- 8:00 am - 9:00 am - Self-Care Yoga Session
- 9:00 am - 9:15 am - Opening Session
- 9:15 am - 10:20 am - Keynote Presentation
- 10:20 am - 10:30 am - Break
- 10:30 am -12:00 pm - Workshop Session D
- 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm - Lunch
- 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm - Workshop Session E
- 2:30 pm - 2:45 pm - Break
- 2:45 pm - 4:15 pm - Workshop Session F
- 4:15 pm - 5:00 pm - Awards & Closing Session
Give yourself a moment to find stillness and connect with your chakras. This slow and relaxing class is designed to get to the root of why we practice.
Maliyah is an artist, activist, and yogi based in Brooklyn, NY. Before she began her yoga journey, she served as an arts ambassador in Germany, Poland, Japan, Canada, and the US. She is delighted to be at this year’s OAESV conference and honored to share her practice.
Land Acknowledgement Information
Land acknowledgements are recognition of the Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Peoples and their ancestral and contemporary land, prior to their forced removal. In speaking these acknowledgements, it is necessary to explore the current impact of colonization and systemic oppression on Indigenous Peoples; colonization is an ongoing process and we are present participants on stolen land.
There are currently no federally recognized Native American and Indigenous tribes in the State of Ohio, but a number of tribal nations in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota and Minnesota have ancestral connections to Ohio land. Among the Historic Indigenous Tribes in Ohio were the Shawnee Tribe, the Chippewa Tribe, the Ojibwa (Oh-jib-way) Tribe, the Delaware Tribe, the Wyandot Tribe, the Eel River Tribe, the Kaskaskia Tribe, the Iroquois Tribe, the Miami Tribe, the Munsee Tribe, the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe, the Ottawa Tribe, the Piankashaw Tribe, the Sauk Tribe, the Potawatomi Tribe, the Seneca Tribe, and the Wea (Wee) Tribe. We stand in solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples who are the traditional stewards of this land and water. We acknowledge the history of oppression and genocide that brought us here, and our place within that history. We honor the Indigenous Peoples who lived and cared for the land before us, the Indigenous Peoples who reside in Ohio today, and the generations to come.
As we gather this week to restore our roots in accountability and transformative justice, we must reflect on the connection between sexual violence as a tool of colonialism, and of oppression, that continues to this day. There is an epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls with deep, intersectional roots including white supremacy and misogyny. Land acknowledgements are also a call to action: What will you commit to doing and learning today? How will you sustain this work? Please reflect on what this land acknowledgement means to you, and find ways to support Indigenous organizations in Ohio.
Orgs:
- Cleveland American Indian Movement
- Lake Erie Native American Council
- Myaamia Center through Miami University
- The Greater Cincinnati Native American Coalition
- The Miami Valley Council for Native Americans
- The Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio
April Carter, OAESV LAV Paralegal
OAESV Board Member
Kasie Holmes, Registered Mental Health Counseling Intern & Founder of Radical and Restorative Therapy
Kalimah Johnson, LMSW is a past Assistant Professor of Social Work at Marygrove College and Founder/Executive Director of SASHA Center in Detroit, Michigan. She is also a consultant to the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and the National Football League on matters of relationship safety and management. She has been an advocate and counselor to survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence for 20+ years and is an industry expert on topics related to culturally specific programming for sexual assault survivors, healthy relationships, domestic/sexual violence, emotional intelligence, mental health and well-being. Most recently, she completed the Athlete Development Professional Certification Program at the University of Pennsylvania-The Wharton School/Aresty Institute of Executive Education to increase her skills and capacity of working with and on behalf of professional athletes and continues to create culturally specific services/training and workshops for DV and SA programs nationally and abroad. Her interests include writing and performing poetry and she owns a natural hair care studio in her home-town Detroit.
Workshop #9 - Child Sexual Abuse Response and Prevention in Organizational Settings
Click here for the PDF of this presentation.
This workshop’s primary goal is to present a set of best-practice recommendations for child sexual abuse response and prevention in organizational settings developed by a group of researchers in academic institutions in the U.S. and abroad. These best practice recommendations were informed by a two-year research project in collaboration with some of the largest and longest operating youth serving organizations in the U.S. In this 90-minute session, participants will learn and engage in discussion about (1) the prevalence of child sexual abuse in organizational settings; (2) findings from an in-depth characterization of current responses and prevention measures using four of the largest U.S.-based youth serving organizations as exemplars; and (3) the best practice recommendations, or overarching goals, to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse in organizational settings.
