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Community Corner

NOVA experts present at Pathways conference on victim services

Four experts in victim services from the staff of Network of Victim Assistance presented workshops grounded in their professional expertise at the 13th Pathways for Victim Services Conference that was held June 4–6 in State College, Pa.

The three-day conference, hosted by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency’s Office of Victims’ Services, provided an opportunity for more than 300 victim service providers and allied professionals from within and beyond the state to enhance their skills, network and rejuvenate. The programs and speakers focused on promising practices and programs developed by professionals throughout Pennsylvania and the nation; included were keynotes from nationally recognized experts and presentation of the Governor’s Victim Service Pathfinder Awards.

Presenting three of the conference’s 30+ workshops were NOVA victim advocates Kendal Beck, Sandy Carvin and Kimberly J. Foster, MSW, Victim Assistance coordinator, and Leslie Slingsby, MSW, LSW, director of the Bucks County Children’s Advocacy Center.

Ms. Beck, with Roxy Reading Therapy Dogs founder and president Diane Smith and Roxy Reading’s Courthouse Therapy Dogs director Barb Blasko, led “The Victim-Canine Connection: The Role of Therapy Dogs in Victim Advocacy.” They demonstrated the methods and benefits of this Bucks County program that brings therapy dog support to children going through the criminal justice process.  

Ms. Beck and Ms. Carvin were joined by Lindsay Vaughan, Deputy District Attorney of the Bucks County DA’s Office, to present “Will the Judge Yell at Me?: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Preparing Children for Court.” The workshop identified challenges and barriers to preparing children and adolescents for court, as well as strategies for overcoming the obstacles, and highlighted the benefits of multi-disciplinary team collaboration.

Ms. Slingsby and Ms. Foster presented “CACs and Victim Services,” an overview of the role and standards of a multi-disciplinary team and a children’s advocacy center. The workshop included consideration of the challenges created by the collaborative, child-focused approach to child abuse cases and the strategies the Bucks County CAC implemented to ensure best practices for the child victims and their families.

http://www.novabucks.org/

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