Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Associate Research Professor Margaret Kuklinski is an invited speaker at the Singapore Ministry of Social and Family Development’s Conference on Youth Symposium on Sept. 9, 2021. She will present virtually on Using Prevention Science To Guide Community Action: Long-term Effects of Communities That Care on Positive Youth Development. The Communities That Care approach is aligned with the Ministry’s mission to move the prevention of delinquency, violence and substance use in Singapore’s young people more upstream. Margaret is the newly appointed director of the School of Social Work’s Social Development Research Group (SDRG), beginning Sept. 16, 2021.

Conversations on Youth is a biennial symposium organized by Singapore’s National Committee on Prevention, Rehabilitation and Recidivism that brings together school leaders, teachers in charge of student discipline, social and youth workers, law enforcement and participants from the organizing ministries for a dialogue on supporting youth at risk for problem behaviors and youth offenders. The theme for this year’s conference is “I’m not difficult; I’m in a difficult situation.” The conference organizers hope to shift the spotlight from negative offending behaviors to positive youth development and explore strategies that nurture resilient youth and support them reaching their potential. More information about the conference can be found here.

Margaret’s research focuses on promoting positive developmental outcomes through effective community-based and family-focused intervention and by building policy support for preventive interventions by demonstrating their benefits, costs, and cost-effectiveness.