June 20-22 | OCLC Conference Center
Workshops
Tuesday from 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Presenter: Meghna Bhat
Description: Conversations around sexual and reproductive health or healing is often trivialized in our communities. Using storytelling as an innovative, creative, accessible and inclusive tool, we can transform the ways we engage our diverse communities across all generations in ongoing healthy dialogues about preventing gender violence. Learning how to write and share our true personal stories can also help us navigate our healing journey, while unpacking and normalizing conversations around sex, intimacy, reproductive and body autonomy. In this interactive intermediate session, participants will be provided an overview about storytelling, its types and the process. Next, they will be led through individual reflective activities to discover their own unique stories and practice active compassionate listening. Participants will walk away feeling empowered to write their stories as agents of change and choice. Last, culturally inclusive tools and resources will be shared for facilitating ethical and anti-oppressive storytelling activities in communities.
Bio: Meghna Bhat, Ph.D. is a renowned national gender and social justice consultant, educator, feminist scholar, and storyteller based in Sacramento, California. Using creative, inclusive, accessible and innovative tools such as storytelling, multidisciplinary art, and film, Dr. Bhat is committed to foster narrative and social change and community dialogue towards gender violence prevention education and outreach, cultural competency, street harassment awareness, and immigrant justice. She has successfully facilitated interactive workshops prevention education workshops on using storytelling and film as prevention tools at the IVAT San Diego Summit, the National Sexual Assault Conference, the California Partnership (CPEDV), and the NCEDSV conferences. As a proud first generation South Asian immigrant woman, she is one of the 45 recipients of the 2022 Seeding Creativity individual artist grant for a 1-year project that will use storytelling to address healing, health, etc within the larger South Asian diaspora community.
Presenter: Dr. Evelyn S. Williams
Description: This workshop promotes the use of the Trauma-informed Approaches (TIA) (CDC, SAMHSA) and two commonly used leadership models (Purpose Driven, Empathetic) to build staff retention and agency sustainability in fields with a risk for higher staff turnover due to stress on the job (i.e., social work, first response, victim services). Topics covered include the use of TIA to build strong, sustainable leadership from the individual staff, team, agency, and community levels. Lecture and discussion focus on how the TIA lens, using the 6 Guiding Principles of TIA, can be integrated into these commonly used leadership models, so that agency leadership can use the practice as they interact with their staff. The goal is to build strong, sustainable organizations while mitigating burnout, compassion fatigue, and subsequent high turnover rates. The concepts are practiced in the workshop on a sample workplace scenario.
Bio: Dr. Evelyn Williams started her advocacy work in 2001, hiring on with VAP in 2019. She has taught and worked with a variety of vulnerable populations, including survivors of assault, domestic violence, sexual violence, human trafficking, and substance use. Dr. Williams was recently promoted to Director of Educational Services, overseeing the Summit Victim Assistance Academy which offers the comprehensive Essentials training, customized educational presentations for allied professionals, and training for VAP staff. Dr. Williams is tasked with growing the SVAA while providing best practice trainings through a trauma-informed care lens. Dr. Williams holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Kent State University at Stark; master’s degree in Education, Kent State University; doctoral degree in Public Health, Walden University; is a Nationally Credentialed Victim Advocate; and certified to present QPR: Gatekeeper, CONNECT, and the Long-form Danger Assessment Tool. She also serves on several collaborative coalitions are focused on victimization and trauma-informed care services.
*limited to OAESV members*
Presenter: Catharsis Productions
Description: Beat the Blame Game plays back and dismantles the most common reasons why people blame victims of sexual violence and support alleged perpetrators. Research strongly links intervention during an incident to bystanders understanding that what they are witnessing is indeed problematic. Created for prevention practitioners, the program utilizes academic studies and real cases to illustrate how and why all of us are vulnerable to blaming the victim, and shares ways of challenging ourselves, and others, when we lose our way.
