Training Conference

Thank you to our all that attended our Annual Training Conference, and to the wonderful speakers, presenters and partners that contributed to this successful event. 

2010 Conference Workshop Materials

ICAA's 2010 Training Conference Pictures now available!!

DM Register Interview with Leonard Pitts, Jr., Keynote Speaker at ICAA's 2010 Training Conference
Credit and appreciation to Des Moines Register for Producing the Live Streaming Video

ICAA was very excited and proud to have Leonard Pitts, Jr. as the opening keynote speaker on Monday, June 28th at 1:00PM with “The Forgotten”. Mr. Pitts joined The Miami Herald in 1991 as its pop music critic. Since 1994, he has penned a syndicated column of commentary on pop culture, social issues and family life. Mr. Pitts will be talking about the fact that there are among us many people who, by dint of race, geography, economy, class or some combination thereof, are disconnected from what we regard as the mainstream. They are not seen by media and, consequently, disregarded by the nation at large. Hurricane Katrina provides an example: some commentators seemed shocked at the idea that there were Americans who lacked cars or credit cards to escape the path of the storm. Had they been paying attention, they would not have been shocked at all. Without socially-conscious worship houses, activists advocating on their behalf and community organizers, some Americans are doomed to always be forgotten by the rest of us. And that is morally unacceptable.

His book, Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood, was released in May, 1999 and was reissued in paperback in 2006. In March of 2009, he published his first novel, Before I Forget. Twice each week, millions of newspaper readers around the country seek out his rich and uncommonly resonant voice; in a word, he connects with them.

Northwest Area Foundation Fund of the Minneapolis Foundation: e-mail@mplsfoundation.org