CAP Conference Agenda & Workshops

Matt Sandoval and Erina Sanchez, Art Heals Arizona

This session is designed for people doing the work that changes lives. In 70 minutes, we'll name a pattern you likely experience every day but may not have a word for. Through guided reflection and creative collage-making, we'll create space to express what you're carrying, and you'll walk away with a plan to reclaim your peace without abandoning your commitment.

Rosemarie Strout, Sunrise Therapy, and Molly Kemp, MEd, Paradise Valley Family Resource Center

Learn about the benefits of building a connected community among agencies that provide resources and support for families in the Valley. By bridging the gap between organizations that provide similar or different services, you can create a stronger team of community support that encourages family engagement at a higher level.

Micaela Tracy and Alexis McLane, Voices for CASA Children

Child welfare professionals advocate every day, but strong advocacy requires more than passion. Participants will learn practical communication tools to turn their expertise into influence. We practice audience-centered framing, message clarity, and making a specific ask, plus strategies for tough conversations. Participants leave with a completed advocacy message they can use immediately.

Kylie Buchan, Lead Youth Advocacy Specialist, and Sydney Nichols, Permanency & Youth Services Supervisor, Department of Child Safety

This workshop will be led by a professional with lived expertise as a youth in the child welfare system. Having difficult and sensitive conversations is a common part of child welfare work, and it is important that we do this well. Understanding your attitudes about these conversations and developing strategies for successfully navigating them will help you more effectively engage children and youth with whom you are working.

Jessica McCowan, Arizona Supreme Court

Arizona's unusually high reliance on congregate care challenges our collective purpose of building strong, supported families. This session invites participants into a thoughtful conversation about what this trend means for children, families and professionals. Through discussion and shared reflection, we will explore the systemic pressures behind congregate placements and identify prevention-focused strategies that align with our values and strengthen community supports.

Dr. Carlian Dawson, AZ Center for African American Resources

This session provides an overview of the Resilient Roots Project Parenting Program, which integrates trauma science, cultural wisdom, and community-based practices across developmental stages to support Black parents and families raising Black children. Grounded in the neurosequential model, the program highlights the "3 Cs" of Culture, Connection and Care as protective factors that strengthen emotional regulation, identity development, and family resilience while reframing survival-based behaviors as adaptive responses to intergenerational trauma and racialized stress.

Cher Anderton, MSW, LICSW, Cher Anderton Consulting

Parenting and caring for children is one of the hardest jobs in the world — yet most adults were never formally taught the social-emotional skills required to do it well. This workshop explores how building foundational self-awareness, self-regulation and communication skills in adults strengthens families and supports child safety. Participants will learn practical, trauma-informed strategies to help caregivers increase calm, capacity, and confidence while reducing barriers to asking for help and accessing community resources.

Tiffany Mensah, Certified Trauma Support Specialist, D.O.V.E.S. Network

At last year's conference, we talked about belonging; this year, we're building it into the systems that serve families. This hands-on workshop will give you a practical framework for redesigning how your organization operates day to day. We'll map where your current systems create belonging versus where they accidentally retraumatize families, and you'll walk away with a concrete action plan to close those gaps.

Gabriel Josimar, MA, Reach Family Services

Life presents many challenges, but adversity does not have to derail our purpose or our ability to support children and families. This session will guide participants through an innovative, practical framework for identifying obstacles and developing purposeful strategies to overcome them. Participants will leave with renewed clarity, confidence, and actionable skills to move forward with intention.

Dodie Blomberg, MA, Dodie Blomberg Coaching and Consulting

Ever wish you could hand parents a tool that actually supports insights and transformation? In this experiential workshop, you'll step into a child's shoes, explore the brain science behind parental anger, and walk away with hands-on positive discipline tools. Come ready to laugh, reflect, and leave inspired.

Pamela J. Pearsall, Trauma-Informed Educator, Values Count LLC, and Ashley Stewart, BA, Psychology/Advanced Graduate Studies in Marriage & Family Therapy

What if there were a simple code that helped you understand why kids explode, shut down, or seem stuck in certain behaviors? In this interactive and engaging session, participants will use the Backpack, Balloon and Rock framework, along with personality colors and temperament insights, to decode how stress, identity and belonging shape behavior. Through hands-on activities and real-life scenarios, attendees will gain practical tools that make everyday interactions clearer, calmer, and more effective.

