Speakers will address child development and parenting skills at UC Riverside.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Several prominent speakers will lecture on the development of African-American children at the University of California, Riverside in a series that celebrates Black History Month. Each presentation will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in 1501 Humanities and Social Sciences Building.

Shannon O’Brien, co-founder and director of Children’s Resources Inc., will discuss “Parent Training and Interventions that Work for African-American Children” on Wednesday, Feb. 16. Children’s Resources is an Inland Empire nonprofit organization that collaborates with schools, families and other community agencies to provide educational workshops on cultural learning, self-esteem and bullying to empower parents and educators with the strategies and skills necessary to meet the academic and emotional learning needs of children.

Len Cooper, previously the director of targeted student achievement for the San Bernardino City Unified School District, will give an interactive, theoretical and practical talk on “The Importance of a Culturally Relevant Education for African American Children” on Wednesday, Feb. 23.

Culminating the speaker series will be a panel discussing “Systemic Barriers to African American Child Development” on March 9.

The panel members and their topics include:  Len Cooper; Terry Boykins, founder and CEO of Street Positive, which advocates prevention and intervention campaigns among parents and youth; Clarence “Rudy” Brown, a counselor who works with gang intervention, alcohol and drug intervention, and fatherhood initiatives; and Zena Oglesby, a social worker, CEO of the Institute for Black Parenting and supervisor with Riverside County Child Protective Services.

The presentations are free and open to the public. Parking costs $5.

Carolyn Murray, UCR professor of psychology is the coordinator of this series.  All of the guest presentations will take place in a course Murray is teaching this quarter titled “Psychological Development of Black Children.”

For more information contact Murray at carolyn.murray@ucr.edu .