Dr. Luciana Assini-Meytin is an Assistant Scientist at the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Mental Health. Her research is primarily concentrated on developing and evaluating strategies to prevent children from being sexually abused. Specifically, Dr. Assini-Meytin has collaborated in several projects focusing on the characterization and development of guidelines for preventing child sexual abuse in organizational settings. She also investigates the long-term consequences of sexual abuse and other types of traumatic events experienced in childhood for both men and women University, where they earned a Bachelor’s degree in Selected Studies in Education with an English major and Health and Wellness minor. Emily is proud of her peer education, advocacy, and trauma-informed care roots, and she is endlessly appreciative of the mentors who have gotten them here today.
Workshop #10 - Harnessing the Power of K-12 Policies for Outer-Level Prevention Work
Click here for the PDF of this presentation.
This workshop will help build context and knowledge for the school policy rubric created by Ohio’s K-12 School Policy Workgroup. We plan to explore the importance of policy work for preventionists, facilitate a deep-dive into the rubric, and include collaborative opportunities for attendees to interact and share knowledge. We will ground our presentation in theory, research, foundational knowledge about policy work, and use and application of the rubric. After establishing our process and theory, we hope to engage participants in conversations about specific components of the rubric by utilizing collaborative strategies. We aim to uplift successes, challenges, barriers, and potential solutions for doing outer-level prevention work with K-12 policies.
Maria Cole, M.S., CHES®, is the Prevention Manager at Women Helping Women, a domestic violence and rape crisis center in Cincinnati, Ohio. During her time in the field, she has focused on developing and facilitating sexual and intimate partner violence prevention programs to alcohol-serving establishments, colleges and universities, and businesses and corporations. She has helped build two innovative prevention programs, WorkStrong™ and the It’s On Us Bar Initiative, both of which center on the Social Ecological Model. She values collaboration, inclusivity, and empowerment in her work.
Workshop #11 - Providing Advocacy to Immigrant and Refugee Sexual Violence Survivors
Click here for the PDF of this presentation.
Click here for the PDF of “Cultural Humility Service Evaluation.”
Our workshop will be exploring the barriers service agencies face when helping immigrant and refugee survivors of sexual violence. Our goal is to explore how we can be more inclusive to the linguistic and cultural needs these survivors face. We will define various types of immigration statuses and terms, how these could impact services when helping survivors, barriers service agencies may face, and techniques to utilize within your agency to provide culturally humble services to survivors. This workshop will give you tools and practices to help trim away the weeds to restore growth and allow for more inclusion within your agencies.
Samantha Salamon is the Managing Attorney and Manager of the Ahimsa department at Asian Services in Action, Inc. In 2017, Mrs. Salamon began representing DV/SA/HT victims as ASIA’s Staff Attorney and was promoted to Ahimsa Manager in 2018. As of this year, Mrs. Salamon was promoted again as the Managing Attorney for the agency along with still Managing the Ahimsa department. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work with minors in Middle Eastern studies and Arabic, and a law degree from Cleveland State University, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. She has a passion for assisting vulnerable populations and believes that personal growth occurs most when working to help others. After living and working abroad as an attorney in Dubai, Mrs. Salamon understands the struggles an individual faces when dealing with unfamiliar cultural experiences and aspires to help people to the best of her ability obtain and protect their legal rights. She works closely with the Ohio Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Initiative, being the Co-Chair of the Legal and Legislative Subcommittee and facilitating the Labor Trafficking subcommittee. Furthermore, Samantha is leading the Culturally-Specific Trauma informed subcommittee of the Linking Systems of Care to Ohio’s Youth program. Lastly, she is a member of both the Cleveland Metropolitan and American Bar Associations.
Monicah Yonghang is a Bilingual Advocate in the Ahimsa Department at Asian Services In Action, Inc. She graduated high school from Damak Model Higher Secondary School, in Nepal in 2008. She is very passionate about helping people in the community or anyone who needs help. In 2018 she joined the Ahimsa Department. Her passion grew more for helping our sisters and brothers who are severely abused by their partners, physically, sexually, verbally, financially, etc. Monicah is able to speak two languages and has multicultural experiences. She provides culturally-responsive services, support, and advocacy to help clients adjust to changes and overcome challenges. She has an array of experience working with immigrant and refugee populations. She is a certified advocate through the National Organization of Victim Assistance (NOVA). She also co- chairs the Immigrant and Refugee Ohio Coalition (IROC) to End Sexual Violence which provides education and encouraging conversation around specific issues facing survivors from the immigrant and refugee communities.