Patrick Hutchins, Dou-Bro University

When we center fathers as partners in prevention rather than afterthoughts in intervention, it inspires collaboration, mutual accountability and collective responsibility. This shared purpose among parents, professionals and communities creates safer environments for children.

Amy Castellanos, Moving the Soul, and Sandi Cimino, The Well-Made Bed LLC

Those who work with families and youth carry an invisible weight. Bearing witness to the impacts of adversity and trauma doesn't just accumulate — it multiplies. Yet professionals are rarely offered the same trauma-informed lens they are trained to extend to the families they serve. This workshop changes that. This is not a self-care checklist. It is a grounded, honest, and compassionate exploration of what it means to do this work over time — and how to keep doing it without losing yourself in it.

Tiffany Bucciarelli-Fay and Tassi Call, Amphitheater School District

Learn how Amphitheater School District has built a comprehensive early childhood continuum to reduce non-academic barriers and strengthen family stability. Through innovative programming and strong community partnerships, we connect families from preschool through elementary school with supports including Parents as Teachers home visitation, the ECHO after-school program, and the ECHO Family and Mobile Resource Centers. Participants will learn how integrated services such as family engagement, basic needs support, and enrichment opportunities improve student attendance, readiness and long-term success.

Jenesis Tellez, Peer Solutions

Join Peer Solutions for an interactive, peer-led workshop on Trauma-Informed Primary Prevention (TIPP). Learn how addressing the underlying conditions that contribute to harm, such as child abuse, creates safer, more resilient communities. Participants will learn relationship-building, recruitment and retention strategies that elevate youth voices and strengthen families, schools and community systems. Through hands-on activities, we will explore how connection, belonging and shared responsibility activate protective factors and support lasting, systemic change.

Caitlin Gonzales, MSW, LMSW, and Sal Carillo, Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest

Grandparents raising grandchildren step into caregiving roles unexpectedly, often with limited preparation and support. This workshop highlights a prevention-focused approach to strengthening kinship foster families by equipping grandparent caregivers with tools, peer connection, and access to critical resources. Participants will learn how targeted support builds protective factors, reduces caregiver stress, and promotes safety and stability for children.

Patsy Rethore-Larson, MEd, Department of Education

Self‑regulation is a crucial early childhood skill that supports long‑term emotional, social and academic success. Young children — especially those who have experienced trauma — depend on calm, responsive adults to help them manage strong emotions. This session examines the brain science behind self‑regulation and how stress, relationships and early experiences shape the developing nervous system. Participants will learn why co‑regulation is essential for emotional growth and how adults can strengthen their own regulation so they can provide steady, nurturing support even during challenging moments.

Christian Munoz and Ileana Salinas, Aliento

In Arizona, nearly one in nine students lives in a family with mixed immigration statuses, often navigating fear, instability, and systemic barriers that heighten stress and vulnerability. This session will equip professionals with practical, cross-sector strategies to better recognize risk, build trust, and strengthen protective factors for immigrant children and families. Through real-life stories, data-informed insights, and culturally responsive best practices, participants will challenge harmful myths and understand the structural pressures that impact safety and well-being. Leave prepared to collaborate more effectively, advocate with confidence, and help create systems in which every child feels safe, supported, and able to thrive.

Jeremy Thornton, Department of Child Safety

Step into the heart of the child welfare system with ReunifiCaseSim (Reunification Case Simulation), an immersive, facilitated experience. Become a parent striving to reunite with your child, navigating multiple services, making life-altering decisions, and facing the challenges of multiple systems. Walk a mile in their shoes and see the world through their eyes!

Jake Holley and Sara Ellis, Changing Tides Advocacy and Consulting

This workshop is for human services and community advocates ready to take the next step. Drawing from his own experience in foster care, the presenter will show how lived experience can become a tool for leadership, advocacy and prevention. Using the ABCs of Belonging framework, the session will explore trauma-informed care, building leaders, and creating community-driven prevention that works. Lived experience isn't the end of the story — it's where real change begins.

