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What does it take to build healthier relationships in today's world?
The Salvation Army Anew Center is looking to help people do just that with their upcoming Healthier Relationship Conference to be held at Jamestown Community College later this month.
The theme for the conference is "Beyond Bias: Building Healthy Relationships Through Understanding". It will be held on Aug. 27 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Registration can be found on Event Brite, and sign ins begin at 8:30 a.m. in the Carnahan Center.
"We want to educate people about how they can be in a healthy relationship," Linda Cecchetti, Anew Center Prevention Education Team Lead, said. "It's free to everybody, free to the public. We have different speakers come every year, and it's just something that we offer for everybody; pastors, people that work in different resources, people that work in health care. Because, relationships aren't just between two people, it's people that you work with, also."
The conference will look at relationships across the board, whether that is a work relationship, partner relationship, anything involving more than one person. Cecchetti said that is something important to educate people about and build on, as it then reduces domestic violence and sexual assault cases, something which the Anew Center focuses on.
The keynote speaker for this year's conference is Emily Novak, Victim Services Center Coordinator and STRIVE coordinator for the Chautauqua County District Attorney's Office. Novak will be presenting on myths and legends that surround domestic violence. The conference will also involve two break out sessions that will be presented by Novak along with Hannah Jaroszynski, licensed behavioral health therapist for the Chautauqua County Department of Mental Hygiene and city councilwoman for Ward 5.
Coffee and muffins will be provided at registration, and a free lunch will also be provided. Break out sessions will take place both before and after lunch to give people the chance to switch and attend both. A panel discussion will follow in the auditorium in Carnahan, which Cecchetti noted is where everything will take place for the conference, and people will be able to go and ask questions to the people on the panel. The panel will be made up of Emma Ward from the Jamestown Police Department, Jaroszynski, and Anew Center Program Director Diana Butcher. Cecchetti said the panel will address more concerns from attendees and anything that might not have been addressed in the break out sessions, with everything wrapping up at 3 p.m.
Parking is also free and available right in front of Carnahan, with signs and Cecchetti there as well to direct them where to go, and Cecchetti added attendees will receive a certificate when it is over.
Cecchetti said this conference is a good opportunity to network with different people from different agencies, adding that the Anew Center learns something new every time they host this conference. She noted that both Novak and Jaroszynski are good speakers and that personally, she is interested to hear what Novak has to say as the keynote speaker. People can come and learn things to bring back to use in both the workplace and their personal lives, with the overall goal from the conference for the Anew Center being to reduce domestic violence and sexual assault cases.
"At the Anew Center we work with victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and we would like to not see as many cases," Cecchetti said. "As Prevention Ed Team Lead my goal is to educate as many people as possible so that the numbers will drop. My goal and the way that I feel about it is, the more we educate, the less problems we have. People need to be educated; they don't know what sexual assault is; they don't know what domestic violence is. Or, they don't know they're in a domestic violence situation, or where to turn if they are in a domestic violence situation."
Cecchetti said the conference is a type of situation where sometimes people disclose that they did not know they were in a domestic violence situation, or that places like the Anew Center exist to help.
"Getting that information out, if this conference can help one or two people, or the people that come to this conference can help somebody, that is my goal," Cecchetti said. "That's why I'm doing this, to educate people to stop domestic violence and sexual assault."
Cecchetti emphasized that the conference is free and open to everyone. Registration on Event Brite under the Healthy Relationship Conference also has no fee, and is so Cecchetti knows how many lunches to get.
"It's free; please come," Cecchetti said. "It's open to the public, I think that's the most important thing. This is not just for people that work with victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. It's open to the public, teachers can come, shopkeepers can come, anyone can come. We'd love to see a diverse population there."
Any questions about the conference can be directed to Cecchetti, who can be reached at (716)661-3897.