Workshop #12 - Zines: opening worlds with pen, paper, and staples
Click here for the PDF of this presentation.
To paraphrase bell hooks, children make the best theorists, since they have not yet been educated into what our society deems “natural” or “inevitable”. They do not see why we might not do things differently. Let’s harness that youthful energy to do things differently! This is a collaborative workshop that works to empower participants and youth through an exploration of Zines as countercultural narratives from the Riot grrrl feminist punk movement in the early 90s and specifically looks at the work of Cindy Crabb, zine artist, Somatic Experience practitioner, and counselor. This workshop aims to reach teens in youth-led prevention work. This movement will be shown in parallel to the grassroots trajectory of RCC’s and will end with a set of 1-page zines that can be used as a model to engage youth in peer-led prevention initiatives addressing topics of transformative justice pertaining to gender, race, class, ability, and sexuality.
Nico Fuentes is an Ohio-based queer artist and preventionist at the Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program. A talker and lover of the tactile, they’re currently nestled in the lush foothills of Appalachia making art as a mode of resistance, healing, and dismantling shame. Fuentes has a background in family and Deaf studies, studio art, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies. With an affinity for self-soothing and rhythmic handcrafts, they displace their sociopolitical rage by empowering survivors in support groups, youth prevention work, and brisk walks uphill. Fuentes works to empower folks through the use of queer theory and the empowerment model with a staunch belief in art-making as a catalyst for community-building and systemic change.
Workshop #13 - Abolition is Transformative Justice
CANCELLED 🙁
A thought provoking and action inspiring PowerPoint presentation on Abolition and how it is the foundation of Transformative Justice. The presentee hopes to educate the attendee on the basics of Abolition and inspire them to use these tools and resources in our communities, as we continue to dismantle the oppressive system of white supremacy.
Hana Abdur-Rahim
Workshop #14 - Caring for Our Roots: A Providers Guide to Self-Care through the Root Chakra
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This training explores the unique self-care needs of providers through the lens of the Root Chakra. Providers in the field of sexual assault experience fear and stress on many levels throughout their career. The Root Chakra, located at the base of our spine, provides an opportunity to work through themes of grounding, belonging, tribe, safety and security which help counteract the effects of vicarious trauma. Attendees will have the opportunity to practice Root Chakra self-care through a light Chair Yoga practice, intention building, and breath work.
Jessica Martin has been the Director of Clinical Services for the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center since 2020. She served trauma survivors and their providers the previous 10 years at WomenSafe, Inc. Jessica’s prior experience includes Chief Clinical Officer and Yoga Instructor at The Green House domestic violence shelter, providing trauma therapy to adult and child survivors, advocacy, and teaching yoga in the community. Jessica, MSSA, LISW-S, CYT-300, received her Master of Science in Social administration from Case Western Reserve University in 2011, and a 300-hour Hatha and Restorative Yoga Certification from Awaken Yoga in 2019. To have a successful long-term career in the trauma field, she believes we need an intentional and sustainable practice of self-care. Her favorite selfcare activities include meditation, breath work, caring for plants, playing videogames and spending time with her family and friends.
Workshop #15 - Young Love Matters
Click here for the PDF of this presentation.
Young Love Matters is a panel discussion amongst Ohio youth to help communities understand the warning signs of an abusive relationship in order to help normalize healthy relationships. We will also discuss how to respect others’ boundaries and practice affirmative consent within ALL relationships.
Sharon Kidd, a native Clevelander, is the Executive Director of Table Talk Cleveland. Her passion for youth development and community outreach developed during her 10-month service commitment as a City Year Cleveland Corps Member.
She has worked within all levels of the education system and for a number of non-profit organizations. In 2012, she founded Table Talk Cleveland, which is an Empowerment Organization that seeks to share education and community resources, and provide mentorship and volunteer experiences to youth and young adults. Additionally, Table Talk Cleveland provides youth with academic, social and emotional support and help reveal the unique gifts and talents that each youth possess.
Sharon holds a Bachelor of Business Management, Administration & Leadership degree and a post graduate degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Franklin University. In her spare time, she enjoys volunteering with her daughter, thrifting and traveling.
Joshua Lamar Hill is a young professional who aspires to be a hand that reaches both forward and backward, connecting generations as we drive toward change, together. He says his passion lies with helping young people and serving at-risk youth and that he lives to impact, influence, inspire, and innovate.
