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First Posted: 9/19/2014 The Eighth Annual Conference of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren will be held on Friday, Oct. 24 at the Mohegan Sun Hotel Conference Center with a lineup of panels and workshops designed to fully inform the many grandparents and professionals serving grandparents facing the second time around processes of raising grandchildren.
The conference will feature four attorneys, several educational specialists, two state legislators including Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski and Sen. Lisa Baker, representatives of the new Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) organizations in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties, Wyoming Valley Drug and Alcohol, Helpline of NEPA, brief support group presentations and a closing by Rabbi Larry Kaplan of Temple Israel in Wilkes-Barre.
There are Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits available for attending. They include five CEUs provided by the Family Service Association of NEPA. There are Library Continuing Education Credits available.
Sponsors this year thus far include Loftus-Vergari and Associates, Inc., Pittston Memorial Library, Atty. David Saba, Luzerne-Wyoming Area Agency on Aging, Children&#8217;s Service Center, Institute for Human Resources, Northeast Resources Development Corporation, PNC Financial Services Group, Blue Cross of NEPA, Milton Hershey School, Luzerne Foundation and Baker for Senate. The conference is co-chaired by Brenda Saba and John Calamino, both raising grandchildren.
The objectives of the Intergenerational Coalition include ensuring that families and community organizations obtaining basic knowledge of available community resources, understanding community systems, missions, programs and eligibility requirements and educating families and providers with ways to access these systems, services and programs, ensuring that families and community organizations have the opportunity to be exposed to new ideas and developing new skills as grandparents, family caregivers and providers and exploring core issues and concerns of grand families.
All grandparents are invited to attend the conference free of charge. Professionals pay $35 which entitles them to breakfast and lunch. There is a special fund set up at the Luzerne Foundation, established as the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Fund where all contributions are tax deductible.
Information about the conference can be obtained by contacting Howard J. Grossman at the Pittston Memorial Library, 47 Broad St., Pittston, PA 18640, by calling 570-654-9565 or 570-262-3443 or by email at grossmanhj@aol.com.
Registration for the conference can be made by contacting Susan Harding at the Area Agency on Aging, Suite 100, 111 N. Pennsylvania Blvd., Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701. Phone number 570-833-1158, ext. 2345 or fax number 570-823-9129. E-mail is sharding@aging.luzerne-wyoming.org.

Raising grandchildren event to be held at Mohegan Sun