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First Lady Laura Bush was the featured speaker during the conference's opening ceremony. Other speakers included Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; Claude A. Allen, Former Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy; Alphonso Jackson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; David Eisner, Chief Executive Officer, Corporation for National and Community Service; and Regina Schofield, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs. J. Robert Flores, OJJDP Administrator and Vice Chair of the Coordinating Council, provided closing remarks on the conference's final day.

The conference agenda reflected issues identified in the final report of the White House Task Force on Disadvantaged Youth. President Bush created the Task Force in December 2002 to develop a comprehensive federal response to the problems of youth failure, with a focus on enhanced agency accountability and effectiveness.

Each day of the conference was devoted to a specific theme. The theme for the first day was "Setting the Stage: Research Trends and Emerging Issues ." The second day focused on "The Big Picture: What's Happening in the Field ." Thursday's workshops and plenary sessions highlighted "What Works: Moving Research Into Practice and Holding Ourselves Accountable ." The conference ended on Friday with a ceremony marking AMBER Alert Awareness Day. Preconference workshops held on Monday, January 9, addressed a number of juvenile justice and youth-related issues, including community assessment and planning, truancy, disproportionate minority contact, and juvenile female offenders.

The 3½-day conference featured more than 130 hours of workshops, addressing topics ranging from the educational needs of youth in the juvenile justice system to research on the possible links between childhood maltreatment and later delinquency. One of the conference's most popular workshops featured representatives from more than a dozen federal agencies—including the U.S. Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, and Transportation; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Corporation for National and Community Service; the Office of National Drug Control Policy; and the USA Freedom Corps—who provided information about accessing federal resources that can be used to support state and local efforts to assist youth and families.

Other workshops focused on innovative and effective strategies to:

• Keep children safe.
• Keep youth out of trouble.
• Promote positive youth development.
• Strengthen and support families.

Participants learned how communities can generate solutions and how individuals and groups can make a difference in their own neighborhoods. The conference provided important information about federal resources—training, technical assistance, grants, research, evaluation, etc.—that can support these local efforts.

In addition to the many workshops, the conference also featured several special events:

• Tribal Youth Program Presentations and Cultural Event. This entertaining and educational event took place on Tuesday evening and featured presentations of traditional American Indian dancing, drumming, and singing. Grantees from OJJDP's Tribal Youth Program showcased innovative and culturally relevant approaches to delinquency prevention that have been successful in their communities.

• "Building Resiliency: Alternatives to Gangs" Town Hall Meeting. This Wednesday evening meeting featured remarks by Acting Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty. The meeting provided up-to-date information on the U.S. Department of Justice's response to gangs and offered participants an opportunity to question experts from federal agencies and national and local organizations. Panelists included OJJDP Administrator Flores, Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance Domingo S. Herraiz, and Harry Wilson, Associate Commissioner of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Family and Youth Services Bureau.

• AMBER Alert Awareness Day Ceremony. The conference closed with a ceremony commemorating AMBER Alert Awareness Day, which was designated as January 13, 2006, in recognition of the 10th anniversary of the abduction and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman. National AMBER Alert Coordinator and Assistant Attorney General Regina Schofield presided over the ceremony, which included remarks by Attorney General Gonzales. Three individuals were recognized for their work on behalf of abducted children: Donna Norris, Amber Hagerman's mother; Ernie Allen of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children; and Steve Largent of the Wireless Foundation. The ceremony also included the unveiling of a new AMBER Alert stamp by Deputy Postmaster General Patrick Donohue.

For a detailed summary of each day's events, see the Special Features in this issue.