Mayor’s summit explores children’s poverty issues

The summit will be 8 a.m.–noon April 3, with a continental breakfast preceding the event at 7:30 a.m., at the Oasis Inn and Convention Center, 2610 N. Glenstone Ave. The event, themed Our Children in Poverty, is free and open to the public.

Nancy Cauthen, deputy director of the National Center for Children in Poverty, is the scheduled keynote speaker. Cauthen is a political and historical sociologist whose current research is on federal and state programs designed to assist low-income families.

Also at the summit, six professors from Missouri State University’s Community and Social Issues Institute will discuss results of their commission-funded research on Springfield’s children growing up in poverty and ways for community institutions to better address those children’s needs. The MSU panel will comprise Bev Long, Denise Cunningham, Suzanne George, Cynthia MacGregor, Paul Rollinson and Lloyd Young.

Springfield Mayor Tom Carlson founded the Mayor’s Commission for Children in 2004 to initiate research of children’s issues, inform the community and share ideas. Dottie Mullikin, vice chair of the commission, will speak at the event about the commission’s plan to minimize risk factors of poverty for children up to 8 years old.

Advance registration is recommended. To register, go to www.mayorscommission.org, call (417) 864-1656 or send an e-mail to dbredfeldt@ci.springfield.mo.us.