Participants will learn to:
• Recognize and reduce victim blaming behaviors in themselves and others
• Contribute to a culture that holds perpetrators accountable
• Increase the likelihood of bystander intervention
• Become actively involved in making real change in their communities
Bio: Catharsis Productions is a training consultant that helps create safe and respectful communities by challenging oppressive attitudes and shifting behavior with a little humor and a lot of Socratic method. We don’t shame; we engage. Our innovative programs, workshops, and consulting, engage every audience– this enables us to move the needle and inspire cultural change.
Wednesday from 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Presenter: Katherine Weber
Description: When the pandemic began, Women Helping Women’s sexual assault support group moved online. However, three years later, the group is still virtual. Using group attendance data and anecdotal feedback from members, I discuss the benefits and drawbacks of this (permanent?) shift to virtual connection. While we cannot deny the convenience factor of a virtual setting, we also have to acknowledge that some things are lost. Settling into a virtual routine has opened up the group to many who would not have been able to attend otherwise. Location, transportation, childcare, physical and mental health, and economic means were legitimate obstacles that hindered many from attending an in-person group, but survivors still express interest in in-person groups. However, the shift back is proving to be complicated. This workshop intends to address these issues and facilitate a conversation with other advocates who are looking to develop or reinvigorate groups at their own organizations.
Bio: Katherine (Katie) has worked at Women Helping Women since 2011. She is the advocate for the Personal Crimes Unit for the Cincinnati Police Department and she facilitates the agency’s sexual assault support group. She is credentialed as a Comprehensive Victim Intervention Specialist with Advanced Standing through the National Advocate Credentialing Program.
Presenters: Charlie Chadwick, Brandon Thompson, Misty Porter, & Ana León
Description: The need to root sexual violence prevention and advocacy in anti-oppression work is undeniable, but how do you accomplish this when your staff are at various stages of acknowledgment and awareness of social, political, and economic disparities in our society? Last year, the Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program made a commitment to critically reflect on our anti-oppressive efforts thus far and meaningfully engage in the harm that was caused by not making it a priority. As an organization, we have worked to develop a radical approach to centering anti-oppression in the workplace. We made the commitment to invest time, capacity, and resources to develop and implement a new internal approach that meets our staff where they are in their development. By discussing the oppressive history of the nonprofit industry, our ethical responsibility to engage in this work, and providing the model we’ve developed, we hope you will join us in our radical vision toward a more equitable and just future.
Bio: Charlie Chadwick (they/them) is the Workforce Development Program Manager at the Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program (SAOP). They started their work in violence prevention and advocacy as an intern for the Sexual Assault Prevention Program in Athens, OH while they completed their degree in Sociology and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Ohio University. Since then, they have worked at rape crisis centers in Colorado, Iowa, and Ohio with a focus on serving rural communities. In their role as Workforce Development Program Manager, Charlie facilitates workforce development training for New Leaf participants. New Leaf Justice Enterprises is a nonprofit social enterprise division of the Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program that provides individuals and their families impacted by trauma, substance use, and or incarceration with no-cost long-term housing for up to two years; access to living wage employment with workforce development training to ensure participants maintain living wage employment after they graduate from the program; and wrap-around supportive services that include free childcare, transportation, case management, and legal advocacy.
Bio: Brandon Thompson is a native of Athens County and earned his degrees from Ohio University. Brandon has been a long supporter of transforming the community he grew up in by facilitating Anti-Racism Book Clubs and trainings for various organizations. He is very interested in educating the community on the need for identifying healthy and unhealthy forms of masculinity. When he’s not working with SAOP, he spends his time DJ’ing, putting on the nation’s week-long craft beer festival, Ohio Brew Week, and running around with his 2 rad kids and awesome partner.
Bio: Misty Porter is an advocate at Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program. They help run the 24/7 crisis line and provide direct support services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. They serve on SAOP’s Anti-Oppression Taskforce and co-facilitate a Queer and Trans Youth Board Game Group. Misty is passionate about the power of community, deconstructing power hierarchies, and creating spaces where people can show up as their fullest self.
