CARIBOU, Maine — The University of Maine at Presque Isle will host an all-day seminar on Friday, April 27, for social workers, guidance staff, day care operators, health care providers and anyone who works with children.
The event will begin with registration at 8:30 a.m. in the multi-purpose room of UMPI’s Campus Center. Stephen J. Bavolek, Ph.D., a recognized leader in the fields of parenting education and child abuse and neglect treatment and prevention, will direct the conference.
Bavolek will also speak as part of the University’s Guest Lecture Series on Thursday, April 26, at the campus center at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the general public.
Since 1983, Bavolek has conducted numerous workshops, has appeared on multiple radio and television talk show programs, and has published numerous books, articles, programs and newsletters. He is the principal author of the Nurturing Parenting Programs, designed to prevent and treat child abuse and neglect, and the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI), which assesses high risk parenting attitudes. He is president of Family Development Resources Inc. and executive director of Family Nurturing Centers International.
Bavolek received his doctorate at Utah State University in 1978 and completed a post-doctoral internship at the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect in Denver, Colorado. He has held university faculty positions at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, and the University of Utah. He has conducted extensive research in the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect.
Bavolek has received numerous international, national, state and local awards for his work, including induction in 1989 into the Royal Guild of the International Social Work Round Table in Vienna, Austria, and selection in 1983 by Phi Delta Kappa as one of 75 young educators in the country who represent the best in educational leadership, research and services.
In addition, he was published in Oxford’s Who’s Who in 1993 in the elite registry of extraordinary professionals and in 1998 as a member of the elite registry of extraordinary CEOs. Bavolek was also Mental Health Professional of the Year of Northern Wisconsin in 1985 and Child Advocate of the Year in Utah in 1991. In 1980, he was recognized by the Military Order of the Purple Heart for outstanding research and services to the handicapped.
The parenting conference is being sponsored by Cary Medical Center, Pines Health Services and The Center for Advancement of Rural Living and the University of Maine at Presque Isle. Pre-registration is required and there is a $90 fee, which includes all materials and lunch.
For more information or to pre-register, visit carymedicalcenter.org or call Cary Community Relations at (207) 493-5753.
