Join us in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom North for the kick-off to Leadership Conference 2016. Meet up with old friends, make new acquaintances, meet those voices from phone calls, teleconferences, and webinars and, talk to those names you recognize from NCA’s Listservs. We hope you can join us and take advantage of this superb opportunity to network and form relationships with NCA staff, board members, and CAC leaders from across the country. The presentation of NCA’s Annual Awards recognizing outstanding service in the Children’s Advocacy Center movement will occur during the reception. Please join NCA in recognizing the awardees who work every day to keep children safe.
Using case examples, this presentation will discuss how multidisciplinary team members can effectively work together to address human trafficking in their communities. This presentation will discuss how team members can collaborate to meet the needs of victims, support the successful prosecution of traffickers, and effectively address common challenges that can present themselves in these cases. Attendees will also learn about the systems and protocols the Connecticut Department of Children and Families has put in place to facilitate interagency collaboration and support the use of MDTs in addressing cases of human trafficking across the state.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
It is well-known that sexual abuse and misconduct can occur in child-centered activities and youth programs. In 2015, Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center and Chicago Park District collaborated to impact the safety of over 200,000 children through the “Keeping Children Safe” Prevention Education Program. Through both in-person and online training, and administrative consultation, “Keeping Children Safe” addresses risk factors for sexual abuse on both an individual and organizational level. Learn about the educational components utilized, coalitions formed, training outcome measures, and lessons learned throughout this successful initiative with one of the largest youthserving organizations in Chicago.
Suggested Session Track: Advocacy & Communications
With the ever-increasing use of social media in our personal and professional lives, it is important to understand the issues associated with these activities. The dangers involving blurred lines between personal and professional online use will be the focus of this training. How to avoid professional embarrassment, discipline issues or personal or family dangers because of online postings will be covered. Resources to assist in the development of agency policies for both private and professional social media use will also be provided.
Suggested Session Track: The Business of Child Advocacy
The 2017 NCA Accreditation Standards highlight the importance of delivering standardized assessments and using the results in making treatment recommendations for children. The increased number of evidence-based treatments (EBT) available lead to a need for greater skill in determining the fit among children and caregivers with a given EBT. Next, child and family factors contribute to treatment engagement in ways that providers must recognize in order to effectively complete treatment with children. This presentation will describe how two CACs implemented standardized assessments, discuss steps for determining an appropriate treatment, engagement rates, and how to use assessments to monitor treatment.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
In 2012, the Oregon Network and Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) began a multiphase initiative to study challenges to the long-term sustainability of Oregon's child advocacy centers. Drawing example from the work in Oregon, representatives from the Oregon Network and NFF will present an overview of the work and findings to come from this initiative, and provide insight and examples of the challenges inherent in the nonprofit field and facing many of the child abuse centers nationally. The audience will gain a perspective on the dynamics influencing Oregon's CACs, with observations transferable to other centers across the country.
Suggested Session Track: Chapter
Cultural diversity plans are one the NCA standards. Everyone has biases that are often unconscious yet impact the way we do business. This workshop addresses one CAC’s unique response to dealing with diversity by identifying areas of team bias and recognizing how it might affect a family and the case. The workshop will discuss how we began to identify these biases and then use case review to discuss the issues and address our attitudes to make the CAC a more culturally sensitive environment for all. This process and team members ‘response to it will be discussed in this workshop.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
CAC leadership often is faced with making tough choices in the furtherance of their mission. The independent nature of the CAC enables us to act and respond differently than other advocacy organizations, but our board, donors, and community may not always understand such distinctions and differences. Discussion of challenging issues faced by CACs will include: inclusion of defense council on your board, gift acceptance from sex offenders, partnership with offender organizations, being at odds with domestic violence and sexual assault programs, and politics. Format will have open conversation and problem solving for many difficult topics and ways to find resolution.
Suggested Session Track: The Business of Child Advocacy
Ever find yourself filling out a grant application and coming to the question "How will you sustain this effort?" Do you know how to respond? This session will focus on the elements that are critical to sustaining the CAC: A Clear Vision, an Engaged Board, Strategic Funding and the ability to Share Your Message. It will cover the steps needed to help the CAC move from being a Program to becoming an Organization. This session will also look at the developmental stages of CACs and assist attendees in determining the critical decision points to growing the impact of the Organization.
