There will be two workshop sessions each day, with eight workshops each. Click on the links below to be taken to the descriptions of the workshops in each session.

Each workshop belongs to one of the following tracks: Early Childhood, Middle Years/Adolescence, Victimized Children, Family Issues & Crises, Family Needs & Support, Personal/Professional Development, Organization & Mission Support, Community Building/Social Change.

Conference tracks are indicated at the end of workshop descriptions.

Advanced workshops for experienced professionals are also identified in workshop descriptions.

Monday, April 16
Workshop Series A, 1:00 - 2:45 pm
Workshop Series B, 3:15 - 5:00 pm

Tuesday, April 17
Workshop Series C, 10:15 am - 12:00 pm
Workshop Series D, 2:15 - 4:00 pm

Wednesday, April 18
Workshop Series E, 8:30 - 10:15 am
Workshop Series F, 10:45 am - 12:30 pm

Workshop Series A
Monday, April 16
1:00 - 2:45 pm

A1 Implications of the ACE Study Through the Lifespan: Framing Trauma as a Public Health Issue. Dr. Robert Anda, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The ACE study demonstrates the relationship of childhood abuse, neglect, domestic violence and related experiences on health throughout the lifespan—including the relationship to the most common causes of death in the U.S. Dr. Anda will expand on some of the issues raised by his keynote presentation, including advocacy, health care costs, and employment productivity. You don’t have to be a health economist to see the dollar cost of adverse childhood experiences. Time will be included for interactive discussion. Victimized Children

A2 The Pediatrician-Parent/Guardian Partnership: Are Children Getting the Medical Care They Need and Deserve? Melinda Clark, MD, Albany Medical College, Irene Sills, MD, Albany Medical College

Families who work with pediatricians to provide optimal medical care to children ultimately provide their children with excellent beginnings and bright futures. Child advocates should understand the important role that medical care may play in the life of a child and understand what that care needs to be. This workshop will increase the participants’ knowledge about how pediatricians working with parents and guardians provide general pediatrics care, pediatric preventative medicine, and anticipatory guidance based upon national standards. This will include information about appropriate nutrition, physical growth, mental and cognitive development, immunizations, screening tests, and medical indications to suspect neglect and abuse. Early Childhood

A3 Strength in Numbers: Group Strategies for Women & Children Effected by Family Violence. Aileen Hoffman, F.E.G.S.

One of the most effective forms of support for people affected by family violence has been group therapy. F.E.G.S. has been providing creative and successful group programs for youth and women with a history of violence in their homes and communities to empower them to lead successful lives. The presenter will describe and demonstrate how to facilitate group programs that have been utilized, share group exercises to give participants an experiential look at the workings of the program. Groups include Dinner at Six—a character-building group for children and parents who have experienced family violence—and the Practicing Empowerment and Equality in Relationships (PEERS) initiative—a clinic-based psycho-educational and process-oriented group program for children/adolescents. Family Issues & Crises. Advanced Level: Experienced Professionals

A4 Rape Crisis and Child Advocacy Center Partnership: A Unique Collaboration. Rachel Kalish, Victims Information Bureau of Suffolk (VIBS), Andrea Ramos-Topper, Education & Assistance Corp.

Rape Crisis Centers, Child Advocacy Centers, and Forensic Nurse Examiners sometimes have different procedures that affect the provision of services to child victims of sexual assault. As a result, the child victim may have to interface with a variety of players during the evidence collection, medical follow up, and in seeking subsequent services. To encourage the child’s comfort and healing, stability is the optimal goal. Suffolk County’s Rape Crisis Center and Child Advocacy Center have partnered to ensure convergent perspectives and seamless service provision to children who have been sexually assaulted, and their families. The presentation will discuss the collaboration process, the training for rape crisis and medical staff to work with child victims, benefits to the community and the obstacles that were met to achieve this partnership. Victimized Children