Tamara Powers, Southwest Human Development

This session strives to reignite the "why" that inspires the work you do, and will show how your unique strengths create real, lasting change for children and families. Through reflection and practical tools, participants will connect their daily actions to powerful outcomes — stronger caregivers, safer environments, and healthier child development. This training will highlight how purpose fuels resilience, how teamwork multiplies impact, and how small, intentional moments can transform life trajectories.

Cecilia Quiroz, RY Services

Families are shaped by patterns of connection, trauma and resilience that are often invisible in traditional documentation. This interactive workshop introduces genograms as practical tools for understanding family systems, strengthening engagement, and identifying protective factors that support prevention efforts. Participants will learn how mapping family relationships can guide purposeful decision-making, improve case planning, and build stronger support networks for children and caregivers.

Serena Samaniego, LPC, IMH-E, Clarvida

Using the model of reflective practice, this session will engage participants in café-style conversations aimed at fine-tuning their intention and passion for helping others. Attendees will learn the importance of the parallel process, uncover opportunities to create shared meaning and connection, and brainstorm ways of showing up with purpose in various relationships, including their relationship with themselves. Come ready to meet others and create intentional connections.

Lizzy Rasmussen, PhD, ThrivePsy Collective LLC

Resilient communities are essential to preventing child abuse and neglect. But resilience requires regulation, and regulation requires sleep. This session integrates developmental neuroscience, sleep health, and resilience science in the context of trauma to highlight an often overlooked promoter of resilience: sleep. Participants will explore how stress and trauma shape neurodevelopment and long-term health, and how restorative sleep supports regulation, learning, family engagement, and professional capacity.

Albert M. Pooley, MSW, MPA, Native American Fatherhood and Families Association

Strong families are the foundation of child well-being. This workshop introduces a culturally grounded, strengths-based framework built on three core pillars: self-worth, identity, and purpose. These pillars help families nurture healthy relationships, strengthen protective factors, and build shared responsibility for safe, nurturing environments in which children thrive. When children know their value, when families embrace identity and culture, and when parents lead with purpose, prevention becomes a community effort — proactive, united, and sustainable.

Brissa Rubio, Kenia Guzman and Kassandra Figueroa, Arizona Peer and Family Career Academy

Transition-aged foster youth (ages 18–25) face complex challenges related to mental health, housing stability, chronic conditions, and social connection. This session offers a practical, trauma-informed approach to the Eight Dimensions of Wellness and strategies for addressing social determinants of health in real-world settings. Participants will explore how small, intentional shifts in practice can strengthen engagement, promote resilience, and support holistic outcomes for youth transitioning into adulthood.

Roy Roundy, Educator, Primavera, and Madison Raksinh, LMSW, Shed & Bloom Therapy LLC

When children and caregivers lack tools for nervous system regulation, stress escalates into disconnection, reactivity and harm. This experiential workshop explores nervous system regulation as preventative care, offering practical, trauma-informed tools that educators, social workers, healthcare providers and family advocates can implement immediately. Participants will leave with strategies that strengthen resilience, reduce stress responses, and support safer, more connected relationships.

Sarah Tolar, City of Mesa

Strong early learning and resource systems are built through intentional partnerships. This workshop will share how the City of Mesa has worked to leverage cross-sector education partnerships to expand resources and supports for families with children ages 0-5, while also creating meaningful, hands-on experiences that help develop our future workforce. Workshop participants will engage in discussion around strategies that we have used to align our K-12 district, higher education, local government, and industry to strengthen family engagement, increase access to services, and build early exposure to pathways into education and child-serving careers.

Virginia Watahomigie, MA, Life-Envisioned/Coconino Coalition for Children & Youth

Feng shui leans on ancient wisdom and insight to bring prosperity and positive energy into the home and office environment. It can also promote work to regulate our biological systems and safety. In this training, these two systems become one for the benefit of your clients and yourself.

Anna Loebe, EdD, Children's Advocacy Center of Southern Arizona

Create a better world! Build trusted connections using the three Rs – Regulate-Relate-Reason. Dr. Bruce Perry's Neurosequential Model provides a way to understand the brain sequence that best leads to healthy social interactions and learning, especially with children or adults who have experienced trauma. This model underscores the need to have trusted connections with children before they can meet adult expectations.

