Total Credits: 4.5 including 4.5 Category I CEs
The goal of the Moore Center’s annual conference, Envision: The Future of Prevention is to bring together individuals of varying backgrounds and unite them in a discussion of child sexual abuse prevention. By attending this conference, attendees will learn what has been accomplished within child sexual abuse prevention, where there are gaps, what research is being conducted with the aim of filling these gaps, and what the important considerations should be to move the prevention of child sexual abuse forward.
Through a variety of lectures, panel discussions, and networking opportunities, participants can expect to hear from the top researchers in the field, experienced treatment providers, and professionals working in the field of child sexual abuse prevention and youth protection as well as individuals with lived experienced of child sexual abuse. Presentations will focus on what has been accomplished within child sexual abuse prevention, where there are resources or information needed to advance the prevention of child sexual abuse, current research that is being conducted to advance child sexual abuse prevention, and new promising prevention programs and methods to prevent child sexual abuse.
Participants will leave with knowledge of the status of child sexual abuse prevention. They will have the opportunity to engage in discussions with individuals from various backgrounds surrounding child sexual abuse to create valuable contacts and obtain useful information to add to their knowledge base. Through various presentations they will learn practical ways that they can promote child sexual abuse prevention in the context of their professional and personal lives.
Dr. Elizabeth Letourneau is a Professor in the Department of Mental Health, and Director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. For more than 35 years she has focused on child sexual abuse prevention, practice, and policy. Dr. Letourneau’s work has attracted approximately $35 million in grants and gifts and resulted in more than 120 scientific papers and chapters and the edited volume What Works with Sex Offenders: Contemporary Perspectives in Theory, Assessment, Treatment and Prevention. She has advised the European Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, the World Bank, and other government, corporate, and NGO entities focused on the prevention of child sexual abuse and exploitation. Her research on sex offender registration policies has been cited in several U.S. state supreme court cases, by state legislatures, and by the American Law Institute. Her work has appeared in numerous media, including Bloomberg Bews, National Public Radio, Rolling Stones Magazine, TEDMED, and TIME. Dr. Letourneau is the 2022 recipient of the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA) Lifetime Achievement Award.
Simon Bailey was a police officer for 35 years, the last 8 as a chief constable and the national policing lead for child protection in the UK. He was responsible for designing and delivering the world’s leading response to targeting online CSA offenders and since retiring in 2021 has continued to work in the global online harm’s ecosystem with Child Rescue Coalition, and as the Chair of the Policing Institute for the Eastern Region. He has a master’s degree from Cambridge University and was awarded a CBE in the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honors List.
Iain Drennan has been the Executive Direct of WeProtect Global Alliance since its launch as an independent international institution in April 2020. Previously, he led the UK Home Office’s international response to child sexual abuse. Under Iain’s leadership, the UK was assessed top out of 60 countries in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Out of the Shadows Index on response to child sexual abuse and ratified the Council of Europe’s Lanzarote Convention against child sexual abuse. Prior to this, Iain worked in national security, foreign policy and counter terrorism roles in the UK civil service and diplomatic service.
Dr. Luciana Assini-Meytin, PhD, is an Assistant Scientist in the Department of Mental Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, and Deputy Director at the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse. Her research concentrates on developing and evaluating strategies for the primary prevention of child sexual abuse.
Luke Malone is an award-winning journalist and producer who has reported on sexual abuse and violence for over a decade. He was worked for outlets including The Washington Post, TIME, HBO, This American Life, The Atlantic, and Showtime, among others. He regularly speaks at national conferences, symposiums, and universities about his work in the area. He is currently co-writing a book on child sexual abuse prevention and the history of sex crime laws with Dr. Elizabeth Letourneau, director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Amanda Ruzicka, MA, is a senior research associate in the Department of Mental Health and deputy director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research primarily centers on the development, evaluation, and dissemination of effective strategies to prevent problem sexual behavior and child sexual abuse, with a focus on perpetration prevention efforts for youth and young adults. She is a co-developer of the Responsible Behavior with Younger Children program, Responsible Behavior with Younger Children for Teens with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and the Help Wanted Prevention Intervention.
8:00 am – 9:00 am Registration
9:00 am – 9:05 am Welcome - Elizabeth Letourneau, PhD
9:05 am – 9:45 am Child Sexual Abuse Prevention – What have we achieved and what are the next steps?
Presenter: Elizabeth Letourneau, PhD, Professor of Mental Health and Director, Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Child sexual abuse has traditionally been addressed through after-the-fact approaches such as treatment and law enforcement initiatives. Over the past decade, limited prevention efforts have expanded across the United States and the globe. This session will focus on monumental milestones made towards the prevention of child sexual abuse over the last decade and highlight crucial next steps to advancing prevention efforts.
From this presentation, participants will:
9:45 – 10:30 am We Cannot Arrest Our Way Out of the Problem: The Importance of a Whole System Approach to Tackling Child Sexual Abuse
Presenter: Simon Bailey, CBE, QPM, DL
The global pandemic of child sexual abuse is one of the greatest societal challenges of the 21st century, this presentation will focus on the scale of the threat, the impact on victims, the results of a world leading strategy targeting offenders, and the evidence which highlights that a whole system response is the only solution.
