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Workshop TitleAbstractFirst NameLast NameTheme
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10 Mistakes Even the Best Advocates Make…. And How They Damage a Survivor’s Chances of Achieving Success in CourtEven the best-intentioned advocates sometimes make choices that quietly close a survivor’s path to justice. From advising “wait until you’re ready” to using weak and inaccurate language during documentation, small early actions can have massive consequences on a survivor’s ability to achieve justice in Court. This session uses real civil and criminal case examples to show how advocates can strengthen (and not sabotage) survivor’s access to civil justice without changing their trauma-informed approach. Attendees will leave empowered with ten specific, practical ways to preserve evidence, strengthen records, and safeguard survivors’ rights while provided trauma-informed healing.JoshuaKushnerAdvocacy
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5 Ways to Support Adolescents after Disclosures of Sexual ViolenceThis interactive session equips participants with practical, trauma-informed strategies for supporting adolescents following a disclosure of sexual violence. Using current research, case studies, and organizational best practices, the workshop focuses on five key intervention areas and explores how agencies can integrate them into everyday practice. Participants will leave with actionable tools to strengthen safety, trust, and coordinated responses for adolescent survivors.SheenaLewisYouth
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ACT Orientation for SupervisorsGet to know the new Advocate Core Training. This session is intended for supervisors and will provide a detailed overview of the course structure and content, as well as strategies to best support new staff as they complete the online lessons.MerylHookerLeadership
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Advocacy After the Conviction and BeyondWhile a criminal case is investigated and works its way through the court system, victims and survivors may have multiple local and knowledgeable sources for services and advocacy to aid in their trauma, and support them through the process. After sentencing, many such sources are not familiar with post-conviction, and victims don’t know who to reach out to, to: understand prison or supervision; get help; or have their voices heard in the post-conviction arena. In this presentation, participants will learn how victim services works within the correctional setting, opportunities and assistance available for victims, and how local advocates can assist victims in post-conviction.LISAKINARDAdvocacy
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Advocacy as Healing: Trauma-Informed Tools for Healthcare TeamsAdvocacy is more than a role—it is a force for healing. Survivors of sexual violence often encounter protocols without advocacy, leaving them retraumatized or unseen. This workshop reframes advocacy as the essential tool for trauma-informed care. Using Marie McKenzie’s R.I.S.E. framework (Recognize trauma, Initiate safe care, Support healing, Empower recovery), participants will explore gaps in survivor response, practice advocacy-centered communication, and build collaborative strategies across disciplines. Attendees will gain practical tools to foster survivor trust, reduce retraumatization, and integrate advocacy into organizational practices, ensuring that advocacy remains the most powerMarieMcKenzieAdvocacy/Healthcare
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Building Practitioner Confidence in Providing Services to Sexual Assault Victims/Survivors of Limited English Proficiency (LEP)This presentation aims to increase confidence in provider’s use of interpreters working with sexual assault victims/survivors of limited English proficiency (LEP). Research has shown that providers often fear a loss of control when utilizing interpreters with their LEP clients. This presentation dispels some of the myths and focuses on best practices for successful client outcome when interpreters and/or cultural brokers are engaged. This workshop is designed to increase provider confidence in the utilization of interpreters / cultural brokers when attending to a client with Limited English Proficiency (LEP), thus, demonstrate the value of the professional interpreter / cultural broker.TariAllanDisadvantaged Communities
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Building the Case for Justice: Litigating Minor Sexual Abuse Cases with Purpose and PrecisionThis workshop explores how litigation can serve as a powerful avenue for justice and accountability in cases of child sexual abuse. Participants will gain a trauma-informed understanding of abuse dynamics and learn practical strategies for building a strong case – from initial screening to evidentiary challenges through final disposition of the case. Emphasizing survivor-centered and trauma responsive practices, this session offers tangible tools for those seeking to transform legal action into a pathway for healing, empowerment and systemic change. NoellePolk ClarkLegal
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Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome: What Everyone Serving Child Survivors Needs to KnowUsing interactive audience participation tools, story-telling, and examples from recent media about the uptick in child sexual abuse rings online in recent years will drive audience engagement as the expert speaker shares evidence-based techniques to improve responses to, and outcomes for, child sexual abuse survivors.AprilLottYouth
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Connecting Systems, Centering Survivors: Advocacy in Post-Assault HealthcareMany survivors never return for medical follow-up after sexual assault—whether they report to law enforcement or not—due to fear, lack of support, or barriers within the healthcare system. This workshop explores how advocacy bridges the gap between crisis response and ongoing healthcare by guiding survivors through medication access, STI testing, pregnancy care, and system navigation. Participants will reflect on their current practices, examine barriers faced by survivors and providers, and learn how to build strong relationships with healthcare systems. Through practical tools and case studies, advocates will learn how to provide trauma-informed support before, during, and after medical foKristen Jacobs (Ferguson)Healthcare
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De la Violencia a la EsperanzaLos sobrevivientes de violencia sexual que no son ciudadanos a menudo enfrentan barreras únicas a su seguridad debido a preocupaciones migratorias. Este taller ofrece una visión general de la visa U, visa T y VAWA como formas cruciales de alivio migratorio para sobrevivientes.

