LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Alliance for Drug Endangered Children is sponsoring its first conference Monday and Tuesday at the Wyndham Riverfront hotel in North Little Rock.
Little Rock-based Criminal Justice Institute President Cheryl May, one of the alliance's founders, said the group hopes to find ways to help those in law enforcement, social services and the legal profession perform their roles more compassionately with drugaffected children in mind.
"In each of these areas, professionals see the parents, the grandparents and now the children come through the system," May said. "That has to stop."
Funded in large part by a federal community-oriented policing grant for work on eradicating methamphetamine use, the alliance's efforts are thus far largely methamphetamine-specific.
"We know that the number of children growing up inside a meth lab is not as large as those whose parents use heroin or cocaine," she said. "We're really just getting started."
The conference's agenda is broader, in part because the money to sponsor it came in large part from the state's two U.S. attorneys. A Colorado lawenforcement officer will discuss long-term change. Jane Duke, acting U.S. attorney for Arkansas' Eastern District, will offer a more national perspective. May will discuss local strategies.
May said she hopes the conference, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., becomes an annual event.
More information can be found at www.arkansasdec.org.
Arkansas, Pages 22 on 10/28/2007