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Introducing Featured Speaker: Jim St. Germain
Jim St. Germain is the co-founder of Preparing Leaders of Tomorrow, Inc. (PLOT), a nonprofit organization that provides mentoring to at-risk and formerly incarcerated youth. Early in his career, St. Germain worked as a Youth Care Counselor at the same Boys Town juvenile detention facility in New York City where he was once a resident. Additionally, he worked as an advocate for young people living with mental health issues at the Mental Health Association. St. Germain served on the Youth Advisory Council of New York State's Division of Criminal Justice Services, and is currently a board member with The National Juvenile Defender's Center (NJDC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting justice for all children by ensuring excellence in juvenile defense. In July 2017, St. Germain's book A Stone of Hope: A Memoir (Harper) debuted.
Born into abject poverty in Haiti, young St. Germain moved to Brooklyn's Crown Heights, into an overcrowded apartment with his family. He quickly adapted to street life and began stealing, dealing drugs, and growing increasingly indifferent to despair and violence. By the time he was arrested for dealing crack cocaine, he had been handcuffed more than a dozen times. At the age of fifteen the walls of the system were closing around him. But instead of prison, St. Germain was placed in "Boys Town," a nonsecure detention facility designed for rehabilitation. Surrounded by mentors and positive male authority who enforced a system based on structure and privileges rather than intimidation and punishment, St. Germain slowly found his way, eventually getting his GED and graduating from college. Then he made the bravest decision of his life: to live, as an adult, in the projects where he had lost himself, and to work to reform the way the criminal justice system treats at-risk youth. A Stone of Hope is more than an incredible comingof-age story; told with a degree of candor that requires the deepest courage, it is also a rallying cry. No one is who they are going to be-or capable of being-at sixteen. St. Germain is living proof of this. He contends that we must work to build a world in which we do not give up on a swath of the next generation. Passionate, eloquent, and timely, illustrated with photographs throughout, A Stone of Hope is an inspiring challenge for every American, and is certain to spark debate nationwide.
Join over 400 representatives from family peer support providers, family advocates, and family members, youth and professionals from the children's behavioral health and other cross-system children's services at this statewide event and stay abreast of the many challenges and opportunities facing children, youth and families as health and behavioral health services continues to move toward an integrated system of care.
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Welcome to the Conference! |
We encourage New York State Family Peer Support Providers, Youth Peer Advocates, health plans, Performing Provider Systems, health homes, health care / hospital systems and other service providers to attend and receive timely and pertinent education & information on services, collaborations and practices in our children's health and behavioral health system. Learn More
Don't miss this year's conference!
Register today and join over 400 of
your colleagues for this annual event.
The Albany Marriott is offering reduced rates for conference attendees.
This year more than ever it is critical that Family Peer Support Providers and Youth Peer Advocates receive information about your services to explore successful collaborations between NYS Family Peer Support programs and health plans, Performing Provider Systems, health homes, health care/hospital systems and other service providers.
Join us as a vendor and showcase your services to over 400 representatives from family peer support providers, family advocates, and family members, youth and professionals from the children's behavioral health and other cross-system children's services at this event. Learn More
The Families Together in NYS Annual Conference offers your organization first hand access to share services, education and support to family, youth, and statewide family peer support providers, which will best position these providers to navigate the complex children's health and behavioral health system.
Your sponsorship will assist us in bringing youth with social, emotional and behavioral challenges with cross system involvement and their family members to the conference. With your generosity, these scholarships directly touch lives.
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