Diseñada para trabajadores sociales, defensores de víctimas, abogados y terapeutas/consejeros, la sesión destaca cómo estas protecciones promueven la seguridad y la estabilidad, la importancia de la documentación y la defensa trauma informada, y el valor de la colaboración multidisciplinaria. Los participantes obtendrán conocimientos prácticos para identificar posibles alivios, realizar referidos informados y apoyar a los sobrevivientes en la transición del daño a la esperanza.		Jennifer CountsDisadvantaged Communities
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Family as Advocates: Empowering Secondary Survivors to Support HealingSecondary survivors often want to help but lack the tools to provide effective support, sometimes leading to re-traumatization of the survivor or burnout in themselves. This workshop focuses on equipping advocates to guide family members and loved ones toward healthy, empowering support. Participants will examine communication strategies, family dynamics, and culturally specific approaches to working with parents, partners, and children of survivors. We will also explore ways to help families become advocates for systemic change. This workshop will educate advocates on the Hope for Healing psychoeducation group, a trauma-informed program created to guide, support, and educate SS. Stephanie Herrera-MonteiroAdvocacy
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Fiction, Fantasy, and Prevention: Using Dark Romance as a Tool for Advocacy, Education, and Empowerment (TWO PARTS)This study examines how the dark romance genre shapes and reflects public understandings of sex, consent, and power, and how these narratives intersect with survivor healing, kink engagement, and advocacy. Through analysis of common tropes such as power imbalance, dubious consent, and moral ambiguity it explores how fantasy influences real-world views of intimacy and agency. Drawing on research about kink and trauma recovery, this paper highlights how advocates can use media literacy and trauma-informed, sex-positive approaches to challenge stigma, support survivors, and promote healthy, informed conversations about consent and desire. Michelle Peterson Prevention
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Florida’s Track-Kit™: The First Four Years (Part 1), Using Florida’s Track-Kit™ (Part 2)This workshop will start at the beginning with the establishment of Florida’s database for tracking sexual offense kits. An overview will be provided of Florida’s database, the Track-Kit™ application, along with the medical facility’s, law enforcement’s and laboratory’s responsibilities. The survivor portal will be reviewed, including how it's accessed, what is displayed, and potential questions an advocate may face. Survivor access will also be discussed.
The second part of the workshop would review in detail, the features of each non-survivor stakeholder’s use of Track-Kit™. The intended audience would be Track-Kit™ Users and presentation would be more interactive.		MarcellaScottAdvocacy/Healthcare/Legal
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From Harm to Hope: Immigration Relief for Survivors of Sexual ViolenceNoncitizen survivors of sexual violence often face unique barriers to safety due to immigration concerns. This workshop provides a focused overview of the U visa, T visa, and VAWA as critical forms of immigration relief for survivors.