Bio: Ana León is an advocate at Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program. She helps run the 24/7 crisis line and provides direct support services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and human trafficking. She serves on SAOP’s Anti-Oppression Taskforce and coordinates the Women of Color in Athens Network, a local support group, and community safe space. Ana is also passionate about sustainable food access and has worked with local and international organizations promoting food sovereignty, environmental justice, and human rights.
Presenters: Megan Crouch & Roy Lutz
Description: Like everyone else on this planet, 2020 and the emergence of Covid had a tremendous impact on the prevention team for Safe on Main. We were forced off the traditional path of providing prevention education in schools and having large, in-person activities. An unexpected funding source allowed for a new and unique opportunity to develop community initiatives utilizing non-traditional partners. This workshop will share our story of a new path in community partnerships while allowing participants time and space to imagine their own opportunities for new agency partnerships and initiatives in their county.
Bio: Megan Crouch is the Director of Prevention for Safe on Main. Megan graduated from Miami University with a BS in Education and began working for Safe on Main (then Abuse & Rape Crisis Shelter) as the Assistant Children’s Coordinator. Megan began the role of Prevention Education Coordinator in 2006. As coordinator, Megan was able to get prevention programming in every school in Warren County and presented to over 3000 students a year. In 2014 she was promoted to the Director of Prevention. Megan currently oversees a staff of 4 Prevention Coordinators, the prevention programming in schools grades 6-12, as well as community initiatives such as the Storybook Strolls and the collective impact group Warren County Connect. Under Megan’s leadership, the prevention division was selected for the OAESV’s 2016 Community Changemaker Award and the 2017 Ohio Attorney Generals’ Promising Practice Award.
Bio: Roy Lutz is a conversation enthusiast who delivers high-energy presentations fueled by a passion for inspiring people. Roy’s gift is engaging people in dreaming big and then leveraging their talents for making great things happen. Applying the lessons he learned from a non-traditional upbringing, Roy’s sometimes fortuitous and often astonishing journey from high-school dropout to college graduate, child abuse and sexual assault victim to Ohio’s 2015 Children Services Caseworker of the year, allows him to use his story-telling as a way to engage and give courage to others. Roy is the Senior Prevention Coordinator for Safe on Main. He graduated from Western Oregon University with a BA in Corrections. His work experience is as bold as his biography. He’s worked as a professional photographer, police officer, case manager, preschool teacher, and parole officer. Roy hopes to show others how to connect what matters most to them to something that matters to everyone.
Wednesday from 1:15 PM - 2:45 PM
Presenters: Breanna Allen & Mary Margaret Whitney
Description: From its early inception in the 1970s, the rape crisis movement has been challenged to work within the systems that have historically caused harm to marginalized groups. Through a brief but deep dive into this history, participants will be able to identify and begin to rectify some of the harm that this movement has perpetuated. Attendees will begin to differentiate between their areas of privilege and ways to use that privilege to provide better advocacy as well as areas they lack privilege. Participants will work through case examples in small groups and be able to use the knowledge gained to effectively evaluate and improve the way they advocate for survivors. Presenters will highlight the importance of collaboration and use of multi-disciplinary teams to increase victim centered outcomes.
Bio: Breanna Allen is the current Director of Advocacy and Systems at the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center. Breanna has made it her personal and professional mission that we see all survivors and all they show up with. Breanna has been charged with Leading the advocacy team within CRCC in their mission to eradicate sexual violence by staying survivor centered but perpetrator focused and ensuring that all engagement internally and externally with the community leaders are met with inclusive and equitable lens.
Bio: Mary Margaret Whitney (she/her/hers) currently serves as the Director of Regional Services at Cleveland Rape Crisis Center. In her current role, she helps supervise a team that includes case management, advocacy, therapy, and education and outreach folks as they serve survivors in Ashtabula, Geauga, and Lake counties. She believes every survivor deserves a chance to have their voice heard and their rights respected. Mary Margaret is a Nationally Credentialed Advocate through the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA). She has been in the field of sexual violence for almost 10 years and hopes for a day when sexual violence is eliminated.
