Pre-Symposium Sessions

• Registration will be from 12:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
• To register for one of the Pre-Symposium Sessions and the Symposium you must select each corresponding ticket in Eventbrite.
• Attendance certificates will be emailed to the e-mail address listed in your registration within one week after the training.

Sessions run concurrently: CHOOSE ONLY ONE AT REGISTRATION

Applying What We Know about Trauma to Investigative Strategies

Detective Greg Bacon

This training is open to sworn law enforcement officers. When conducting investigations of sexual assault, it is imperative for the initial responder as well as the investigative detective to understand how the brain responds to trauma. This session will explore the nature in which the brain responds to trauma and how both first responders and detectives can utilize this information to conduct more thorough and meaningful interviews with victims. This session will also inform participants about the importance of conducting trauma-informed investigations, define what trauma-informed investigation actually means, and aid first responders and detectives in understanding the common misconceptions that often lead to victim-blaming. Additionally, this session will explain the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study and how ACEs can be used during interviewing both victims and suspects.

(Note- this session is for law enforcement only.)

Continuing Education

• Law Enforcement Training-Annual Level In-Service (training approval number: 20-195A ): 3.5 LETs

Healthy Masculinity and 8 Steps to Engaging Men in Prevention

Patrick McGann and Jeremy Hardy (Men Can Stop Rape)

Sexual assault has typically been viewed as an issue for women and girls and not for men and boys. But we know that creating safer relationships and communities requires everyone’s involvement. In this training, Men Can Stop Rape (MCSR) will introduce their healthy masculinity approach as an effective strategy to positively engage more community men that includes 8 steps necessary to support and sustain a community-wide effort. By using healthy masculinity to reframe sexual assault as directly connected to men’s lives and by offering steps to engage community men as allies, this training will increase everyone’s understanding of the vital role men can play in addressing sexual assault.

Participants will learn:

1. To become more aware of the "Dominant Stories" of masculinity and better understand the importance of "Counter stories," and how these relate to healthy masculinity and engaging men in the prevention of violence against women and other forms of violence.

2. To positively reframe violence against women as directly connected to men’s lives and offer healthy masculinity as a viable means of preventing violence against women.

3. Strategies to effectively mobilize men so they can be better allies with women in ending sexism and violence against women.

4. The tools necessary to invite a cultural shift in masculinity and perceptions of men preventing sexual assault. Where Do You Stand?

(Note- this session is designed for Campus Grant Partners, Prevention Education Specialists, those that provide prevention programming and those who work with adolescent males in the community)

Continuing Education

• WV Board of Examiners for Counseling (Provider #WVBEC-518) : 3.25 contact hours
• WV Board of Examiners for Social Work (Provider # WV 490094): 3.25 contact hours