IFF Conference yesterday

Yesterday the Illinois Federation of Families (IFF) co-sponsored an all-day conference at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove. The conference title was "Northern Illinois Family AND YOUTH Mental Health Conference." Several State agencies were co-sponsors, as was McHenry County Family CARE.

For a review of the conference and keynote speaker Marc Atkins' presentation, visit the IFF website next week at www.iffcmh.net/ Dr. Atkins made the statistics interesting, and he kept the audience involved, inviting questions during his talk.

He spoke about the importance of routines in a child's life, such as the morning routine, meals, homework and bedtime. All these are basics to many families, but in today's "electronic age" too many parents have yielded to external influences on their children.

Dr. Atkins also mentioned a school mentor program that originated at an institute of the University of Minnesota. Check & Connect is outlined at http://ici.umn.edu/checkandconnect/

Bullying and ostracism were mentioned, and one of the most insightful comments from a member of the audience was about her role as schoolbus driver in her small, rural area. Her passengers were considered 'river rats' by many (students and staff) at the school and were believed to be students who would never succeed. She, the bus driver, converted the chaos on the bus ride to quiet student time and set up a peer mentor system on her bus. As a result, many of her passengers became Honor Roll, and even High Honor Roll, students!

See a separate, following article regarding one panel at the IFF booth.