A5 Keeping Children Safe from Sexual Abuse. Anthony Zenkus and Maureen O’Connor, Coalition Against Child Abuse & Neglect (CCAN)

The responsibility of protecting children from sexual abuse needs to fall squarely on the shoulders of parents and adults responsible for their care. CCAN has developed this training to give adults the tools necessary to understand, recognize, and prevent the sexual victimization of children at home, in the community and on the Internet. Participants will learn the warning signs in children who may be being groomed for abuse or who are already victims, as well as the warning signs of adults who may be a risk to victimizing children, and how to develop a step by step plan to decrease the risk of childhood sexual abuse in the children they care for. Some content comes from the work of Darkness to Light, Stop it Now! and other prominent organizations working to end child sexual abuse. Middle Years/Adolescence

A6 Building Community Capacity for Positive Youth Development. Jutta Dotterweich, FLDC, Cornell University

This interactive workshop will introduce a free, web-based resource on positive youth development. Over the past six years the ACT for Youth initiative in New York State has aimed to promote positive youth development and the prevention of violent, abusive, and risky sexual behaviors for youth ages 10-19. Drawing from years of experience and working with communities to adopt a positive youth development framework, the presenter developed a resource manual to help reach the community at large, by giving practitioners concrete tools and materials to educate their own community, increasing local community capacity and decreasing dependency on experts living outside the community. The manual includes activities, presentations, handouts and references that are tools for practitioners to introduce youth development principles and strategies to community groups. The session will include an overview of the manual and sample demonstrations of group activities. Community Building/Social Change

A7 Growing a Healthy Workplace Environment. Ellen Butowsky, Prevent Child Abuse New York

When the workplace is not nurturing, it makes it that much harder for the worker to be. The purpose of this workshop is to learn about and share strategies for building a positive work environment, with the goal of nurturing and retaining staff and ultimately providing better services to families. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on and share ways to grow a healthy workplace environment. Topics include nurturing and retaining staff, the parallel process, managing change and providing opportunities for staff development and wellness. Designed for supervisors/managers, a small panel of direct service providers will share what has worked for them. Personal/ Professional Development

A8 Best Practices in Achieving Permanency for Children. Christine Sabino Kiesel, NYS Office of Court Administration

The presentation will describe collaborations between the court and social service systems that facilitate safety and permanence for children, such as the Best Practices and Problem Solving Courts, Developing and Sustaining a Collaborative Stakeholder’s Group, Permanency Mediation and Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). The presentation will review current initiatives of the New York State Court Improvement Project, hallmarks of best practices, integration of services and programs to assist in expediting permanency and highlight success in the Oneida County Best Practices Court. Participants will discuss strategies to replicate successful practices in court and social service collaborations around the state. Community Building/Social Change

B2 A Cultural Perspective on Parenting. Sicily Mitchell and Linda James, Family Resource Centers of Crestwood Children’s Center

The workshop will facilitate participants’ consideration of parenting practices from a cultural perspective. Drawing from the evidence-based “Effective Black Parenting Program,” parenting skills curriculum, particular attention will be given to the history of culture within the values and context of the African-American community. Participants will discuss the appropriateness and effectiveness of using this perspective in teaching parenting skills and have an opportunity to reflect on their own experience of discipline and parenting practices in their families. Community Building/Social Change

B3 What Do You Do in the Absence of Objective Medical Evidence? Jack Coyne, MD, Child Advocacy Centers of Erie Niagara & Genesse Counties

This workshop will explore the examination of the sexually abused child. It will illustrate what a normal genital exam consists of and what acquired pathology we see in children who are abused. Emphasis will be on the importance of the exam- its therapeutic effect and what does a normal “objective” exam mean to you and to the child. Common misconceptions about the exam, current research on medical findings, as well as research regarding absence of physical findings in confirmed cases, will be addressed. You should leave this workshop with a better understanding of medical terms, the anatomy and some of the behaviors of a child who may present to you without having yet shared their trauma (i.e. recognition by presentation and behavior). This workshop will benefit all members of a multidisciplinary child abuse team—particularly members with investigative or prosecutorial responsibilities. Victimized Children. Advanced Level: Experienced Professionals

