Urban girls conference set
Meeting first to look at lives, problems of young urban women

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
News Services Editor

The first major national conference held to explore the lives, strengths, problems and needs of young urban women will be held in Buffalo April 14-15. The keynote speaker will be Lani Guinier, professor of law at Harvard University.

"Urban Girls: Entering the New Millennium," to be held in the Adams Mark Hotel, will be sponsored by the Graduate School of Education, the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender (IREWG) and the New York University Equity Center. Additional support is being provided by the Spencer Foundation.

The conference organizer and director is Lois Weis, professor of educational policy and leadership, a sociologist and author of several nationally regarded studies about urban children, adolescents and women. Weis says there have been smaller conferences aimed at improving the lives of urban girls across the lines of race and ethnicity, "but nothing rivals what is planned for April."

According to Weis, the conference will look at many issues in girls' lives-education, access to technology, health and sexuality, violence, addiction, pregnancy, sports-from the point of view of experts in those fields, professionals who work with young women and the girls themselves.

The ultimate aim, she adds, is to initiate programs that address needs in these areas. To this end, presentations will examine intervention and support projects that have succeeded in assisting young women in urban venues and focus on their possible applications in other cities.

Conference registration is $120 for the general public, $60 for undergraduate and graduate students and $50 for teen women with organizational affiliation. To register, call the Office of Special Events at 645-3705. For further information, online registration and a copy of the conference schedule, the conference Web site can be found at http://www.specialevents.buffalo.edu/urban/.

The need for this conference is pressing, says Weis.

"At every level of policymaking, there is a call to stimulate new ways of thinking and reflecting about girls," she says, citing the recently released Girls Report by the National Council for Research on Women and, at the international level, a number of recent United Nations' conferences on children and young women, one of which was the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing.

"The next step," Weis says, "is to translate the reports and studies that have come out of these assemblies into carefully developed action programs that can be implemented at the neighborhood, municipal, state and national levels." This conference, she says, is part of that endeavor.

Weis acknowledges that a great deal of national concern has been expressed about the young, urban female population, but says it usually is focused on the growing teen-pregnancy rate.

"We know that violence, drug and alcohol addiction, and family abuse are among the continuing problems with which many of these young women must contend," she says, "and these will be addressed in Buffalo.

"We don't want to further pathologize this group, however, but offer solutions to the difficulties they face.

"Our purpose is to learn how these young women are faring today as they make their way through this challenging and exciting time of their lives," Weis adds. "We will help make their strengths visible, promote their healthy development and try to find the best means to help them grow and thrive along the way.

"In concrete terms," she says, "our aim is to help initiate carefully developed programs at the neighborhood, municipal, state and national levels that will support their growth and help resolve problems that stand in the way of their success."

To this end, one of the most innovative aspects of the conference will be the showcasing of successful interventions with urban girls. Young women and administrators involved in three projects in New York and San Francisco will discuss their personal experiences and participants will assess the projects for possible application in other sites.

Conference participants will include 500 or more scholars from several fields, as well as teachers, social workers, health-care professionals, counselors, administrators, parents and the girls themselves.