Workshop #16 - Let’s Talk Oppression & Hold Each Other Accountable
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In our daily lives, we consciously and unconsciously witness or perpetrate violence towards people who identify at the margins. During this workshop, we’ll explore how sexual violence and forms of oppression are inadvertently intertwined. This workshop will provide tools to give and receive feedback in the workplace and with allied professionals. Participants will learn how to engage in difficult conversations to hold each other accountable when we cause harm.
Jackie Strohm is the Prevention and Resource Coordinator at the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. She provides training, resources, and support to local rape crisis centers with the goal of making communities safer for everyone. She previously served at PCAR as the Special Projects Coordinator, where she worked on projects related to telecounseling and serving male survivors. Jackie joined the movement to end sexual violence in 2012 as a peer educator on her college campus. She is a graduate of Temple University where she earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work.
Tatiana Piper is the Community Advocacy Coordinator at the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. She provides training and technical assistance related to engaging and supporting traditionally under- and unserved survivors of sexual violence; including older adults, individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, communities of color and incarcerated survivors. While at PCAR, she has developed resources, organized conferences, provided trainings and authored blogs focusing on the intersections of sexual violence and forms of oppressions. It is her life mission to ensure traditionally under- and unserved communities are not forgotten and always have a seat at the table.
Workshop #17 - Cultural Considerations in Dimensional Self-Care
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Self-care is often discussed as a ‘buzz word’ and can quickly lose its importance. In this workshop, dimensional self-care is discussed as an integral part of every person’s self-management and self-regulation. Self-care domains of Physical Care, Boundaries, Treating Myself Well, Needs & Duties, Realistic Vision, and Asking for/Accepting Help will be broken down into manageable components for participants to begin building their own self-care plans. Stress impacts each person and community differently so cultural considerations are woven throughout the training for people of color to address barriers to self-care and self-management. Delivered from a restorative care approach, this workshop welcomes participants to engage in ways to support themselves and restore their roots!
Casey Frazee Katz has more than ten years of experience working with issues of sexual and interpersonal violence in a variety of organizations and settings, including community agencies, non-profits, and government. In her current position, she was instrumental in expanding WHW’s rape crisis program to a dual-serving program offering full services to survivors of any type of gender-based violence as well as launching the Sexual Assault Response Team for Butler County in conjunction with prosecution and law enforcement partners. Under her leadership, the Butler County office of WHW received an award for ‘showing up whenever needed in the community.’ Casey is also an independently licensed counselor and works in private practice. Certified in EMDR therapy, her practice focuses on working with people who have survived traumatic experiences, particularly sexual and domestic violence. Focused on systemic change and self-care, Casey is an ardent social justice advocate.
Zoe Miller was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. Zoe found herself seeking a career path that would enlighten those she encountered while contributing to society by applying the values instilled in her by her Great Grandmother Manarah Clarke. In 2013, Zoe started her lifelong career path by pursuing a social work degree and obtained her MSW in 2018. In October 2018, Zoe was the recipient of the Jim and Elsa Croucher Advocacy Award presented by the Butler County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council. Over the last 4 years, Zoe has pursued a career of advocacy which includes being trauma-informed, empathetic to her client’s experiences, educating and empowering those she works with. She is currently employed at Women Helping Women as a UC Campus-Based advocate/Wellness and Prevention trainer. Zoe is humbled by the experiences and opportunities she has had early in her career and is committed to contributing her talent and efforts for improvement of the field that continues to inspire her each day.
Rosa Beltré, OAESV Executive Director
Kasie Holmes is the founder of Radical & Restorative Therapy and is a Registered Mental Health Counseling Intern in the state of Florida. Kasie’s educational background plays a significant role in her overall therapeutic and ideological approach. Specifically, Kasie has a Master’s of Art in Women’s and Gender Studies with a specialization in Public Health and a Master’s of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Considering this, Kasie integrates into their therapeutic approach how systems of oppression and privilege shape our lived experiences, our ways of knowing, our ways of living, our access to quality care, and our experiences with trauma. As a mental health counselor, Kasie adopts an integrative method that includes trauma-informed therapies, person-centered therapies, cognitive behavioral therapies, humanistic theories, mindfulness, feminist and queer theories, and transpersonal therapies. Kasie is an adamant supporter and active participant in anti-oppressive work. Radical & Restorative Therapy and Kasie welcome people from all intersecting identities. As a queer person with serious mental illness, Kasie created this space with the thought of “for us, by us” in mind.
Funding for this conference was made possible in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as by the Rape Crisis Funding awarded by the Ohio Governor’s office, administered by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers or moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services or of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.