Suggested Session Track: The Business of Child Advocacy
Do you want to increase utilization of mental health services, but are not sure where to begin? Come learn about one CAC’s effort to increase engagement with mental health services from data collection and analysis to a implementing a screening tool with every CAC child client. Explore how to use qualitative and quantitative data from your MDT to “make the case” for screening to front-line professionals, supervisors, agency heads, and funders. Consider some of the roadblocks to imbedding a researched-based screening process within the MDT investigation. This workshop is particularly relevant for CACs who do not have on-site mental health services.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
This workshop will discuss the integration of newer and some innovative approaches, including mindfulness-based approaches, expressive therapies and mind-body medicine into existing curricula in the field of trauma recovery. Participants will discover the healing power of using concurrently held groups of children, teens and non-offending caregivers experiencing sexual trauma and traumatic loss. Data and vignettes from an actual 2 year CAC program will be shared along with empiricial support for these approaches. Participants will receive the "nuts and bolts" of starting a group program and serving more clients with limited resources. Experiential techniques will be conducted.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children is a severe and complex form of child sexual abuse that represents a particular challenge for mental health professionals. This workshop will describe Project Intersect, an initiative of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network specifically focused on the applications of trauma-focused treatment (TFCBT) with commercially sexually exploited children and their families, as well as the training of a network of mental health providers in Georgia to serve CSEC clients. The workshop will describe specific treatment and training approaches, strategies for building on existing CAC resources and capacities, and client- and provider-level outcome data.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
Since 2012, Ohio has implemented significant state-level policy initiatives to combat the crime of human trafficking. In its comprehensive response, the Governor’s Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force partnered with Ohio's CACs to identify and provide direct services to minor victims. After almost 3 years, more vulnerable children are receiving help and there is a stronger system in place for identifying and caring for victims. Participants will hear lessons learned, promising practices and tips for building a statewide systems approach; learn about the successes and challenges of responding through CACs; and hear about promising programs for preventing the exploitation of children.
Suggested Session Track: Advocacy & Communications
CAC Executives and managers must develop a dizzying array of competencies, both organizational and technical. A core set of materials and concepts used in NRCAC's Leadership Exchange and Coaching Project (LEC) addresses the more subtle interpersonal/organizational leadership proficiencies that technical trainings miss. These resources can inspire some valuable self-development and peer-development for those execs who have not yet done the popular 2-year program designed and led by Martha Lask with assistance from Anne Lynn. This workshop will introduce targeted materials (with some fun practice) for developing oneself as a CAC exec.
Suggested Session Track: The Business of Child Advocacy
Organizations typically move through several different stages of development—from birth to adolescence to maturity (and sometimes decline). With limited resources, it can be difficult for a Chapter to know how much energy to invest and at what time to best promote 1) local organizational health, and 2) the integrity of the CAC movement overall. This workshop will explore ways for Chapters to positively intervene with local CACs and help Chapters identify when it’s time to hold back so that metamorphosis can begin.
Suggested Session Track: Chapter
Trying to stay up-to-date on the latest research and literature can be a time-consuming process without the right tools and knowledge. This workshop will give you the tools and knowledge needed to locate the information you need for continuing education, peer review, proving your case to funders and community partners, and much more. The Child Abuse Library Online (CALiO™) has been redesigned for ease of use and expanded to give you more options for full text publications than ever before. Learn about the tools and knowledge that can save you time and effort.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
CACs have done a great job over the past 25+ years in enhancing CAC services offered to children and families. However, in Texas, it became clear that not enough attention and resources were being dedicated to strengthening and sustaining the MDT. This led to MDT members sometimes failing to understand and appreciate the value of the CAC and thereby made the CAC/MDT model increasingly vulnerable. CACTX developed an initiative to address this issue, which led to new staff who are dedicated to assessing and strengthening the MDT and facilitating a coordinated approach that begins earlier on in the investigation.
Suggested Session Track: Chapter
Collaborations, partnerships and alliances are now widely applied approaches to mission growth and sustainability. Such strategic action can be successful if it is planned for growth rather than reactive for survival. Strategic mergers take collaborations and partnerships a step further. This session will explore reasons to consider a new strategic direction, examine the factors that influence the likelihood of success, and help identify potential challenges in the process. In addition, participants will learn about a nonprofit organization that has successfully integrated several organizations under one umbrella organization to maximize results.
