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MIND Institute hosts ‘Learning Together’ virtual Spanish conference

Event is focused is on neurodevelopmental disabilities, special education, and mental health

(SACRAMENTO)

The UC Davis MIND Institute’s Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (CEDD) is hosting a conference for the Spanish-speaking community. The focus is on improving life for individuals with developmental disabilities such as fragile X syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, intellectual disability and Down syndrome.

The virtual event, titled MIND Institute Conferencia “Aprendiendo Juntos,” or “Learning Together,” will take place Oct. 12 – 15, 2022. Presentations will begin at 9 or 10 a.m. and run through the early afternoon. There is no registration required and people can join at any time using the conference link.

Experts from the MIND Institute and community organizations will present on a variety of topics, with mental health as a major focus. They’ll also hold an active shooter training for individuals with disabilities and talk about resources and recreational programs available, educational assessments and immigration-related issues.  

Anyone interested in supporting children, adolescents and adults living with developmental disabilities is encouraged to attend. The conference is open to all.

“This is for the whole community,” explained Maribel Hernandez, a community outreach specialist with the CEDD at the MIND Institute. “We want everyone to learn about developmental disabilities and to be better informed about how to support families.”

The conference is a collaboration between the MIND Institute and several organizations in the community, including:

“We all work directly with Spanish-speaking families, so we planned this conference around our community’s needs,” Hernandez said.

This is the fourth annual “Learning Together” Spanish conference hosted by the MIND Institute’s CEDD, and the third held in a virtual format. Nearly 300 people attended last year’s event.

Join the conference at this link. The passcode is 2020.

The UC Davis MIND Institute in Sacramento, Calif. was founded in 1998 as a unique interdisciplinary research center where families, community leaders, researchers, clinicians and volunteers work together toward a common goal: researching causes, treatments and potential prevention of challenges associated with neurodevelopmental disabilities. The institute has major research efforts in autism, fragile X syndrome, chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Down syndrome. More information about the institute and its Distinguished Lecturer Series, including previous presentations in this series, is available on the Web at mindinstitute.ucdavis.edu.