Friday, February 19, 2010

DAYTON DEANERY — A senior official with Catholic Relief Services will discuss how agriculture and the environment figure in emergency response to natural disasters during a conference Saturday, Feb. 27.

The fourth annual global solidarity conference will feature Shaun Ferris, the senior technical advisor for agriculture and the environment at Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Ferris is responsible for providing strategic and technical advice to CRS’s field offices in support of a global relief and development project portfolio. His comments on global relief efforts will be part of a keynote address, “Integrating Agriculture, Environment & the Market to Serve the Poor during the conference, Holding the Earth Lightly: A Call to Care for People and the Planet.”

Conference participants also will receive updates from other Catholic Relief Services officials about the humanitarian aid efforts in Haiti.
 
The conference will be held at Kennedy Union at the University of Dayton. Check-in and a light breakfast starts at 8 a.m. The conference begins at 9 a.m. and concludes at 4 p.m.
 
The conference is a partnership of the archdiocesan Catholic Social Action Office, the Catholic Relief Services Committee of the archdiocesan Catholic Social Action Commission, Catholic Relief Services Midwest Office, the University of Dayton Center for Social Concern and the Marianist Environmental Education Center.
 
Workshops will be conducted by Sister Leanne Jablonski, director of the Marianist Environmental Education Center; Sister of Charity Paula Gonzalez; Kelly Bohrer and Mary Niebler of UD’s Center for Social Concern; Tony Stieritz, the director of the archdiocesan Catholic Social Action Office; and Ralph Dull, a lifetime farmer, author and a co-founder of the Dayton International Peace Museum.

The cost of the conference is $30 ($10 for students). Registration can be made online by following the directions in the brochure at www.catholiccincinnati.org/socialaction.