Suggested Session Track: The Business of Child Advocacy
Digital forensic imaging is part of most forensic medical examinations and has been for at least 10 years, yet administrators, coordinators, examiners, detective prosecutors and judges know little about the advancing technology. During this interactive introductory session, attendees will participate and learn about the capture, long term storage and the secure transmission of forensic data.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
As Executive Directors, we all have a goal of reducing employee burnout and improving employee retention. Many trainings discuss the issue of vicarious trauma and how it impacts staff. This training takes the next steps and uses what we know about vicarious trauma to inform agency polices. In this session, you will learn the techniques that an Executive Director can use to build resiliency in your staff members and how to make it affordable for your center. You will have the opportunity to discuss with colleagues and brainstorm what will work for your team.
Suggested Session Track: The Business of Child Advocacy
A national study found that childhood physical abuse rates were over 8 times the rate of sexual abuse; 84% of offenders were adults living in the home (Finkelhor et al., 2014). The NCA strategic plan recognizes the role of CACs in serving children with physical abuse histories. This presentation will describe research support and referral criteria for an evidence-based treatment for these children and caregivers: Alternatives for Families: A Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Kolko, Brown, et.al.). Case examples will illustrate implementation of AF-CBT at a CAC. Lastly, administrative considerations for implementing this treatment, which includes physically abusive caregivers, will be discussed.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
Nowadays more CACs and Chapters collect and have access to big data sets, not only from OMS and GAP maps but from other research sources as well. Please join us for a conversation about how to manage, analyze, and interpret data from large scale data sets. We will share tips on how to utilize the data to strengthen your practice and meaningfully interpret both positive and negative results.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
This briefing will be a background/primer on current CAC-related legislation in Congress. The session is an opportunity for all attendees to ask questions and prepare for their Hill Day meetings. We will also provide real examples of what to expect in the Hill meetings, as well as how to answer curve ball questions from lawmakers and staff.
Suggested Session Track: All Conference Attendees
Meet with the NCA Board of Directors and Executive Director to review the CAC movement’s accomplishments and milestones. New projects will be previewed. All conference attendees are invited and encouraged to attend.
Chapters are taking an ever-increasing role in providing structure to State CAC growth. As CAC growth occurs, Chapters are finding a proportional increase in technical assistance and training requests from CACs. As this evolution continues, Chapters will need to increase staff and infrastructure to meet the needs of CACs. In this session we will discuss ways to effectively manage and fund Chapter organizational growth to sustain the evolution of the CAC movement.
Suggested Session Track: Chapter
New NCA Accreditation Standards for Mental Health require: a) Trauma-specific assessment of traumatic events and abuse-related trauma symptoms, b) Use of standardized assessment measures initially to inform treatment, and to assess progress/outcome, and c) Individualized treatment planning based on assessments that are re-assessed. Currently, these services are seldom provided, and few staff/community providers are familiar or proficient with standardized measures. An assessment model will be presented that includes existing and promising measures, examples of using information to prioritize treatment needs/match with evidence-based treatments, and how to periodically re-assess. Lessons learned from training models in Texas and Mississippi will be discussed.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
Children’s Advocacy Centers collect vast amounts of data, through multiple methods and for many purposes – case tracking information, satisfaction surveys, and additional data for partners and funders. How can we combine this data in a way that allows us to draw clear conclusions, demonstrate the value of our programs, and make meaningful improvements for the families and professionals we serve? The West Virginia Child Advocacy Network (WVCAN), joined by representatives from the National Children’s Alliance, will explore current and future data integration initiatives focused on improving CAC services and outreach.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
Is it a big deal if teens sext? And what happens after they hit send? We will take a look at some examples of when sexting is linked to severe consequences, including bullying/cyberbullying, sextortion, and suicide, and discuss what we have learned about sexting prevention with teens. You will hear about free prevention resources available from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and other safety organizations.
