It's Time to Focus on Prevention: VPEC2020
The preparations for the First Global Violence Prevention Education Conference, a joint project of El HaLev and ESD Global, are in full blast.
Our Call for Speakers is currently open and we are accepting submissions from professionals from a variety of professional fields including social workers, trauma experts, psychologists, researchers, heads of civil society organizations and NGOs, therapists, Empowerment Self-Defense practitioners, government workers, criminologists, and educators to speak on topics related to primary violence prevention. Our CEO, Yehudit Zicklin-Sidikman, has been travelling the world to attend and present at various conferences, most of which have focused on domestic and sexual violencee. Some focused on treatment of victims. However, never has there been a global conference that focuses solely on prevention education and the time has come to implement practical solutions. Preparing for this conference involves connecting with numerous international organizations that show a keen interest in primary prevention. As the organizer of this event, it is fascinating to see the level of enthusiasm generated from this topic. People around the world are sharing their stories of a time they successfully used their skills to defend themselves in what could have been a dangerous situation. One of our goals is to give all attendees the best experience possible by providing quality content and practical solutions for each person to bring back to implement in their own communities. Our hope is to give Violence Prevention Education global attention on an international stage and see to it that the day after the conference will be as significant as the conference itself. This event will be hosted at the International Center for Violence Prevention of El HaLev in the city of Jerusalem.
Penina Schiffman has been training in Martial Arts for the better part of 20 years and has been teaching Empowerment Self-Defense for about six years, primarily to teenage girls at-risk. She recently completed her BA in Political Science, Middle Eastern Studies and Gender Studies from Ben-Gurion University. She is currently serving as the Coordinator for International Relations for El HaLev in Jerusalem and is thrilled to be organizing this extraordinary project.
