Session Content

Keynote Address:
Denise Brown

No Excuse for Abuse — Recognizing, Confronting, and Ending Domestic Violence

9:15 am -10:15 am
Description:
Grounded in lived experience and a lifetime of advocacy, this keynote challenges the excuses, silence, and misconceptions that allow domestic violence to continue. Drawing from her family's story and her national work to end intimate partner violence, Denise Brown moves the conversation beyond awareness toward accountability and action. Participants will explore the warning signs and escalation patterns of abuse, the barriers that keep victims from leaving, the power of believing and supporting survivors, and practical ways that individuals, professionals, and communities can intervene to save lives.

Objectives:
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

  1. Describe the dynamics of domestic violence, including common warning signs and the patterns through which abuse escalates over time.

  2. Recognize how silence, blame, and well-intentioned responses can either support survivors or unintentionally reinforce the cycle of abuse.

  3. Identify practical, survivor-centered strategies for intervening and walking alongside individuals experiencing intimate partner violence.

  4. Apply key principles of a survivor-centered response — believing, supporting, and prioritizing safety — when responding to those affected by domestic violence.

Session 1

  • Description: This breakout session will examine the concept of victim-offender overlap and provide a framework for assessing culpability without losing sight of victimization. Through real-world case examples and guided discussion, participants will explore issues such as coercion, trauma, survival behaviors, recruitment of others, facilitation of criminal activity, and the role of free will in exploitative environments.

    Objectives: Attendees will leave with practical tools for evaluating complex cases, identifying relevant factors that influence culpability, and making informed decisions that balance accountability with an understanding of victimization. This session is designed to encourage thoughtful discussion and challenge participants to move beyond simplistic labels when assessing individuals involved in exploitation-related offenses.

  • Description: Sexual violence professionals often see only one part of a survivor's journey. In this presentation, Danielle Leukam shares her lived experience as a rape survivor, offering a rare full-circle perspective from the assault through the sexual assault forensic exam, criminal investigation, prosecution, and long-term healing.

    Using her case as a framework, Danielle explores the lasting impact of trauma, the importance of trauma-informed responses, and the role of community support and multidisciplinary collaboration in promoting healing and justice. Attendees will gain insight into how professional interactions can influence a survivor's experience long after a case concludes.

    The presentation includes elements of Danielle's case study, including excerpts from the 911 call, evidence photographs, investigative findings, and charges filed. Grounded in personal experience, this session highlights resilience, post-traumatic growth, and the process of reclaiming one's voice, body, and power after sexual violence. Participants will leave with practical insights to strengthen survivor-centered practices in their professional roles.

    Objectives: By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:

    1. Identify at least three trauma-informed approaches that promote safety, trust, and empowerment when working with victim/survivors of sexual violence. 

    2. Describe the impact that community support, multidisciplinary collaboration, and survivor-centered responses can have on a survivor's healing journey and engagement with services. 

    3. Apply lessons learned from a survivor's lived experience to strengthen their professional practice and improve interactions with victim/survivors.

  • Description: This session builds a shared understanding of the online and commercial sexual exploitation of youth and its intersection with human trafficking. Participants will explore foundational terminology, the risk factors that make young people vulnerable, and one of the step-by-step grooming processes often used by exploiters, including how technology is leveraged to target, isolate, and control youth. The session then moves from awareness to practice, equipping participants with trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and healing-centered strategies to create safe spaces where youth can recover and thrive.

    Objectives: By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

    1. Have a greater understanding of the online sexual exploitation of youth

    2. Examine the intersection of online exploitation and human trafficking

    3. Explore best practices and create safe spaces for youth to heal 

Presentation: 10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

Session 2

  • Description: Many professionals assume that leaving an abusive relationship ends the abuse. For many survivors, however, separation marks the beginning of a new phase of coercive control. Through family court proceedings, manipulation of systems, financial abuse, harassment, and the use of children as tools of continued control, survivors often remain trapped in an ongoing pattern of abuse long after the relationship has ended.

    Using case examples, interactive discussion, and multidisciplinary perspectives, participants will explore how coercive control evolves after separation, how it presents across systems, and the unintended ways helping professionals may become part of the abuse dynamic. Attendees will gain practical tools for recognizing these patterns, differentiating coercive control from conflict, and identifying opportunities for more effective intervention and survivor support.

    Objectives:

    1. Identify common tactics of post-separation coercive control and explain how they differ from conflict-driven post-divorce disputes.

    2. Describe how coercive control can be perpetuated through legal, child welfare, educational, and mental health systems, and explain the impact of systemic betrayal on survivors' safety, trust, and help-seeking behaviors.

    3. Apply trauma-informed and coercive-control-informed strategies to better support survivors navigating post-separation abuse.

  • Description: Human trafficking and family violence cases present unique challenges that require professionals to balance offender accountability with a trauma-informed, victim-centered approach. Trauma can significantly affect a victim's behavior, communication, willingness to participate, and engagement throughout an investigation and prosecution. Misinterpreting trauma responses can result in missed opportunities, weakened cases, and further harm to victims.