Presenters: Emily Uterhark, Abi Mello, & Kat Hartswick
Description: Throughout our own experiences as advocates we have seen a trend of survivors expressing their needs, wants, and goals that do not fit within the traditional criminal justice paradigm. Each survivor comes to us with their own unique lived experience that never fits within the confines of one type of justice. In order to better serve survivors, we believe survivors need access to traditional criminal justice systems and restorative justice programs. The adversarial nature of the criminal justice system can alienate numerous groups of survivors who will likely not engage in the process. Through restorative justice programs, we can increase the number of survivors who engage in their own healing and justice. In this workshop, the audience will learn about the basics of restorative justice, how it works within the sphere of sexual violence, and how we can apply these concepts to the state of Ohio.
Bio: Emily Uterhark has a decade of professional work served concurrently with an extensive educational career. As a graduate of John Carroll University and Cleveland State College of Law, she dedicated her academic career to the study of gender equity, feminist movements, and human rights and celebrated the publishing of several articles including “International Law and the Legalization of Abortion in Northern Ireland” and “A Comparative Study of Feminism in Ireland and England”. Her work advocating for survivors began with legal research at the Yemen Accountability Project, where she served at Deputy Chief of Intelligence. At the Yemen Accountability Project, Emily learned about the use of restorative justice processes in post-conflict nations. At the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, she is utilizing her legal expertise and knowledge of trauma-informed services and excited for restorative justice concepts to be applied to sexual violence cases.
Bio: Abi Mello has dedicated herself to the service of others. In 2019, she began her career as a financial volunteer for a Child Advocacy Center. While in college, she founded The Diamond Mission, Walsh University’s first student organization designated for raising awareness of and ending relationship and sexual violence on campus. Her experience and leadership as an advocate did not stop there. In 2021, she became an advocate at Townhall II in Portage County where she expanded her knowledge of sexual assault survivor services while concurrently serving as an intern at Kent State’s Center for Sexual and Relationship Violence. She immersed herself in the world of advocacy and ultimately came to the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center where she provides criminal justice advocacy and provides professional trainings on Title IX reform. With equal access to education and survivor-centered approaches in mind, Abi knows restorative justice could make an impact.
Bio: Kat Hartswick has nearly a decade long history of maintaining client relationships. Her extensive career at Portage County Child and Family Services in Northeast Ohio speaks to her investigation skills as well as her knowledge and practice of forensic interviewing and abuse assessments. Her years at Weltman, Weinberg, & Reis Co., LPA lended themselves to launch her into a legal client services field where she worked to maintain relationships, negotiate terms, and work with grieving family to resolve outstanding debts of their beloved deceased. In 2021, Kat began working at the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center as an Advocate where she supports survivors rights, educates community partners about the effects of trauma, and provides trauma-informed care to all survivors of sexual assault. She is excited to teach communities about the integration of restorative justice practices and how the benefits of alternative justice modes can be utilized to best serve survivors.
Presenter: Becca Getson
Description: We have the power to try to be superheroes: show up in a flash, answer the call at every hour, bring down a storm at every injustice, build impervious protections. Is this helpful? Is this healthy? Does this create lasting change? You are one person. Regardless of how many “hats you wear”, you are one person. Whether an advocate, social worker, attorney, nurse, law enforcement, manager, you are one person. While working with survivors, you have options and power in what you share, what resources you provide, when you are available, where you show up. This session will explore the challenges, benefits, and real-world options regarding boundaries with survivors, team members, management, agencies, and more. Together we will explore how and why boundary setting and maintaining ethical standards are so vital to teams, agencies, survivors, communities, and ourselves. Together we can build safety nets of support rather than lone superheroes.
