STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
ATTORNEY GENERAL’S TASK FORCE ON CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT
EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT
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Radisson Hotel Manchester
Manchester, New Hampshire
September 16-17, 2010
~ CONFERENCE PROGRAM AT A GLANCE ~
Thursday, September 16, 2010
8:00 am - 9:00 am REGISTRATION AND COFFEE
9:00 am - 9:15 am WELCOME AND INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
The Honorable Michael A. Delaney
Attorney General, State of New Hampshire
Sandra Matheson, Chair
Attorney General’s Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect
9:15 am - 10:00 am KEYNOTE ADDRESS
“Bias in Decision Making in Child Welfare”
Rita Cameron Wedding, Ph.D.
10:00 am - 10:15 am BREAK
10:15 am - 11:45 am SESSION 1: SEMINARS 1 - 6
11:45 am - 1:00 pm LUNCH and DR. ROGER FOSSUM AWARD BANQUET
1:15 pm - 2:45 pm SESSION 2: SEMINARS 7 - 12
2:45 pm - 3:00 pm BREAK
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm SESSION 3: SEMINARS 13 – 18
Friday, September 17, 2010
8:00 am - 9:00 am REGISTRATION AND BREAKFAST BUFFET
9:00 am – 10:00 am KEYNOTE ADDRESS
“A Teenager’s Account of Surviving Sexual Abuse and Exploitation” Addie Stockton
10:00 am – 10:15 am BREAK
10:15 am – 11:45 am SESSION 4: SEMINARS 19 – 24
11:45 am - 1:00 pm LUNCH
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm SESSION 5: SEMINARS 25 – 29
This project is funded by the US Department of Health & Human Services - Administration on Children, Youth and Families through the Children’s Justice Act Grant, #G-0801NHCJA1, which is administered by the New Hampshire Department of Justice.
About the Keynotes…
RITA CAMERON WEDDING, PH.D. is the Chair of the Department of Women’s Studies and a professor of Women’s Studies and Ethnic Studies at Sacramento State University. Dr. Cameron Wedding’s scholarship focuses on race, gender and social class disparities in institutions like child welfare, education and juvenile justice. Dr. Cameron Wedding has taught courses and developed curricula addressing implicit racial bias for over six years. She wrote the curriculum Addressing Racial Disproportionality in Child Welfare, One Social Worker, One Solution at a Time. Excerpts of this work are incorporated into the cultural competency curriculum of CalSWEK (California Social Work Education Curriculum).
Dr. Cameron Wedding provided the keynote address and facilitated a two-day conference for the Family Court of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, presented to the Children’s Bureau in Washington D.C. and provided expert testimony to the Florida Blueprint Commission on Juvenile Justice in Orlando Florida. In 2009, she addressed the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice, the National Conference of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Third National Judicial Leadership Summit on the Protection of Children.
Dr. Cameron Wedding has conducted trainings throughout the United States. In California she has provided county-wide trainings for children services agencies in San Fransisco, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, Santa Clara and Ventura Counties. She is a national consultant for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, one of the largest child advocacy programs in the country. Her curriculum on implicit bias is being used throughout the United States and more recently to train the Sacramento Police Department. In 2009 she was awarded a grant from the California Department of Corrections to assist California public schools to reduce biases in decision-making which lead to disparities in school suspensions and expulsions and disproportionate minority contact in juvenile justice.
Dr. Cameron Wedding’s work on gender, diversity and social justice is international in scope and includes work in Africa, Costa Rica, China and the Middle East. As a Fulbright Scholar, she conducted research in Tanzania and South Africa. In 2005 and 2007 she spoke on a national talk radio show in Johannesburg and Cape Town South Africa. In 2008 she taught at the United Nations University for Peace In Costa Rica and the United Nations University International Leadership Institute Conference on the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict in Amman Jordan.
In 2003 Dr. Cameron Wedding co-edited a textbook, Ethnic America: Readings in Race, Class and Gender. In 2004 she received the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award for the College of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies at Sacramento State University. In 2004 she co-authored Institutions, Ideologies and Individuals: Feminist Perspectives on Gender, Race and Class. This book, revised in 2008 includes a Bias: Impact on Decision-Makers in Child Welfare.
Dr. Cameron Wedding served two terms as a Governor’s appointee to the California Commission on the Status of Women. In 2007 she was appointed by the California State Senate to the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Cameron Wedding serves on the International Advisory Board of Global Majority, an organization that promotes world peace through conflict resolution education, mediation and advocacy.
