Conference Attendees Give Back to the Community

Three busloads of ACA members - approximately 150 individuals -- participated in the Give Back to the New Orleans Community project on Thursday morning as part of the 2011 ACA Conference. In the afternoon, project leaders provided leadership training for counselors committed to promoting social justice in their professional endeavors.

As part of the Give Back to the Community project, attendees volunteered for service involving restoration work at historic Holt Cemetery through the Nehemiah Project. Holt Cemetery, which was established in 1879 as a place of interment for the city's impoverished African Americans, was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, with grave markers, borders and debris scattered everywhere. Leaders in Counselors for Social Justice, a division of ACA, played a central role in organizing the sixth Give Back to the Community and leadership development project.

The leaders and participants of this year's project came to New Orleans to offer assistance in addressing the city's continuing needs. In addition to providing community service, participants attended numerous workshops focusing on ways that counselors can effectively address injustices that continue to adversely impact the people of New Orleans and cities across the nation.

More than 4,000 counselors have gathered in New Orleans for the ACA Annual Conference & Exposition. On Friday, Soledad O'Brien, anchor and special correspondent for CNN, will provide the keynote address. Judith Beck, president of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research, will give a keynote on Saturday morning.

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