Representatives Visit Propel Conference

Three representatives from Defiance College, Adam Swisher, Kaity Kuhn, and MacKenzie Combs attended the 2017 Propel Conference at the University of Akron on November 17th.  The focus of this year’s conference was Childhood Poverty and how it affects all aspects of a child’s life from birth to adulthood. Senator Sherrod Brown and Senator Rob Portman both made remarks on the topic and how as Ohio, we can combat these issues. A panel consisting of Barbara Poppe, Dr. Robert Murray, and David James discussed how to have the hard conversations to make our communities and Ohio better for our children and their futures. There were also student breakout sessions talking about the intersection between food insecurity and housing instability as well as the opioid epidemic and how it affects the development of children in and outside the classroom.  Adam Swisher stated “My favorite about Propel Ohio was the session about opioid epidemic. It really encouraged me to think about the crisis in a different way and challenged me to think about how I can help the cause.”

Written by Kaity Kuhn