Dr. Cameron Wedding is an approved OJJDP/NTTAC consultant who uses her expertise to provide TTA on issues such as, but not limited to Juvenile Justice, Community-based Services, Diversion, Gender Specific Issues, Incarceration/Prisons, Mediation/Conflict Resolution, Prevention and Reentry (juvenile).
KEYNOTE ADDRESS, Thursday, September 16, 2010 9:15 am – 10:00 am –
BIAS IN DECISION MAKING IN CHILD WELFARE – Dr. Cameron Wedding explains how bias can influence decision-making in all youth-serving agencies including child welfare, juvenile justice and education. Though we would like to believe that decisions regarding placement in child welfare, detention in juvenile justice or school suspensions are based solely on the facts, discretionary decision-making is highly susceptible to bias. Unconscious bias can distort perceptions of risk and delinquency because bias influences how decision makers describe what they see, interpret the reports they read and select the language that they use when filing reports.
ADDIE STOCKTON is 19 years old and currently employed part-time at the Hillsborough County Attorney’s Office. Addie is a sexual assault survivor and her passion is to help other sexually abused children by telling her story, so they too can have all the opportunities afforded her since she made her disclosure. Ms. Stockton loves writing and public speaking and has won various awards in speech competitions. She has focused most of her speaking around the abuse she survived and her own path of healing. Ms. Stockton may be a survivor of sexual abuse, but she is also a strong, young, success story.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS, Friday, September 17, 2010 9:00 am – 10:00 am
A TEENAGER’S ACCOUNT OF SURVIVING SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION - Addie is a remarkable, courageous 19 year-old woman who survived sexual abuse and exploitation by her father and others from age 7 to 12. Additionally, she was the subject of pornography created and distributed by her father over the Internet. Addie is speaking out about the abuse, how she survived and the systems that helped her through the trauma, the investigation and the prosecution. She will talk about the challenges she faced and how the disclosure affected her family, her academics and social life, and the resources that were essential to her recovery. This workshop will provide participants with a victim’s perspective on what works in our judicial and social systems and what doesn’t. Joining Addie in telling her story will be the State and Federal victim advocates.
About the Presenters…
Kathryn Adler, MSCJ is the former Executive Director of the Child Advocacy Center of Rockingham County (CACRC) and founder of the New Hampshire Network of Child Advocacy Centers. Ms. Adler has worked in the victim services field for over 18 years, in five states and is currently doing consulting work for non-profits. In her career she has served as a Victim Witness Advocate, Child Abuse Intervention Specialist and as an Education Specialist with the Department of Defense. Ms. Adler was designated by the Attorney General of Rhode Island as a forensic interviewer in 1999, and was the Coordinator of the Rhode Island Child Advocacy Center before coming to New Hampshire. Ms. Adler is a member of the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect.
Susan Beck M.S.W. oversees Permanency efforts and directs community-based programs, provides clinical supervision and, at times direct services to clients and families as a therapist. Prior to directing Community Based Services; Project Connect & Solid Foundations, Ms. Beck has served youth and families for over a decade in a variety of capacities ranging from a residential (behavioral) counselor, family worker, school social worker, community clinician, Treatment Coordinator and is currently Director of Permanency for the Becket Family of Services, residential & community programs. Ms. Beck is a graduate of Plymouth State College and the University Of New Hampshire Schools Of Social Work. Ms. Beck has special expertise in the area of substance abuse and addiction support. She is a certified Prime for Life Instructor and & Prime Solutions counselor. Ms Beck is committed to problem solving the current barriers that exit in helping youth and families successful achieve permanency in their home communities.
Roger “Rusty” Chadwick JD is a First Assistant County Attorney, with the Hillsborough County Attorney’s Office. He has worked for the Hillsborough County Attorney’s Office since 2000 and is a former New Hampshire Public Defender. Attorney Chadwick focuses on sexual assault, child pornography, and Internet Crime cases and was the lead counsel on the State v. Shane Vadney case.