Elizabeth Logan, Touchstone Health Services

This presentation emphasizes early intervention, relationship‑based care, and strength‑based support. Caregivers and professionals will leave with practical tools they can immediately apply to strengthen attachment, respond sensitively to big feelings, and support the developmental and emotional needs of young children who have experienced adversity. We will also cover strategies for discussing trauma with young children, identifying the unmet needs that drive challenging behaviors, supporting co‑regulation, and creating effective safety messages. Participants will further learn how to recognize and manage their own caregiver triggers to reduce escalation and promote a calm, nurturing environment.

Taylor Moschetti, New Pathways for Youth

Adolescence is a critical window for prevention, and connection is one of the strongest protective factors against harm. This interactive workshop reframes common youth behaviors through a nervous-system lens and introduces the Regulate → Relate → Reflect framework for responding with intention rather than reactivity. Participants will practice practical micro-skills that reduce defensiveness, restore agency, and strengthen trust with adolescents across systems.

Lisa Hitchens, Mickel Valenzuela and Alani Hammonds, CASA of Maricopa County

This interactive workshop helps child welfare professionals strengthen collaboration with CASA volunteers. Through real-world discussion and small-group activities, you’ll gain practical tools to improve communication, align roles, and maximize the unique strengths CASAs bring to every case. Walk away with clear strategies to build intentional partnerships that truly benefit children and families.

Rebecca Friesen, PhD, LeCroy & Milligan Associates, and Angela Tapia, Candelen

Family, friend and neighbor (FFN) caregivers provide care for a majority of Arizona's young children, yet they often receive little training or support despite the critical role they play in child well-being. This interactive session explores a year of evaluation data from an FFN caregiver program and demonstrates how intentionally supporting informal caregivers can strengthen protective factors, improve caregiving practices, and build connected systems of support for families.

Kayla Iannello, MPH, Maricopa Department of Public Health

This session explores Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) and its impact on newborns and families in Arizona, including how NAS is defined, how often it occurs, and how hospitals care for these infants. Participants will examine the power of non-stigmatizing language and trauma-informed practices in improving care experiences and outcomes. The presentation will emphasize the importance of keeping mothers and babies together while delivering coordinated, compassionate care. Attendees will also learn about their role in the Maricopa SHIFT (Safe Healthy Infants and Families Thrive) Collaborative.

Lawyer Johnson, Trauma-Informed Advocate, Motivational Wingz LLC

This workshop explores how childhood trauma — particularly abuse, neglect, and exposure to violence — shapes behavior, emotional regulation and relationships across the lifespan. Participants will gain insight into how survival behaviors often are rooted in unmet safety needs. The session emphasizes prevention, early intervention, and supportive engagement strategies that promote healing, resilience, and long-term well-being.

Lyssa Fregoso, Staci Salas, Tashira Turner, MSW, Matt Rothermund, Makenzie Forehand and Sarah Torres, Department of Child Safety  

Step into the role of a Department of Child Safety decision-maker and experience how decisions are made in real time. DCS Dash is an innovative, movement-based experiential workshop that places participants in the role of DCS investigators responding to evolving safety information. As scenarios unfold, participants physically move through the room to implement decisions, revealing the complexity and nuance of child protection decision-making. This high-energy session builds understanding to the multifaceted dynamics of DCS's determinations while reinforcing the training, clinical supervision, and structured analysis required in Arizona's child welfare practice.

Robin Blumenthal, MA, ACEs Certified Trainer

You took this job for a reason. Likely it was not the pay, but rather a sense of purpose; of calling. But somewhere stuck amongst the meetings, the hours, and the paperwork, your purpose went from a burning flame to a smoldering ember. Join us for this interactive workshop as we look into the essence of purpose and discover how to connect that science with our hearts to live inspirational and intentional lives that bring families healing and hope.

Lizette Roeder, Arizona Coalition to End Sexual & Domestic Violence

Today's youth are growing up immersed in global pop culture, with Asian media such as K-pop, anime, manga, and BL playing an increasingly powerful role in shaping how they see the world. Many young people are using these stories to explore identity, challenge norms, and connect across cultures. But some of these narratives, like their Western counterparts, can normalize intense emotional dependency, jealousy, and unhealthy relationship dynamics. This session explores Asian media not as a villain, but as a major cultural influence worth understanding. Participants will learn to engage critically with these trends and turn them into meaningful, teachable moments that support healthy relationships.

