As part of its ongoing commitment to be child friendly, the City of Greater Bendigo is holding a national one day conference featuring an impressive list of speakers at The Capital Performing Arts Centre on Thursday 15 April 2010.
City of Greater Bendigo Mayor Councillor Rod Campbell said that The Place of the Child in Community Building Conference will provide a wonderful opportunity for Greater Bendigo to demonstrate its leadership role as the only city in Australia to be officially endorsed as a Child Friendly City by UNICEF.
“The conference program has been designed to attract a broad audience of politicians; policy makers; statutory and social planners; architects, designers, engineers and developers; health professionals including GP’s; educators; community workers and early years service providers from across Australia,” Councillor Campbell said.
“We anticipate that places will fill quickly and I advise interested people to register early so as not to miss out.
“With the eyes of the nation upon us, the line up of speakers for the Conference is certainly impressive.
“The keynote address will be delivered by Richard Louv a visiting American journalist and author of seven books about the connections between family, nature and community.
“His most recent book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder (Algonquin), has stimulated an international conversation about the relationship between children and nature.
“Louv is also the chairman and cofounder of the Children and Nature Network (www.childrenandnature.org), an organisation helping build the movement to connect today’s children and future generations to the natural world.
“Richard Louv will provide the context for the day with a panel of leaders in the field providing comment from both a local, national and international perspective.
“These same panel members will then facilitate smaller workshops for the audience to explore in more detail their particular area of interest.”
Further information about the conference can be obtained by contacting Maureen McMahon on (03) 5434 6386 or visit www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/theplaceofthechild
