Registration

Join us for the 2025 NJJA Annual Conference
Be The Light!

WHEN - May 7-8, 2025

WHERE - Younes Conference Center Kearney, NE

WHO SHOULD ATTEND - The NJJA conference provides an opportunity for anyone working with youth exhibiting at-risk behaviors to learn from and network with professionals across prevention, education, juvenile justice, and treatment systems.

CEU’s are pending for LMHPs/Social Workers, criminogenic hours, and CLE’s for attorneys.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

Nathan Harmon - founder and keynote motivational mental health speaker of Your Life Speaks. He is widely recognized as one of the top school speakers in the nation from 2017-current. Nathan brings a unique perspective & determination of overcoming many hardships & adversities from his past. Through those hardships, Nathan transformed his life from the inside-out.. He is dedicated to empower others that they can do the same. Nathan’s message changes lives. He gives people the tools to create new character traits. He helps people build resilience, and perseverance… needed in this present world. His message develops healthy attitudes leading to building healthy relationships , overcoming challenges and developing confidence, but most importantly hope! Nathan lives by his belief: “I would rather see you confront, fight and fail, then for you just to settle for the comfort of remaining the same.” ” His desire is to see every person recognize their given potential to build inner strength, discover their why and true purpose in life.

In 2019, Nathan was asked to be the leading voice in a raw and intimate global documentary called Connected the Dots. This heart-felt poignant documentary showcases stories of lived experiences of youth from a global perspective. Nathan has also been a guest on various radio, tv and social media outlets, interviewed for numerous magazines and newspaper articles He travels from coast to coast with his wife and three children.

Stephen Hill - founder of Speak Sobriety, young person in recovery, bestselling author, recovery coach, and a defense attorney—is a renowned national speaker on substance use prevention & mental health with a truly inspiring comeback story that everyone must hear.

He has presented in front of thousands of people for over 900 schools, drug free community coalitions, and organizations across the country, sharing his cautionary tale of addiction to recovery and beyond.

But before Stephen had these accolades attached to his name, his reputation was filled with negative stigmas—junky, dropout, felon, failure. A once promising student-athlete barely graduated high school, dropped out of numerous colleges, was arrested several times, misused deadly amounts of drugs for over a decade, was in and out of countless treatment programs, lost his friends, and cost his family tremendous emotional and financial hardship.

Just when it seemed like there was no hope for Stephen, he finally began his journey from drug & alcohol addiction to recovery when he entered an extended care treatment program on September 30, 2012. After 180 days in treatment when Stephen was able to start thinking clearly, he made a choice to give himself a real second chance at life. Through inner strength, patience, hard work, and support from others, Stephen turned his mess into a message by using both his positive and negative life experiences to live out a meaningful and intentional life.

Today, Stephen teaches people to be resilient by not only maximizing their strengths but also taking what most people perceive as a weakness or negative experience and turning it into a life lesson for personal growth.

This shift in thinking is how Stephen overcame a severe substance use disorder, began working in the field of addiction prevention and treatment, started his own speaking and coaching company, received his bachelor’s with honors in Criminal Justice, earn his Juris Doctorate from Brooklyn Law School, passed the bar exam, and published his memoir A Journey to Recovery—a #1 New Release on Amazon.

Stephen now works with Guardian Recovery—a leading treatment program for substance use and mental health disorders—to improve programming and outcomes, especially for adolescents. With his background as a youth motivational speaker, Stephen will expand community outreach and help provide critical resources to families in need, supporting Guardian’s mission to empower young people and strengthen community resilience.

Stephen now lives a meaningful life with his family and friends. Some of the personal experiences that Stephen shares are difficult for him to talk about, but he knows it’s worth it if his story helps just one person every time he speaks.