As the Chief Executive of the Children, Youth and Women's Health Service (incorporating Child and Youth Health ) I have pleasure in inviting you to our second National Parenting Conference – Parenting Imperatives II.

Planning for the conference has been influenced by the focus of the South Australian Government's Strategic Plan which aims to create opportunity, build on strengths, create new abilities and ensure that our communities thrive. I am confident that delegates will leave the conference feeling better equipped to assist parents in the care of their children and ultimately, to make a significant contribution to achievement of targets concerned with improving the wellbeing of the community and individuals.

In line with the goals of the Children, Youth and Women's Health Service, the conference will improve opportunities to prevent illness and promote health by providing professionals with additional capacity to promote and support the emotional and mental health and well-being of parents.

Once again we are bringing to Australia leading international speakers on issues that are of current concern to professionals who work with families. The issues highlighted will include:

• involving fathers
• supporting parents where families have undergone trauma, from domestic violence to having gone through having to flee from their own country and become refugees
• putting into practice current research that shows the importance of the early years to children's education
• managing children and young people's aggression
• cultural influences on parenting

and many other areas of interest that were highlighted by the networking opportunities from the last national parenting conference. The keynote speaker program will be added to as we get confirmation of speakers.

While we highly value the opportunity to bring world leaders to the conference, the Children, Youth and Women's Health Service recognises the value of work going on here in Australia and welcomes contributions from Australian practitioners and researchers to the conference program. The call for abstracts is included on this site.

Feedback from people who came to Adelaide for our last conference was extremely positive and we believe this one will be equally challenging and exciting. Once again we have made our registration fees as low as possible to make the conference accessible to people from diverse professions and backgrounds while still keeping very high quality presentations.

At this conference again we partner with the Department for Education and Children's Services, in particular in looking at the contribution parents can make in the early years to their children's educational future which, of course, is an integral part of their health and wellbeing.

All in all it looks to be a very worthwhile professional development experience and
we look forward to your company again at our world class convention centre, to explore current issues, share ideas and expand our vision for a better world for children.

Heather Gray
Chief Executive
Children, Youth and Women's Health Service