Bio: Becca Getson, JD, RA (she/her) is the Director of Legal Services and Advocacy at the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence. Becca joined OAESV in May of 2018 as the Legal Advocate then served as OAESV’s Legal Advocacy Coordinator before now serving as the Director (as of Summer 2021). Becca has worked and volunteered across the land currently known as Ohio in various forms within the Sexual Violence movement. She started in the movement as a volunteer advocate in 2003 and since that time has worked at a shelter, been co-located within children services, responded to emergency hospital calls, operated as a deputy Title IX coordinator, provided systems-based support and resources, chaired committees, assisted in crafting policy, and coordinated efforts to both prevent and respond to sexual violence.
Thursday from 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Presenter: Remi Zellers
Description: This workshop goes over the difficulties of society’s standards of what a “perfect” survivor looks like according to media, Hollywood, and the criminal justice system. The workshop will highlight the constant struggle for Black women survivors’ engagement with the system, their own communities, and themselves. This workshop is to help bring awareness to those who are in a position to those voices who often get lost due to their color, culture, and status. This workshop will detail some popular topics, discussions, and uncomfortable conversations for those who were unaware of the treatment of BIPOC survivors.
Bio: Remi currently works with Cleveland Rape Crisis Center as a Victim Advocate specializing in Sexual Assault Kits and General Advocacy. She is a native of Cleveland, OH, and graduated from the University of Akron (BS) and Bowling Green State Universit y(M.S) On her off time, her favorite form of self-care is: traveling, spending time with family and friends, watching Anime, and listening to music.
Presenters: Katlin Shuherk & Erin Ostling-Burkholder
Description: Between the summer of 2021 and the Fall of 2022, the Prevention Program at Crime Victim Services began to host listening circles in the city of Lima, Ohio. Community Listening Circles, a form of guided discussion, provide a structured but less formal way for residents to share about the causes and impact of violent crime in their neighborhoods and serve as a launch point for community service agencies to develop programming that will directly address resident needs. This workshop will dive into Community Listening Circles and how they can be utilized in Prevention work to further our programs and outcomes.
Bio: Katlin Shuherk is an educator, photographer, academic, and a survivor. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 2012 as well as her Post-Baccalaureate teaching license in 2015 from the University of Findlay, and she is currently working towards her MA in professional communications degree at the same institution. Katlin currently serves her community as a Violence Prevention Coordinator in Putnam County at Crime Victim Services where her passion for education intersects with advocacy in an effort to make a safer space for all.
Bio: Erin Ostling Burkholder graduated from Bluffton University with Bachelor of Arts degrees in criminal justice and sociology, and a certificate in mediation and earned her MBA with a concentration in conflict transformation in 2016. She has a background in higher education enrollment management and has served as a mediator, circle process facilitator, and Title IX investigator. Erin currently serves as the Director of Outreach & Prevention at Crime Victim Services, providing educational training and outreach to end sexual violence in our community.
Presenter: Jamie Fairfield
Description: Over the past two school years, our team has been using iClicker technology to foster student engagement, while also collecting, storing, and analyzing data on student experiences and attitudes. This workshop will focus on ways in which this technology can enrich prevention programming and provide data that can shape future programming. It will teach participants how to use this technology, discuss the different types of questions that work well with iClickers as well as how they can drive student participation, and explore ways to store, analyze, and apply the data collected. As a disclaimer, this will focus entirely on prevention-based uses and implications.
Bio: Jamie Fairfield has been a Violence Prevention Educator for HelpLine since 2016.Before becoming a prevention educator, he taught at the University of Louisville, the Ohio State University, and the University of Kentucky, from which he earned his Ph.D. in English
Thursday from 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Presenters: Lindsey Lamp, Bella Adornetto, & Olivia Crichlow
Description: Do you feel like your path to providing prevention programming has hit a few potholes? During this session you will create an individualized roadmap to success for implementing school prevention programming at various grade levels. Identify and Discuss adjustments you need to make due to barriers that have risen. Determine how you plan to adapt your programming to overcome these barriers and increase your reach. Advance your program to meet developmentally appropriate learning content standards.
