Calendar
Morning Session:
Strategies for Engaging Non-offending Caregivers and Addressing Professional Challenges in Child Sexual Abuse Cases
Child sexual abuse remains a pervasive societal issue, with nonoffending caregivers playing a crucial role in ensuring effective case outcomes and supporting child victims’ recovery. This workshop explores the complex dynamics of culpability, belief, and support in child sexual abuse cases, emphasizing the indispensable role of nonoffending caregivers from initial disclosure through forensic interviews, legal investigations, prosecution, and treatment.
Featuring two case histories of adult survivors, the session provides a window into the lasting impact of caregiver support on the long-term healing and outcomes for child victims. Participants will learn strategies to address challenges in engaging nonoffending caregivers, navigate professional frustrations, and apply trauma-informed approaches to foster caregiver involvement and kinship support in investigations.
This workshop underscores the importance of cultural sensitivity in investigations and interventions, identifying it as essential for the welfare of the child and family. Participants will also discuss the intergenerational aspect of child sexual abuse, addressing recidivism within families and the need for culturally sensitive practices to prevent and break abuse cycles.
In discussing implications for research, practice, and policy, the workshop advocates for a holistic, evidence-based approach that considers the complex, intergenerational nature of child sexual abuse cases. Participants will explore ways to advance research, foster supportive policies for nonoffending caregivers, and enhance collaborative, trauma-informed practices among professionals involved in child abuse investigations and treatment.
1. Participants will learn at least 3 practical, trauma-informed strategies to support and engage nonoffending caregivers.
2. Participants will be able to identify at least 3 approaches for managing frustrations in these complex cases.
3. Participants will gain insights into the importance of cultural sensitivity in investigations and be able to identify at least 3 culturally sensitive interventions.
Afternoon:
Get in the Zone: Strengthening Support for Families and Professionals
This interactive session equips professionals with the skills and confidence to implement No Hit Zones—a straightforward, impactful tool proven to strengthen families and address the leading risk factor for child abuse: corporal punishment. Participants will explore how No Hit Zones, successfully established in churches, daycares, hospitals, and child advocacy centers, are transforming child protection efforts and creating safer, more supportive environments. Through case histories featuring outcomes from adult survivors, along with evaluation results and forthcoming research, attendees will gain insight into the tangible impacts of NHZs.
This workshop offers practical strategies to prevent children from entering formal care, reduce professional burnout, enhance kinship care, and support investigative processes. Presenters will delve into community partnerships, innovative approaches for engaging families, and strategies for addressing poverty, while emphasizing collaboration with other family-serving systems, such as education, health, housing, and childcare.
The workshop will highlight the critical role of cultural sensitivity in investigations and interventions, essential for achieving positive outcomes and long-term welfare for children and families. By equipping caregivers with resources and effective alternatives, this session aims to empower child protection professionals to make informed decisions that safeguard children’s future and reduce recidivism.
Advocating a holistic approach to child maltreatment prevention, this workshop underscores the need for ongoing research to support evidence-based practices and policies that assist caregivers and foster a collaborative, trauma-informed framework among child welfare professionals.
1. Participants will be able to identify at least 3 benefits of using No Hit Zones in preventing child abuse.
2. Participants will learn at least 3 trauma-informed communication techniques to effectively engage caregivers.
3. Participants will learn at least 3 culturally sensitive alternatives to support a child’s well-being.
Description: In this session, participants will learn that sibling aggression is the most common form of family violence, but it is often minimized or dismissed. The first part of the session will focus on knowledge building. Participants will learn about four types of sibling aggression and abuse: physical, psychological, property, and sexual. A classification of sibling dynamics will be presented, distinguishing sibling rivalry and conflict from sibling aggression and abuse. Research will be presented showing that despite being viewed as harmless, sibling aggression is associated with negative impacts on mental and physical health and interpersonal relationships across the lifespan—and should be considered an adverse childhood experience. The second part of the session will focus on screening, intervention, and treatment. Strategies to help manage sibling conflict, aggression, and abuse will be reviewed. Case examples and excerpts from survivor narratives will be infused throughout the presentation.
Learning objectives:
- Participants will learn about the prevalence of sibling aggression and abuse, variation in experiences among diverse groups, and impacts on mental and physical health and interpersonal relationships across the lifespan.
- Participants will be able to explain cultural and institutional factors that make it difficult for children, parents, and professionals to recognize and respond to sibling aggression and abuse.
- Participants will learn best practices to detect, address, and prevent sibling aggression and abuse to protect children and help survivors heal.
This presentation examines the complex, nonlinear, and understudied relationship between maternal employment and unemployment, and patterns of employment and unemployment, and four types of child maltreatment. We describe the employment status and often nonstandard employment patterns of high-risk mothers at three child developmental ages and apply the results in the context of three theories used in extant research to understand the relationship between economic hardship and child maltreatment. We find that both too much and not enough paid employment are associated with increased risk for child maltreatment, and neglect in particular. Our findings indicate that income-support programs tied to employment maybe ineffective mechanisms for many families to balance time and money, key factors in the prevention of child maltreatment. As policy makers seek new approaches to prevent child maltreatment with a renewed focus on the role of poverty, researchers, policymakers, and clinicians must understand and consider the employment patterns of at-risk mothers as they seek to develop and implement new concrete supports for families.