Marion Hill and Edward Casillas, IAG Solutions LLC

Discover how organizations can move beyond superficial efforts to genuinely engage fathers and strengthen families. This workshop offers practical strategies, assessment tools like the Father-Friendly Check-Up, and proven approaches to embed father inclusion into every aspect of your work. Join us to learn how intentional, committed actions can create lasting positive impacts on child safety, well-being, and family resilience.

Elliott Orrin Hinkle, Unicorn Solutions LLC

This interactive solution-oriented workshop invites professionals and caregivers to bring their challenges in supporting LGBTQIA2S+ youth impacted by systems such as foster care, juvenile justice, and family separation. Participants will have the opportunity to share real-world issues they face, and together we will explore practical tools, resources and feedback to address those challenges via a Friction Pivot Lab activity. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies to create affirming, supportive environments in which LGBTQIA2S+ youth can feel a true sense of belonging.

Amanda Hineline, MEd, BCBA, LBA, Illuminate Behavioral Consulting

Too often, behavior gets labeled before it gets understood. In settings with foster youth and children under stress, negative behavior is often a signal of overwhelm, unmet needs, or missing skills. When we slow down and look at behavior in context, our responses become more effective and more compassionate. This workshop will teach practical, accessible tools drawn from Applied Behavior Analysis, including ABC observation, trauma-context interpretation, and function-based thinking.

Noah Paul, Love Like A Dad Facilitator, Parent Aid

The teenage years can introduce new communication challenges within families. This interactive class is designed to help break down those barriers by supporting families in finding a new rhythm and tempo together. Through guided communication discovery using hand drums, participants will explore connection, listening and expression in a fun and engaging way. No percussion or musical experience is required.

Beth Dunn, Yavapai County Education Service Agency

Ever wonder how we develop listening, turn-taking, impulse control, graceful winning and losing, patience, assertion and perseverance skills? Humans, like many mammals, develop these skills through play and games. This workshop provides participants several inexpensive card, building block and dice activities that entertain while building social skills. Participants are invited to play along as we explore the skills dynamics in each activity and how they can be applied in individual, family, and small- and large-group settings. Come play with us!

Sarai Perez and Kelly Foster, Prevent Child Abuse America/Healthy Families America

When presented with an issue in supervision, it can be tempting to just solve the problem for a staff member and be done. However, consistently doing this can unintentionally limit professional growth, increase supervisor burnout, and create dependency rather than build problem-solving capacity. This session will explore the difference between problem-solving for staff versus problem-solving with staff. Participants will reflect on their own supervisory style, examine common situations in which they are most likely to take over solving problems, and learn practical strategies to coach staff through challenges while still providing appropriate support.

Erica Tatum-Sheade, DSW, LCSW, CAdPT, RPT-S, and Ryan M. Sheade, LCSW, Integrated Mental Health Associates

Professionals who serve children and families carry a unique weight, bearing witness to pain, navigating broken systems, and sometimes acting against their own moral compass to meet institutional demands. This experiential workshop explores self-care not as a luxury, but as an ethical responsibility grounded in professional codes of conduct. Attendees will learn to identify moral injury, understand its impact on their work, and develop a personalized, sustainable self-care plan using the DIG Deep framework. Participants will leave with more than good intentions; they will leave with a practice.

Renz Narciso, State Education Specialist, Department of Child Safety

Educational stability is a primary protective factor, yet navigating the education system remains one of the most daunting challenges for families and providers alike. In this activity-based session, using the Youth Thrive Framework as our compass, we will deconstruct common educational hurdles, from IEP navigation to school stability, and reframe them as opportunities for strengthening family resilience. Attendees will leave with a practical advocacy toolkit designed to foster authentic engagement between schools, families and community partners.

Cameran Fields, Cradle 2 Crayons/Reach for Resilience Supervisor, and Amanda Frechette, R4R Program Specialist, Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County

Participants will step into an immersive experiential workshop that places them in the shoes of a survivor of domestic violence navigating the child welfare and court system.