Suggested Session Track: Advocacy & Communications
Safe Horizon and the National Children’s Advocacy Center have joined forces to identify essential factors to consider when developing and investing in professional development plans for forensic interviewers. The plan considers the sequencing of trainings, the importance of having time to practice & refine newly acquired skills, and the necessity of on-going coaching and supervision. Developing expertise in forensic interviewing takes take and retaining forensic interviewers can be challenging. This workshop will highlight both challenges and strategies to address them.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
This workshop will offer options to CACs and medical providers that help them to not only meet the NCA medical standard, but also continue their education through peer review options and medical courses. Best of all, they are all available without having to travel! Get a preview of not only existing programs, but newly released options.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
Especially through difficult times, you want the nonprofit whose cause you cherish to be the best in the provision of quality, impactful service for the people you serve. Translating the dream of a founder(s) to a lasting, purposeful, and focused nonprofit is often a challenge. As the nonprofit develops, there are new tests of sustainability - often fundraising challenges. Challenges are overcome through smart fundraising strategies. In this you will learn the latest trends, the most useful tools and the best practices to take you from where you are to where you want to be in fundraising effectiveness.
Suggested Session Track: The Business of Child Advocacy
This briefing will be a background/primer on current CAC-related legislation in Congress. The session is an opportunity for all attendees to ask questions and prepare for their Hill Day meetings. We will also provide real examples of what to expect in the Hill meetings, as well as how to answer curve ball questions from lawmakers and staff.
Suggested Session Track: All Conference Attendees
While multi-disciplinary responses to child abuse have been recommended as best practice, developing effective and collaborative ways of working are extremely difficult. This workshop will present the findings from an online survey conducted by the Crimes against Children Research Center and the Australian Centre for Child Protection about the factors that directors of CACs in the United States attribute to the successful development of collaborative relationships. It will explore what processes facilitate collaboration and whether different structures and funding arrangements impact collaboration. We will provide time to brainstorm and share ideas about developing, maintaining, and evaluating cross-agency relationships in CACs.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
Leadership change is inevitable. When an executive director or CEO leaves abruptly or not, who is prepared in your organization to emerge as their successor? This workshop will help you prepare for succession through intentional leadership development. We propose that most successful outcome will occur when staff potential is recognized, mentored and nurtured - not in the middle of crisis or major change. With recent published studies, unpublished surveys and the facilitator's own experience as resources, this workshop walks the participants through smart succession planning by means of leader development.
Suggested Session Track: The Business of Child Advocacy
This workshop will present an overview of the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), the Crime Victims Fund and programs supported with VOCA funds. VOCA is the only federal funding program supporting direct assistance and services for victims of all types of crimes. The workshop will explain where VOCA funds come from, how they are used and explore VOCA-related opportunities, challenges and issues.
Suggested Session Track: The Business of Child Advocacy
The Blueprint for Child Protection was born out of the realization that a fundamental and cultural shift is needed to protect children. As a network of leading institutions, we are required to take responsibility for the safety of the children of our community. As experts in the field, we have all heard stories about how an institution failed to protect children or did not act in accordance to the law. This training empowers professionals to engage community stakeholders and leaders to ensure that protection and prevention are top priorities by creating new strategies for prevention among Youth Serving Organizations.
Suggested Session Track: Advocacy & Communications
This session has been canceled as of 6/7/16. Please select another of the session 5 workshops to attend.
Emotional Awareness will introduce the science behind how emotions work and the impact of emotional awareness on our ability to lead ourselves as the foundation of successful leadership. The construct of emotional intelligence popularized by Daniel Goleman, begins with emotional awareness. Identification of one’s own emotions allows us to begin to more accurately identify our own contributions to interactions and how they can lead to more effective and rewarding work relationships. This will be accomplished through a number of engaging experiential exercises that illustrate concepts of appraisal, mindfulness, identification of triggers and strategies for effective management of emotions.
Suggested Session Track: Chapter
This session has been canceled as of 6/7/16. Please select another of the session 5 workshops to attend.
Earning media attention is critical to your organization’s success. With growing attention to the need to improve outcomes for children and youth, now is the time to harness every available option to secure coverage. Earned media allows a credible third party to raise your visibility, build trust and legitimize your brand. Sixty-seven percent of journalists are spending two hours on social media daily, looking for sources and stories. This workshop will offer practical information on how to incorporate social media into your media relations efforts. Participants will learn how to find reporters and build mutually beneficial relationships.