    This course explores how an understanding of trauma and common victim responses can improve investigative and prosecutorial decision-making. Participants will examine practical strategies for working with victims, assessing credibility without relying on common myths or misconceptions, collaborating across disciplines, and making informed case decisions that promote both justice and victim safety. Through discussion and real world case examples, attendees will gain practical tools to recognize trauma responses while maintaining ethical, victim centered, and evidence based practices.

    Objectives: Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

    1. Recognize how trauma affects victim behavior, memory, communication, and participation during investigations and prosecutions. 

    2. Identify common trauma responses that are frequently misinterpreted as indicators of deception, lack of credibility, or unwillingness to cooperate. 

    3. Apply trauma-informed principles to investigative and prosecutorial decision-making while maintaining offender accountability and ethical responsibilities. 

    4. Evaluate strategies for building trust with victims that minimize re-traumatization and encourage meaningful engagement throughout the criminal justice process. 

    5. Integrate multidisciplinary collaboration among law enforcement, prosecutors, advocates, forensic professionals, and service providers to improve outcomes for victims and strengthen cases. 

    6. Develop practical approaches for balancing victim-centered practices with evidence-based prosecution in human trafficking and family violence cases.

  • Description: Sexual violence professionals often see only one part of a survivor's journey. In this presentation, Danielle Leukam shares her lived experience as a rape survivor, offering a rare full-circle perspective from the assault through the sexual assault forensic exam, criminal investigation, prosecution, and long-term healing.

    Using her case as a framework, Danielle explores the lasting impact of trauma, the importance of trauma-informed responses, and the role of community support and multidisciplinary collaboration in promoting healing and justice. Attendees will gain insight into how professional interactions can influence a survivor's experience long after a case concludes.

    The presentation includes elements of Danielle's case study, including excerpts from the 911 call, evidence photographs, investigative findings, and charges filed. Grounded in personal experience, this session highlights resilience, post-traumatic growth, and the process of reclaiming one's voice, body, and power after sexual violence. Participants will leave with practical insights to strengthen survivor-centered practices in their professional roles.

    Objectives: By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:

    1. Identify at least three trauma-informed approaches that promote safety, trust, and empowerment when working with victim/survivors of sexual violence. 

    2. Describe the impact that community support, multidisciplinary collaboration, and survivor-centered responses can have on a survivor's healing journey and engagement with services. 

    3. Apply lessons learned from a survivor's lived experience to strengthen their professional practice and improve interactions with victim/survivors.

Presentation: 12:45 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Session 3

  • Description: When discussing prostitution, human trafficking, and commercial sexual exploitation, much of the conversation focuses on victims and traffickers. Yet the entire commercial sex market is sustained by one essential component: demand.

    This breakout session will examine the individuals who purchase sex and the critical role they play in fueling exploitation. Participants will explore current research, operational trends, and real-world case examples to better understand who is buying sex, why they purchase, and the impact their actions have on victims, trafficking networks, and vulnerable communities.

    Objectives: Attendees will examine the reality that sex buyers come from every profession, socioeconomic background, and demographic group. They are business executives, teachers, clergy members, firefighters, law enforcement officers, healthcare professionals, military personnel, and community leaders. This session will challenge common stereotypes and explore why effective demand-reduction strategies require a clear understanding of the individuals driving the market.

  • Description: Grounded in lived experience and research, this session reframes how professionals  (aka helpers) understand and respond to people who have experienced trafficking. It moves beyond a rescue-only mindset toward a trauma-informed, healing-centered approach. Participants will explore the realities of exploitation, why partnership matters, the power of language, and practical, humanizing ways to walk alongside individuals on their healing journey.

    Objectives: By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

    1. Describe the core principles of trauma-informed and healing-centered care, and how they differ from a traditional rescue model.

    2. Recognize how language, bias, and well-intentioned practices can either support or unintentionally re-harm people who have experienced trafficking.

    3. Identify practical, humanizing strategies for partnering with and supporting individuals across the stages of their healing journey.

    4. Apply key ethical considerations (privacy and consent, autonomy, and cultural humility) when working with people who have experienced trafficking.

  • Description: Children living in homes affected by coercive control and domestic violence experience far more than the incidents adults may observe. Long before professionals see behavioral concerns, children are learning lessons about safety, relationships, power, trust, and self-worth while adapting to environments shaped by fear, unpredictability, manipulation, and control.

    Through case examples, interactive discussion, and multidisciplinary perspectives, participants will explore how children make sense of coercive control before and after separation, the diverse ways children adapt to survive, and how those adaptations are often misunderstood by helping professionals. Attendees will gain practical insight into recognizing trauma responses, understanding the meaning beneath children's behaviors, and supporting resilience while avoiding common interventions that may unintentionally increase harm.

    Objectives:

    1. Describe the lessons children may learn about safety, relationships, power, and self-worth when exposed to coercive control and domestic violence.

    2. Identify common survival adaptations children develop in response to coercive control and explain how these adaptations may present differently across children and developmental stages.

    3. Apply a coercive-control-informed lens to better understand children's behaviors and support resilience, safety, and healthy development.

Presentation: 2:15 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.