Elisia Manuel, Three Precious Miracles, and Celina Garza, Native Lifeway

Sacred Path to Wholeness is an immersive and transformative workshop that weaves together Indigenous wisdom, trauma-informed small movement practices, and holistic wellness to support healing and self-love. Through gentle movement, intentional breathwork, storytelling and cultural resilience, participants are invited into a safe and nurturing space to reconnect with themselves, release what no longer serves them, and restore balance in mind, body, and spirit. This experience honors the strength of our ancestors while empowering each individual on their personal journey toward wholeness and belonging.

Morgan Scadden, MEd,CYSHCN and Sensory Screening Program Manager, ADHS – Office of Children's Health; Peggy Peixoto, MEd, MIECHV Program Manager, Arizona Department of Health Services; and First Things First Program Strategy Specialists Kyoko Tavasoli and Christine Waldbeiser.

This interactive workshop introduces the essentials of preventative developmental and sensory screening for young children across Arizona, clarifying what screening is, why it matters, and how early identification supports lifelong outcomes. Participants will explore ways to destigmatize screening through trauma-informed and culturally responsive approaches that build trust with families.

Rosemarie Strout, Sunrise Therapy

Families cannot benefit from prevention services if fear keeps them from walking through the door. This interactive session explores how providers can act with purpose to reduce fear, build trust and increase engagement among immigrant families using culturally responsive strategies and the Triple P Positive Parenting Program framework. Participants will examine real-world barriers to attendance and practice practical messaging, outreach and delivery adjustments that promote psychological safety. Walk away with concrete tools to strengthen access, equity and family engagement in your community.

Liliana Montoya, MAPC, IMH-E Infant Mental Health Specialist/Reflective Supervision Consultation Provider

Discover how Reflective Supervision – a collaborative, relationship-based process between a practitioner and supervisor – may be beneficial in your career. This workshop will cover some basic terms and dive into the outcomes of what this practice provides.

Vikki Snipes, Arizona Department of Education

In this workshop, participants will learn about the world of book arts. There will be examples of different kinds of handmade books, along with a discussion on how bookmaking can be used as a form of self‑care for both adults and children. At the end of the session, participants will have an opportunity to create their own little book.

Rick Griffin, Founder and CEO, Neuro Leadership Academy, and Claire Louge, Executive Director, Prevent Child Abuse Arizona

Prevention is not something we add. It is how the brain works. This presentation explores how purpose shapes prediction and why prevention is most effective when purpose is clear, consistent, and lived out in daily decisions. Participants will gain a neuro-informed lens for understanding behavior, burnout and system design, and will leave with practical insight into how predictable purpose quietly reduces risk for children and families.

Katherine Mommaerts, PhD, MSW, LCSW, Postpartum Support International, and Megan Hoovler, RD, PSI AZ

Building supportive networks and accessible resources for families is a powerful strategy for fostering resilience and overall well-being. This workshop will focus on recognizing perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and identifying effective strategies to support new parents who may be navigating mental health challenges. Participants will explore purposeful engagement practices, with an emphasis on the role of observation and communication in both clinical and non-clinical interactions.

Cheri Hull, League of Extraordinary Grandparents

"Finding the helpers" was Mr. Rogers' mantra, and factors into engaging communities in ways that benefit everyone involved. There are helpers just waiting! Intergenerational communication, sharing, and rewiring kids' brains for positivity is possible! This is a how-to-do-it workshop for everyone.

Nichol Khan, LMSW, MEd, Mercy Care

This workshop will help guide the audience through the Mercy Care integrated healthcare system as it intersects with child welfare. We will walk through accessing the system, coordination, and troubleshooting across health plans, service arrays and regulatory requirements.

Quantreal Williams, Family Advocate

Social Science strategies can reach the minds and hearts of those who have experienced trauma. We will uncover the "how" as it pertains to doing the necessary work to redirect and positively influence children and families so that we can create an Arizona in which empowerment supersedes negative lived experiences.

Dr. Crystal Krueger, DBH, LMFT, and Caroline Nyberg, LAC, Dawn Institute

In this interactive workshop, attendees will gain understanding about what has led to the erosion of family and devaluing of parents, followed by solutions to help parents regain confidence in raising their children. Participants will be given playful ways to interact and create clear takeaways to bring to their work with children and families.