Designed for social workers, victim advocates, attorneys, and therapists/counselors, the session highlights how these protections promote safety and stability, the importance of trauma-informed documentation and advocacy, and the value of multidisciplinary collaboration. Participants will gain practical insight to identify potential relief, make informed referrals, and support survivors in moving from harm toward hope.		Jennifer CountsDisadvantaged Communities
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From Prevention to Partnership: Engaging Fathers, Youth & Systems to Promote Healthy Relationships and SafetyThis workshop brings together Assistant State Attorney Octavius Holliday, Fatherhood P.R.I.D.E. Assistant Director Yul Johnson, and Youth Crime Prevention Director Monique Johnson for a dynamic conversation on how fathers, youth, and community systems can work together to promote healthy relationships and safety. The session addresses gaps in prevention by highlighting the importance of father engagement, youth leadership, and cross-system collaboration. The panel will explore how early, family-centered prevention efforts, such as fatherhood programs and youth empowerment initiatives, reduce risky behaviors and support positive decision-making around respect, boundaries, and accountability.MoniqueJohnsonPrevention
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Human Centric Interviews - Trauma Informed & BeyondDevelopment of various types of interviews & interrogations, child forensic interviews, and trauma informed interviews have all paved the way in which we seek to understand the human experience of victims, suspects, and witnesses of crime and tragedy. As we continue to learn about human behavior, memory, impact of trauma, neurodiversity, intersectionality, etc. we need to continue to apply advances in our knowledge and forge ahead to improve our practices. It’s not just trauma or a traumatic experience we need to understand - it’s so much more. We need to seek understanding and connection through an intersectional lens to better comprehend behavior and recall including past experiences.RussellStrandLegal
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It Takes Two to Tango: Collaboration Between Law Enforcement and Victim Advocates. This workshop aims to show advocates and law enforcement officers the similarities and differences between victim advocates and law enforcement. The goal is to show how each can help survivors, and how both can come together to collaborate. Collaboration between advocates and law enforcement is crucial to the wellbeing of the survivor and the likelihood of survivor participation in investigations and prosecutions. AlexcisMahoneyAdvocacy/Legal
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Movement Matters: Recalibrating Connection to Body & CommunityFor many sexual trauma survivors, disconnection from the physical body is a necessary survival adaptation. Healing can include fostering reconnection to the body and the self, which can flourish in a group environment. Learn how interoception and movement groups can help empower survivors to feel connected and supported in their lives and communities. Discussion will include brainstorming ways to bring movement to your community.BrandiGodbeeHolistic Healing
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Prevention Working GroupMonicaGarcia VegaPrevention
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Rompiendo el Silencio: Fotonovelas y Apoyo Comunitario para Trabajadores Agrícolas SobrevivientesEste taller presenta el modelo de alcance culturalmente sensible de MUJER, dirigido a comunidades de trabajadores agrícolas migrantes y poblaciones de difícil acceso que enfrentan barreras lingüísticas. A través de discusiones interactivas y el uso de Fotonovelas, los participantes aprenderán cómo el enfoque informado por el trauma empodera a los sobrevivientes para romper ciclos de silencio, violencia y machismo. Cristina, trabajadora de alcance comunitario de MUJER, compartirá estrategias prácticas para conectar con centros comunitarios y facilitar conversaciones lideradas por sobrevivientes. Los asistentes obtendrán herramientas para fomentar empoderamiento, sanación y resiliencia mediantCristinaAldanaDisadvantaged Communities
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Safety Planning with Latin@ SurvivorsThis session will explore strategies for safety planning with Latin@ survivors of sexual violence. Grounded in an understanding of the unique barriers and strengths within Latin@ communities, the presentation will highlight cultural values such as Familismo, Colectivismo, and Espiritualidad, which often influence survivor decision making and engagement with services. Participants will gain tools on co-creating safety plans with Latin@ survivors that honor their lived experiences, language preferences and community connections.PatriciaEmmanuelliAdvocacy/Disadvantaged Communities
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Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention for ProfessionalsCANCELLEDOliviaOropezaPrevention
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The Body as a Bridge: Integrating Trauma-Focused Yoga into TreatmentAs a follow-up to the keynote From the Body Up: When Lived Experience Leads Innovation, this workshop offers practical guidance for integrating Trauma-Focused Yoga (TFY) into clinical and advocacy settings. Participants will explore top-down and bottom-up approaches to trauma treatment, the philosophy and therapeutic applications of yoga, and key principles of TFY. The session covers implementation, staff training, funding, and sustainability, providing a clear path for developing evidence-informed, body-based services that strengthen survivor care and organizational wellness.JewelWestHolistic Healing
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The Power of Advocacy: Transforming Responses to Sexual Violence and Human Trafficking This workshop is designed to empower professionals, advocates, and community stakeholders with the knowledge, tools, and strategies to effectively advocate for survivors of sexual violence and human trafficking. Drawing on research, policy, and lived experience, participants will explore how advocacy can break cycles of harm, improve systemic responses, and create pathways toward healing and justice.
Survivors of sexual violence and human trafficking face significant barriers when seeking help. The first response they receive, whether from law enforcement, healthcare, or community services, can shape their entire healing journey and willingness to engage with the justice system. 		ChristineDepreAdvocacy/Human Trafficking
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The Unseen Chains: Recognizing and Responding to Human TraffickingHuman trafficking and sexual violence remain two of the most complex crimes affecting individuals, families, and communities across the nation. The Unseen Chains: Recognizing and Responding to Human Trafficking is an intermediate-level lecture designed to enhance participants’ understanding of the intersections between sexual violence and human trafficking, the mechanisms of exploitation, and the vital role of coordinated community and organizational responses. This workshop seeks to equip the public and service providers with the practical tools necessary to identify, respond to, and support survivors of trafficking and sexual violence through trauma responsive collaborative lenses.