From this presentation, participants will understand:
10:30 am – 11:00 am Break
11:00 am – 12:05 pm How Can Policy and Funding Advance Prevention? Trends, Blockages, and Hopes for the Future.
Presenters: Iain Drennan, Executive Director of WeProtect Global Alliance
Prevention has often been the least prioritized aspect of society’s response to child sexual abuse, and yet it is the key to our ability to prevent abuse a scale. This session will explore the US strategy for prevention, the perspective of a global membership network on gaps and needs in policy and funding, and the opportunities that lie ahead.
From this presentation, participants will:
12:05 pm – 1:40 pm Lunch
1:40 pm – 2:20 pm Prevalence of Experiencing Boundary Violating Behaviors and Child Sexual Abuse in Large Youth Serving Organizations in the United States
Presenters: Luciana Assini-Meytin, PhD
Many youth serving organizations (YSOs) implement child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention strategies. This study examined: 1) the prevalence of CSA and boundary violating behaviors in YSOs and the 2) distribution of CSA and boundary violating behaviors across four YSO settings: large organizations for recreation and culture, organized sports, religious organizations, and music or arts programs. To assess whether these experiences have declined over time, we compared the rates of CSA and boundary violations by two nationally representative cohorts of US adults, one younger (ages 18-22; N = 3,174) and one older (ages 32-36; N = 3,237). Our results showed that 3.75% (n=363) of the entire sample reported experiencing CSA by adults in any YSO setting. Among survivors, younger adults reported a lower proportion of abuse experienced in large organizations for recreation and culture compared to older adults (29.1% vs 44.5%; p <.05). No statistically significantly differences in CSA victimization by cohort were observed in other three YSO settings (i.e., organized sports, religious organizations, music or arts programs). While not casual, these findings suggest that efforts to prevent CSA in large organizations for recreation and culture are yielding positive results.
From this presentation, participants will:
2:30 pm – 3:15pm BREAK-OUT SESSION: Adapting Responsible Behavior with Younger Children for Teens with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Presenter: Amanda Ruzicka, Senior Research Associate and Deputy Center Director
In recent years, child sexual victimization has been increasingly acknowledged as a preventable public health problem and the inclusion of prevention curricula in classrooms has become a popular solution. Over 75% of states in the United States (U.S.) have mandated school-based prevention programs that include age-appropriate child sexual abuse prevention content in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade classrooms. Despite such mandates, there are few evidence-based programs to address this need. Most prevention programs aim to teach children to recognize, resist, and report abuse, a responsibility experts argue should be shared with those most likely to engage in abuse. Over half of instances of child sexual victimization results from teens engaging younger children in sexual behaviors or peers in coerced sexual behaviors. Teens represent a unique population who are at risk of experiencing victimization while, at the same time, are at increased risk for engaging in problematic sexual behaviors against younger children and peers. Few prevention programs are designed for implementation with young teens in middle school, and even fewer are designed to meet the needs of neurodiverse teens, who experience heightened risks when compared to their neurotypical peers. Responsible Behavior with Younger
Children (RBYC) is a middle school prevention curriculum designed to prevent the onset of adolescent problematic sexual behavior by providing teens with the knowledge, skills, and resources to reduce their risks of engaging younger children in sexual behavior or engaging peers in non-consensual sexual behaviors. This talk will describe the development and initial evaluation of the RBYC program as well as focus on the adaptation for teens in intellectual and developmental disabilities.
From this presentation, participants will:
3:15 pm – 4:00 pm Student Poster Session
4:00 pm – 4:55pm Behind the Camera: Unpacking Abuse in the Family
Presenters: Amanda Mustard, Filmmaker and Photographer; Luke Malone, Journalist and Producer; and Elizabeth Letourneau, PhD, Professor of Mental Health and Director, Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
HBO Documentary Great Photo, Lovely Life director Amanda Mustard is joined by Moore Center director Elizabeth Letourneau and the documentary’s producer Luke Malone for a discussion on what can happen to a family in the wake of sexual abuse, and how one goes about telling their family’s story onscreen.
From this presentation, participants will:
4:55 pm – 5:00 pm Closing
5:00 pm – 5:15 pm Registration closes
Category I Maryland BSWE Requirement
The Office of Continuing Professional Education at the University Of Maryland School Of Social Work is authorized by the Board of Social Work Examiners in Maryland to sponsor social work continuing education programs. This workshop qualifies for {4.5} Category I Continuing Education Units. The Office of Continuing Professional Education is also authorized by the Maryland Board of Psychologists and the Maryland Board of Professional Counselors to sponsor Category A continuing professional education.
Please refer to the tab "In-Person Policies" for UMSSW Office of CPE policies regarding all in-person workshop related matters.
Social Workers, LCPCs, and Psychologists
We welcome anyone interested in the topic!
The base price is $90 and includes CE credit.
Cancellations** must be received 24 hours in advance prior to the workshop to receive a refund or an account credit.
Late fees cannot be refunded or applied to account credit.
**ALL cancellations will be subjected to a $35.00 administration fee.**
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