Guest speaker Eugene Williams, of the Los Angeles-Headquartered Regional Congregational Neighborhood Organization Training Center, received a standing ovation as he challenged the 150 attendees at the Combined Faith based and Youth Institute to take responsibility for creating programs that work for our community.
Almost stealing the show were the youth participants who under the direction of Oakland-based Leadership Excellence let the adults experience "a day in their life". Video-taped testimony from teens and an interactive exercise with adults walking through a line of youth repeating the negative things said about young African Americans brought tears and an opportunity for true healing between young and old. |
Closing plenary speaker, Dr. Joe Marshall, from the Omega Boys Club, challenged attendees to view violence as a public health disease and to address it from a public health perspective; meaning that we all needed to look at how we can change the environment that supports violence in our attitudes, neighborhoods and communities. We can change the environment that supports violence in our attitudes, neighborhoods and communities.
View photographs of the Faith-Based & Youth Health Institute.
Road Map to the Summit provides a history of the African American Health Summit. |