Bios:
Lindsey Lamp is the Prevention Coordinator at New Directions where she specializes in youth-led prevention, community education, and curriculum development. Lindsey has worked in the social service field for 15 years, with 5 of those at New Directions. Lindsey holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Early Childhood Education from Youngstown State University. Lindsey’s goal is to empower youth and community members with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to prevent violence.
Bella Adornetto is a Prevention Educator at New Directions where she specialized in facilitating and implementing community and youth prevention programming. Bella hasworked in the social service field for 7 years, with 3 of those years at New Directions. Bella goal to create a safe and secure learning environment where individuals can sharetheir stories and learn what it means to be in a healthy relationship. Bella knows the feeling of hopelessness that comes with knowing something feels wrong but being unsure of how to help and strives to provide individuals with more clarity.
Olivia Crichlow is a Prevention Educator at New Directions where she specialized in prevention programming in the schools and at the community level. Olivia has worked at New Directions for 3 years. Olivia’s aims to help individuals learn new knowledge and enhance their understanding of content related to intimate personal violence. As a prevention educator, she is given the opportunity to meet people where they are, and loves the opportunity to support growth, healing, and connectedness.
Presenters: Laura Niehaus, Alex Anastasia, & Miranda James
Description: This workshop will address current best practices for working with survivors of sexual violence from the LGBTQ+ community. We will recognize the intersectional identities of survivors and the ways sexual violence can impact their lives. In this conversation, we will ask: how can we transition our current advocacy best practices to be more affirming, accessible, healing-focused, trauma-informed, anti-oppressive, intersectional, and empowering in the future? We will examine systems, methods, and pathways to healing currently available to survivors and highlight existing barriers to these services. We will then discuss creating and uplifting alternative, non-traditional, and transformative pathways that will allow survivors to determine the meaning of healing and justice for themselves. Together, we hope to empower advocates to meet all survivors where they are and compassionately walk alongside them on their chosen path to healing.
Bios:
Laura Niehaus (she/her) is the BRAVO Outreach & Training Coordinator and has worked at Equitas Health since January 2021 and joined the BRAVO team in October 2022. Laura has a M.A. in Sociology from the University of Akron with focuses on Deviance, Gender, and Social Psychology. She has a background in violence prevention, education, and youth empowerment.
Alex Anastasia (she/they) is the BRAVO Program Manager and has worked at BRAVO/Equitas Health since May 2020. Alex has an M.A in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from OSU and has a background in disability studies and teaching.
Miranda James (she/they) is a BRAVO Advocate and has worked at BRAVO/Equitas Health since May 2020. Miranda has a B.A. in Anthropology from The College of Wooster and has a background in Title IX/Campus Advocacy and diet culture studies.
Presenter: Tecca L Thompson
Description: Exhaustion, burnout, and deregulation can not be cured by purchases, but through accessible practices that empower and liberate. Pause, Reset, and Restore is a 90-minute interactive self-care workshop designed to provide participants with self-care practices that are easy, practical, and accessible. The practices learned will help workers to find their internal resources to balance and restore their nervous systems. These practices are designed to help lower stress and prevent burnout. This workshop is suitable for staff, managers, and leadership working within community-based organizations serving survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
Bio: Tecca is the owner of Sacred Healing Spaces, LLC. She is a self-care facilitator who uses somatic and embodiment practices to create spaces of rest, healing, and transformation for Black and WOC. Tecca also supports Community-Based Organizations, healers and frontline workers by creating spaces for collective healing practices. She is a certified Somatic Stress Release™ Practitioner and a BreathZone® Breath instructor. Tecca also holds certifications in Yoga Nidra (Sleep Meditation), Community Storytelling, and Somatic Embodiment regulations strategies. Tecca is also a member of the OSU Mindfulness lab team where she will be offering mindfulness-based work for trauma and stress in historically marginalized communities
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