Inaugural Event to Address "A Call to Action: Keeping the Promise to Connecticut's Children"

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Sacred Heart University will host a symposium, sponsored by the Center for Urban Policy and Action, on Friday, April 20, 2012. The theme of the symposium is “A Call to Action: Keeping the Promise to Connecticut’s Children.”

The Center for Urban Policy and Action is working to improve the lives of children and families in urban areas throughout Connecticut. Housed at Sacred Heart, the Center was established to provide a mechanism for systematic study and analysis of education, public health, social services and economic policy issues that face urban communities and to develop practical, creative solutions to these issues.

Governor Dannel P. Malloy will be a featured speaker at the symposium and will join Sacred Heart University President John J. Petillo Ph.D., in officially opening the Center. In addition, Commissioner of the Department of Social Services Roderick Bremby will speak, and commissioners of other state agencies have been invited to participate.

School superintendents, members of the state and local Boards of Education, state and local elected officials, university deans and professors, representatives from community agencies and non-profit organizations and teachers and principals of K-12 schools have all been invited to attend the symposium.

Within the University, the Center for Urban Policy and Action serves as a home to support interdisciplinary research on urban issues and foster new programs that will produce educators, economists, sociologists, social workers, health professionals and others trained in urban policy. The organization collects, annotates and serves as a clearinghouse for reports, surveys and studies, as well as conducting forums, seminars and conferences. The Center will also develop video documentaries to highlight urban issues and call attention to creative approaches in solving them.

“It is our hope that the participants will leave the symposium with the realization that closing the education achievement gap and addressing many of the other issues facing the State of Connecticut will require a coordinated, interdisciplinary approach and that by working together, it is possible to improve the lives of Connecticut’s children and families,” said Edward D. Hendricks, Ph.D., director of The Center for Urban Policy and Action.

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About Sacred Heart University

Sacred Heart University, the second-largest Catholic university in New England offers more than 50 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs on its main campus in Fairfield, Connecticut, and satellites in Connecticut, Luxembourg and Ireland. More than 6,000 students attend the University’s five colleges: Arts & Sciences; Health Professions; University College; the AACSB-accredited John F. (Jack) Welch College of Business; and the NCATE-accredited Isabelle Farrington College of Education. The Princeton Review includes SHU in its guides “Best 376 Colleges – 2012 Edition,” “Best in the Northeast” and “Best 294 Business Schools – 2012 Edition.” U.S. News & World Report ranks SHU among the best master’s universities in the North in its annual “America’s Best Colleges” publication. As one of just 23 institutions nationally, SHU is a member of the Association of American Colleges & Universities’ (AAC&U) Core Commitments Leadership Consortium, in recognition of its core, “The Human Journey.” SHU fields 31 Division I athletic teams, and has an award-winning program of community service. www.sacredheart.edu

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