Hobart and William Smith Colleges

28 September 2010 Perkins in UK for lectures, workshops

Wesley Perkins, professor of sociology, was invited to give the keynote address, The Social Norms Approach to Health Promotion: Talking Truth about Youth, at a conference on reducing youth risk behavior. The conference took place on Sept. 16, at the University of Bedfordshire in Bedford, England, and was attended by social workers, health educators and school administrators working with youth throughout the midlands area of England. At the same conference Perkins provided a workshop on Using Social Norms in Bullying and Violence Prevention.

Perkins was also invited to address the Program Development Group of the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence in London the next day. The Group is preparing a public health guidance statement on adolescent sexual health behavior and on adolescent alcohol use. He spoke about The Social Norms Model and Relevant Research in Assessing Effective Strategies for Reducing Teen Risk Behaviour.

Later that week, Perkins led a workshop on the social norms model of health promotion and violence reduction for secondary schools in a large borough of the Greater London area, that had recently participated in survey research conducted by Perkins and David Craig, professor of chemistry, as part of their Youth Health and Safety Project.

Perkins is a graduate of Purdue University, and he received his M.A., M. Div., M. Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale University. He is the author of dozens of journal articles about substance abuse prevention and has been honored with national awards for his work in preventing alcohol and drug abuse in colleges and universities. His work with Craig is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a premiere model for substance abuse prevention.