact April Cabrera at April.M.Cabrera@state.ma.us


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