Stephanie BaronaAdvocacy/Human Trafficking
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Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) Therapy. Are you tired of carrying the burden of unresolved trauma? Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) is an evidence-based, person-centered approach used in resolving symptoms of traumatic stress. TIR is a rapid method of effectively reducing traumatic stress from emotionally and/or physically painful events in the past. Emotional Charge occurs due to portions of memories that are stored in the amygdala (the brain’s emotion and physical sensations center), instead of the hippocampus (the brain’s life experience recall center). Within this framework the viewer is able to sort through their “emotional junk drawer”, define charged areas, then get “the root” of issues that have been the cause of emotional disturbances and resolve them.Crystal CampbellHolistic Healing
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Using Assertiveness to Sustain Our AdvocacyThis workshop is designed to motivate attendees to harness the power of advocacy to sustain our momentum during times of adversity. I will share lessons and techniques learned in building an advocacy center in the aftermath of a high-profile incident, defending the necessity of our work during challenge, and savoring wins to refuel the tanks of our teams and ourselves. While our roles may require asserting ourselves for others, we might hold back in advocating for ourselves in ways that can help us ensure we’re not pouring from our own near-empty cups. This workshop is a call to action and a round of applause – for all of us, advocates in our own way, in increasingly trying times.CaraTuttleAdvocacy
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Weaving Stories, Building Movements: Storytelling as a Tool for Collective Care, Prevention, and HealingRooted in respectful, anti-exploitative, and trauma-informed practices, this interactive workshop explores storytelling as a tool for collective care, healing, and movement sustainability. Focusing on advocates, educators, and frontline staff, the session provides a creative space to honor personal and collective stories, and build empathy and solidarity. This session invites participants to engage in grounding and creative reflection to strengthen resilience and shared values, leaving with rough story drafts and practical strategies to use narrative and creative practices for emotional safety and justice-centered work.MeghnaBhatPrevention/Youth
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What Does it Mean to be an Expert Witness - And WHY Would Anyone Do That?Where do most “experts” in sexual violence victimization and recovery work? At certified rape crisis centers and/or child advocacy centers! Why are we scrambling to identify experts in the state, or across the country, who can help juries understand the trauma of sexual violence when we have the necessary expertise? If not you, then who? Expert witness services in sexual assault cases provide critical, specialized knowledge to courts, enhancing the understanding of medical, psychological, and behavioral evidence. Experts, including psychologists, psychiatrists, and other licensed mental health professionals, offer testimony on trauma, the defensive cascade, and the short- and long-term psychological sequelae of sexual abuse and assault. An expert’s testimony can positively impact a sexual assault case by providing the jury with a better understanding of the relevant evidence and related scientific, forensic, and medical issues. Your expertise in the specifics of trauma (how it impacts memory and recall, why “counter-intuitive” behaviors make sense) can strengthen the prosecution’s efforts to validate a victim’s narrative of events before, during, and after the sexual assault.
Jennifer DrittLegal
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Whimsy in the Workplace: Fostering Creativity, Connection, and CareThis engaging and uplifting session invites participants—especially those working in sexual violence agencies—to rediscover the value of fun, creativity, and lightheartedness at work. While professionalism and productivity are essential in high-stakes environments, research shows that workplaces that embrace play and humor experience higher morale, stronger teamwork, and greater innovation. Through interactive discussion and experiential activities, participants will explore how incorporating moments of whimsy can reduce stress, support resilience, improve communication, and enhance overall job satisfaction, even in the emotionally demanding context of supporting survivors.NicolaPrichardLeadership
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Youth Deferred: How Childhood Sexual Abuse Impacts Human Development Discussing the overlap of childhood sexual abuse into the case work that we do with survivors, from children and/or adolescents into the adult clients that disclose childhood abuse, can give us specific insight into the patterns of how abuse and tolerance of abusive environments can become embedded in a family's dynamic. As advocates, practitioners and investigators, understanding the mechanisms of sexual and domestic violence as they pertain to child and adolescent development can give us a better understanding of many of our clients. New information suggesting that CSA may directly corelate to medical/psychological dysfunction will be discussed as well. BrianneVallenariYouth
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Youth Engagement in Sexual Assault Advocacy This workshop builds upon and highlights the youth prevention initiatives developed for Teen Dating Violence Awareness efforts in February. By centering teen voices and incorporating the tools, messages, and strategies already used in those campaigns, this session explores how to authentically engage young people in sexual violence prevention year-round. Participants will examine how social media, pop culture, and peer dynamics influence teens’ understanding of consent and relationships, and they will learn practical, youth-centered approaches for supporting healthy decision-making. ChristinaKelleyYouth/Advocacy
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