B4 Revival: A Journey toward Strengthening Families. Marceline J. Watler, ACS-JSA Community Education Department

The workshop will focus on strengthening families by creating a revival or rebirth that will impact all its members. Topics: A look at the intergenerational culture; identifying strengths within families; and personal self assessment and explanation of the abilities of service providers to intervene, strengthen families, enhance social functioning, and help families create a balance between their coping abilities and environmental demands. Service providers will gain insight and skills to understand the durability within families that resists the disintegrative impact of change, but is pliable enough to allow readjustment and growth. Family Needs & Support

B5 ACE in the Workplace: Transforming “Power Over” to “Power Within” Your Agency and Personnel Judy Nordstrom, T.E.P.E. Training Institute

Employee burnout and turnover across human services is a problem of staggering proportions. To better understand this problem, we will look at multiple forms of organizational power as it relates to employees with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) histories. Using Anda and Felitti’s work, we will make the case that ACE shapes our use and deployment of power which can often add to worker stress. Better understanding the dynamics of workplace power can benefit employees who suffered adverse childhood experiences and aid administrators who want to decrease employee turnover so they may increase client outcomes. We will discuss the multiple levels and distribution of organizational power, highlighting some implications of employing ACE survivors. If you’ve ever felt power was used to disable rather than empower, you understand the need to explore this dynamic to improve client outcomes and decrease employee stress and burnout. Personal/Professional Development. Advanced Level: Experienced Professionals

B6 Educating the Heart and Mind: Using Two Research-based Programs to Encourage a New Generation of Safe, Resilient, and Socially Competent Young Children: Second Step and Talking About Touching. Michael Moretsky, Committee for Children

Educators especially concerned with the social and emotional well being of young children will be introduced to two valuable resources for the classroom and become familiar with the research and methods for each. The presentation will offer an in-depth look into Second Step: A Violence Prevention Program and Talking About Touching: A Personal Safety Curriculum and include a discussion on their respective research foundations, lesson formats, best practices for implementation and benefits to young children, parents and educators. Participants will gain an appreciation of the great benefits to young children, educators, and parents. Early Childhood

B7 Preventing Abusive Head Injuries Through Parent Education: The Upstate New York Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention Program. Mark Dias, MD, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Katheen deGuehery, Women’s and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo

Participants will receive updated information on the success of the Upstate New York Shaken Baby Prevention Program and learn how to implement such a program in their communities and obtain solutions to overcoming challenges and barriers to implementation. The hospital-based parent education program, begun in 1998 in eight counties of Western New York (WNY), produced a nearly 50 percent reduction in incidence of abusive head injuries between 1998 and 2004, compared with historical controls (Dias et al, Pediatrics 2005). The program expanded in 2000 to the nine counties of the Finger Lakes Region (FLR), resulting in a comparable reduction in this region as well. Phase II of the program combines hospital-based parent education with additional education about infant crying at the time of the first pediatric care provider visit. The results of this combination program suggest an additional 5 percent reduction in incidence above that seen with the hospital based program alone. Early Childhood

B8 “Gangs and You”... The Who’s, What’s, Why’s and What to Do’s About Gangs. Ron “Cook” Barrett, Albany Department of Youth and Workforce Services

The presentation will focus on the ever-growing problem of gang culture, the lure to our youth and how to deal with this epidemic. This graphic, fast-paced presentation will expose the real challenges that lie ahead in combating this violent culture. Prevention, intervention and suppression methods will be discussed. “Cook” Barrett has been directly involved in working with youth gangs on the street level, in correctional facilities and with his continued re-connection programs, for over 18 years. Middle Years/Adolescence