Detective Timothy M. Craig holds a Bachelor and Associates Degree in Criminal Justice from Hesser College, along with an Associates Degree in Mechanical and Electrical Technology from the Air University - Community College of the Air Force (CCAF). He has been in New Hampshire Law Enforcement full time now for over 16 years, holding the position of Detective with the Manchester Police Department for over 9 years. Detective Craig is an investigator with the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, where his responsibility is a Digital Forensic Examiner with extensive skill set in Cell Phone Analysis for the Task Force. He is also a member of the New England Electronic Crimes Task Force (US Secret Service) where his skill set is in Network Intrusion Investigations.
Detective Mark Dumas, MA is a 16-year law enforcement veteran. He spent the first five years of his career with the Long Beach, California Police Department, and the past ten years with the City of Concord Police Department. He currently holds the position of Detective in Concord's Computer Crimes Unit. Detective Dumas has extensive training in computer and Internet based crimes, as well as computer forensics and has been responsible for investigating electronic crimes since 2003. He attended the National Computer Forensics Institute (NCFI) in Hoover, Alabama, a program jointly overseen by the Department of Homeland Security and the US Secret Service. Detective Dumas has also presented on computer related topics before various area groups and schools. Detective Dumas received his Bachelor's degree from Northeastern University and his Master's degree from California State University, Los Angeles. He is a member of the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, the US Secret Service New England Electronic Crimes Task Force, a technical partner in the New Hampshire Attorney General's Cyber Crime Initiative, and a member of the New England Chapter of the High Tech Crime Investigator's Association (HTCIA). Detective Dumas is also a Certified Computer Examiner (CCE) by the International Society of Forensic Computer Examiners (ISFCE).
Jennifer Durant, MA holds a Master’s in Sociological Practice from California State University San Marcos. She is the Public Policy Specialist for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, where she focuses on legislation that pertains to domestic and sexual violence and stalking, while also concentrating on family law issues by being a voice for children and families at the NH State House. Jennifer is also an Adjunct Professor at Saint Anselm College, where she teaches various sociology courses, including Introduction to Sociology, Family as Client, and Sociology of Family Violence. In addition, Jennifer continues to lead the state of New Hampshire toward addressing the growing problem of human trafficking. After two years of legislative successes, including the passage of the state’s first human trafficking law, Jennifer is the State Coordinator for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Trafficking (NHCAT), a statewide Coalition that is part of a 2-year project operating with 4 other New England states. This Coalition is made up of key members and NH organizations in the work against human trafficking.
Helen White Fitzgibbon, JD is an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of New Hampshire. A member of the Criminal Division, she is responsible for the prosecution of federal child exploitation cases, and is the Office’s coordinator for Project Safe Childhood in New Hampshire. She is also the designated Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) prosecutor. She is currently a member of the Governor’s Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence and the Attorney General’s Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect. She has also been a member of the Board of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), and served as its President from 1995 to 1997. Prior to joining the US Attorney’s Office in April of 1997, Attorney Fitzgibbon was a partner in the Manchester law firm of Devine and Nyquist.
Detective Matt Fleming is a 16-year veteran in law enforcement in New Hampshire. Currently he is employed by the Bedford New Hampshire Police Department and is assigned to the Detective Division responsible for the investigation into all sex related crimes. In 2004 he was assigned to the Steering Committee Task Force that ultimately opened the Hillsborough County North Child Advocacy Center County in 2007 located in Manchester. In 2009 he became a member of the Attorney General’s Child Abuse Protocol Training team that trained investigators statewide on the revised New Hampshire Attorney General’s Child Abuse and Neglect Protocols. Currently he is a member of the Child Fatality Review Committee as well as the Attorney General’s Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect.
Adele C. Gallant is the current Adolescent Worker in DCYF’s Manchester, NH District Office and has worked for DCYF for several years as a Child Protective Service Worker. Adele has previous experience as a child care counselor at a residential facility that specialized in the care of emotionally disordered children and youth.
Honorable Edward M. Gordon, Presiding Justice, Franklin District Court and Family Division earned his undergraduate degree at the University of New Hampshire, his MBA from Boston College and after completing law school he went on to partner with the Laconia Law firm of Wescott, Millham & Dyer. He was then Sworn into office by Governor Lynch as the Presiding Justice of the Franklin District Court in Franklin, NH. Judge Gordon served four terms (1995-2002) as State Senator for District Two (then 32 towns in Grafton and Belknap Counties). He has served terms as Chair of the Judiciary Committee, Chair of the Capital Budget Committee, and as Chair of the Transportation Committee. He has twice been elected as Selectman in the Town of Bristol and is currently Moderator for both the town of Bristol and the Newfound Area School District.