Monday, September 26:  PRECONFERENCE

Advocacy Beyond Leaving Kenya Fairley & Heidi Notario-Smull

This session provides a woman-defined advocacy framework for safety planning with battered women in contact with current or former partners. Through discussion, presentation, and case study this workshop explores battered women’s risk analysis and decision-making, including why they remain in relationships or in contact with ex-partners. The role of advocates and core safety strategies for women and children in contact is also discussed.

Tuesday, September 27

Unraveling the Web of the DC Sniper Mildred Muhammad

When he emptied out their bank accounts, kidnapped their children, and disappeared, she had to learn to navigate the legal system, all while making sure that he did not find her. She had no money, no job, and she was living in a shelter for abused women when she began her uphill battle to find and claim her children. She finally got the children back when a judge in Washington State awarded her full custody. She knew that if she was going to stay alive, she needed to be both strong and smart. Mildred fled with her children from Washington State to Maryland. She honestly did not think that her ex-husband would be able to find out where she was living; she certainly did not believe he was a physical danger to anyone other than herself. When a sniper began shooting people in the DC metro area, it did not occur to her that the shooter could be her ex-husband, John Allen Muhammad. Like everyone else, she was looking for a white van, barely taking notice of the blue Caprice parked in front of her house.

When She Hits Him:  The Complexities of Understanding and Addressing Battered Women’s Use of Force Lisa Young Larrance, MSW

Women convicted of domestic violence are often court ordered to attend intervention programs designed and originated to address male battering behavior.  Such interventions may fail to prevent future violence by women, due to neither addressing context nor female participants’ unique needs.  By raising awareness about the gendered nature and complexity of women’s use of force ― in terms of the motivation, intent, and impact of their chosen actions ― this presentation offers session participants the opportunity to better understand effective intervention strategies for this population. 

Advocacy Beyond Leaving Kenya Fairley & Heidi Notario-Smull

This session provides an overview of a framework for safety planning with battered women in contact with current or former partners.

Breakout Sessions 1:30 - 3:00 pm

Children and Trauma Mildred Muhammad

Children are strong during times of trauma, at least that is what we would like to believe. Children need a reliable support system that will recognize their pain and assist them to transition. This workshop will assist you in recognizing the signs of trauma in children and how to help them through it.

Legal and Ethical Obligations for Serving Male Victims Juliana Koob

This workshop provides an overview of the law on gender discrimination including how it impacts domestic violence shelters across the country. Additional information specific to legal considerations in New Mexico is also discussed. Attendees will learn ways in which New Mexico programs are serving male victims.

Creating Curriculum for Women Arrested for Using Force Lisa Young Larance, MSW

This interactive workshop provides an overview of the philosophy,
design, and implementation of programmatic approaches to serving
women arrested for having used force in their relationships and
explores tools and strategies. Workshop participants are encouraged
to share their experiences working with members of this population.
This workshop is designed for beginners as well as experienced
practitioners.

Basics for Expert Witnessing
Deborah D. Tucker
Experts who serve as witnesses educate judges, juries and support
victims of domestic violence by explaining the responses of victims to abuse in all its forms and help the court to consider all manner of cases. This is an exciting and interesting form of advocacy, and participants will learn more about the role of an expert, the kinds of cases where such support is welcome and tips for testifying.

Breakout Sessions 3:15 - 4:45 pm

Advocacy Beyond Leaving Kenya Fairley & Heidi Notario-Smull

This session provides a woman-defined advocacy framework for safety planning with battered women in contact with current or former partners. Through discussion, presentation, and case study the session explores battered women’s risk analysis and decisionmaking,
including why they remain in relationships or in contact with ex-partners. The role of advocates and core safety strategies for women and children in contact will be discussed.

Flower Power Kristin Carmichael, LISW, MBA

The giving of a single red rose can be a more effective tool to control and manipulate a victim than a threat, put-down or act of physical violence. Offenders know this, but we often forget it. Given the horrific and high-stakes nature of abuse, we and our services tend to focus on
the extreme physical and/or emotional danger our clients face. These
realities demand our attention. But in doing so, we do not adequately
prepare victims for the more subtle and innocent-looking forms of abuse, -for the roses. This session explores how offenders use apparently non-abusive and even loving acts as tactics to maintain
their power and control over victims and what advocate of all types can do to help their clients defend against these manipulative strategies.

How to be an Ally to LGBTQ Victims Jenn Jevertson, MS
This experiential workshop explores what you need to understand about sexual orientation and gender identity to be an ally and advocate for Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) people.
 

Wednesday, September 28

Coercive Control Evan Stark, PhD, MSW

This keynote provides a broad overview of the coercive control model of abuse, show why it offers a more useful and accurate picture than the conventional focus on physical violence of the range of the oppressive tactics used in most abusive relationships, identifies the harms to liberty, dignity and autonomy caused by coercive control and sketch the implications of adapting the model for intervention.

Cambia el Estatus:Changing the Latino Immigrant Community’s Perceptions Towards Domestic Violence Virginia Perez-Ortega

The New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NMCADV) in collaboration with Hispanic Communications Network developed a multimedia campaign that addresses current perceptions of domestic violence (DV) within the Latino immigrant community – where DV is considered a social norm and tolerated by those not directly affected – and works to change perceptions among young adults so they consider DV to be unacceptable. The Cambia el Estatus (Change the Status) campaign takes a new direction and approach towards engaging the Latino immigrant community in the fight against DV.

Immigration Leslie Orloff

This presentation highlights new policies issued over the past year by the Department of Homeland Security designed to help protect immigrant victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking from detention, deportation and immigration enforcement. Safety planning and maintaining custody for immigrant survivors in an era of increased immigration enforcement and in the context of these new policies will be discussed. The presentation also includes
an overview of Violence Against Women Act immigration remedies and addresses immigrant victim access to state and federally funded services, programs and public benefits.

The Importance of Recognizing Tradition: A Panel Discussion

This panel discussion led by the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women staff and Council of Peace Members explores the topic of Native customs. The conversation focuses on the similarities and differences in customs within the tribes who are represented at this dialogue. The intent of the discussion is to find ways to provide insight to non-Native programs so they can provide better assistance to the Native women they serve.

Breakout Sessions 2:30 - 4:00 pm

Legal Rights of Children Liz McGrath

This session provides an overview of the legal rights of children with an emphasis on those legal rights that may be important in the context of a domestic violence case. For instance, there are times when a child has rights that may conflict with a parent’s rights to make decisions on behalf of their child or access all information about their child. In addition, this session identifies areas where children have few or no rights that may affect a parent’s ability to protect their child in the
context of a DV case.

Coercive Control Evan Stark, PhD, MSW

This workshop illustrates the specific dynamics of coercive control by
drawing on cases from Dr. Stark’s forensic practice. The training will
be largely drawn from his new book, Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life and thirty plus years experience in the battered women’s movement and as a forensic social worker.

Creating Access: An Introduction to Language Access and Interpretation Cannon Han

This workshop provides an overview of federal and state language access laws and offers an introduction to participants on interpretation: including the role of the interpreter; best practices for working with an interpreter; and finding a qualified interpreter.

Wounds that Don't Heal, Domestic Violence and Youth Suicide
Carl Russell 

Suicide is the outcome of complex interactions among neurobiological, relational, psychological, social/cultural, religious, and environmental risk and protective factors. Domestic violence dramatically exacerbates all the risk factors, putting children and youth at greater risk of taking their own lives.

This workshop explores the risk factors as they directly relate to the problem of domestic violence. The protective factors and ways they can be implemented to intervene in suicidal ideation will also be examined.