Suggested Session Track: Advocacy & Communications
One of the practice standards that remains a challenge for a developing CAC is to provide is a medical examination of the child victim of sexual abuse by a qualified medical provider. Although a face-to-face hands-on exam remains the gold standard, this presentation will describe a process that allows for a qualified medical provider to provide a detailed medical evaluation for the child not able to present for the face-to-face medical evaluation. The presentation will outline the challenges of finding the qualified medical provider, developing the protocols, overcoming the skeptics and the use of the technology in the clinical setting.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
Multiple challenges arise as CACs work to adopt, implement and sustain trauma-focused, evidence-based mental health treatments. Using a current training initiative based in North and South Carolina, the presentation will describe work involved in disseminating and sustaining a brief, early trauma-focused evidence-based treatment, the Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention (CFTSI). Presenters will describe strategies that support sustainability, including: organizational readiness assessment; organizational change strategies; implementing CFTSI with fidelity; addressing issues of staff turnover; and utilizing data to support implementation, improve practice and build stakeholder funder investment.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
A box lunch will be served for all conferences attendees who sign up for the lunch during registration. There will be about 15 minutes dedicated to any last minute announcements and logistics for the afternoon Hill Day visits. Conference attendees will have time to network with their teams prior to the Hill Day visits.
Conference participants will proceed to Capitol Hill for pre-scheduled appointments with their Congressional Representatives and State Senators. Be sure to attend one of the Hill Day sessions at the conference and the networking luncheon on Tuesday to obtain important information for your Hill Day visits. For additional information on Hill Day and the entire process, see the Hill Day essentials information in the Leadership Conference Program.
The health of a multidisciplinary team is critical to the effectiveness of a Children’s Advocacy Center. Members of the CAC/MDT from Westchester County New York will describe their team’s decision to confront head on the toxicity that developed among MDT members by using a unique approach that included senior leaders, supervisors and front line staff from each discipline over a three year period. The presenters will illustrate how the use of an outside facilitator and the introduction of tools like the “ladder of inference” and team development models worked to improve team communication, trust and cohesiveness.
Suggested Session Track: The Business of Child Advocacy
In 2012, Safe Horizon instituted the In-Depth Case Review (IDCR), a supportive and collaborative forum for assessing program practice and developing quality improvement initiatives. The IDCR allows program leaders and staff at all levels to utilize quantitative data and recordings of client-staff interactions to take a systematic program wide look at the current quality of program practice and make practice enhancements informed by data and real client experiences. Workshop facilitators will provide an overview of Safe Horizon’s CAC IDCR, present quantitative data shaping the context in which services are provided, and share examples of practice enhancements from the IDCR process.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
Anyone interested in closing the gap between potential clients who are eligible for services and the number of clients served through improving the referral process.
Suggested Session Track: Chapter
Research confirms that a significant amount of childhood sexual abuse is committed by individuals under 18 years old; the majority of these offenses occurring within the family. CACs play an integral role in leading the community response to child abuse through the use of the Multidisciplinary Team. Using this approach, The Dee Norton Lowcountry Children’s Center has worked to provide intervention and coordination for entire families in which sexual behaviors have occurred. This presentation will discuss implications for providing coordination and treatment services in CAC settings for youth with inappropriate/illegal sexual behavior, their child victims and families.
Suggested Session Track: Research & Innovative Practices
All participants are invited to join the staff of their respective Regional Children’s Advocacy Center for this important networking opportunity. Interact with other CAC directors, leaders, and chapter representatives. Discussions will include updates on current regional activities, initiatives, and ideas for strategic future planning.
Suggested Session Track: All Conference Attendees
All participants are invited to join the staff of their respective Regional Children’s Advocacy Center for this important networking opportunity. Interact with other CAC directors, leaders, and chapter representatives. Discussions will include updates on current regional activities, initiatives, and ideas for strategic future planning.
Suggested Session Track: All Conference Attendees
All participants are invited to join the staff of their respective Regional Children’s Advocacy Center for this important networking opportunity. Interact with other CAC directors, leaders, and chapter representatives. Discussions will include updates on current regional activities, initiatives, and ideas for strategic future planning.
Suggested Session Track: All Conference Attendees
All participants are invited to join the staff of their respective Regional Children’s Advocacy Center for this important networking opportunity. Interact with other CAC directors, leaders, and chapter representatives. Discussions will include updates on current regional activities, initiatives, and ideas for strategic future planning.
Suggested Session Track: All Conference Attendees