Rev. Dr. Sanghoon Yoo, MSW, The Faithful City, and Carol Lopinski, MSW, LCSW, ACSW,

This workshop will integrate faith-based scriptural principles, neuroscience and a trauma-informed care lens as a foundation to create a community of belonging and strengthen resilience.

Erica Tatum-Sheade, DSW, LCSW, CAdPT, RPT-S, Integrated Mental Health Associates

Every child has a fundamental need to belong. Rooted in Adlerian psychology, this experiential workshop explores how play-based interventions can foster connection, belonging and resilience in children and families, especially those from marginalized communities. Participants will engage in hands-on activities that demonstrate how purposeful play can be used across settings to strengthen the child-caregiver bond and help children find their place in their world. Walk away with practical, culturally responsive strategies you can use immediately.

Justin Greer, LPC, Connection Point Counseling

Parents often know what they value and how they want to show up — yet, under stress, they act in ways that surprise and shame them. This interactive workshop explores six trauma-based forms of "interference" that disrupt purposeful parenting and professional judgment, even in deeply caring families. Participants will learn practical, immediately usable tools to reduce these barriers and help families move from interference to aligned action.

Zuzana Urbanek and Kacie Passamonte, Childhelp

We all have more impact when we work together. This interactive workshop invites participants to reimagine child abuse prevention as a shared responsibility across families, schools, and entire communities. We will guide attendees through practical, engaging strategies to educate and connect parents, children and community members in meaningful ways.

Rosemarie Strout, Sunrise Therapy (AZEIP)

Early intervention does not begin with a referral; it begins at home, within everyday interactions between children and caregivers. This engaging session explores how professionals can help parents recognize developmental opportunities, respond early to concerns, and strengthen protective factors through daily routines.

Neil Tift, Native American Fatherhood & Families Association

Professionals employed in any community agency that works with families recognize that their primary clientele are mothers and children. Men and fathers are often reluctant to seek assistance for a wide variety of reasons. This session will provide insights into understanding this dynamic and provide specific recommendations to engage males and fathers more effectively in service delivery.

Doreen Wruk, MSW, and Jen Fellars, AASK – Aid to the Adoption of Special Kids

This interactive workshop explores how purpose-driven caregiving can shape pre-existing family relationships, identity and self-worth. Participants will examine the hidden costs of self-neglect, guilt and burnout, and learn how unmet needs can quietly erode well-being. Through guided reflection, practical tools (such as genograms/ecomaps and self-worth assessments), and restorative practices, caregivers will gain strategies to care sustainably — honoring themselves while continuing to serve others.

Jerald Monahan, Yavapai College Justice Institute

Individuals who see a situation that they believe DCS should investigate can also support the family in ways to relieve crisis overwhelm. This workshop will explore what those supportive ways may be while allowing the individual to comply with the statutory requirements of a mandated reporter.

Allacyn Rowe, RY Services

Child behavior does not begin in the moment — it is shaped by brain development, attachment, stress and generational experience. This interactive workshop explores how genetics, environment, trauma and executive functioning intersect to influence both child and caregiver capacity. Participants will move beyond compliance-based responses to learn practical, brain-informed strategies that intentionally strengthen regulation, build protective factors, and interrupt intergenerational cycles. Attendees will leave with actionable tools to design systems and supports that reduce stress and increase family resilience.

Lizeth Villanueva, MEd, Touchstone Health Services

Child maltreatment prevention is often framed as child-focused. This workshop offers a different lens: Prevention is primarily a parent/caregiver capacity-building strategy — and the first port of entry begins in pregnancy, when stress, mental health, and support shape early attachment and co-regulation. Through structured professional reflection, attendees will leave with a clear reframe and a role-boundaried commitment to reduce compliance-only drift and strengthen prevention through compassion, empowerment and concrete felt safety.

Jayley Janssen, PhD, Indigo Cultural Center, and Danielle Tefft, BSW, Art Heals Arizona

Strong prevention starts with strengthening both children and the adults who care for them. In this session, we share findings from Art Heals Arizona (formerly known as Free Arts) showing that trauma-informed arts programming can increase youth protective factors. At the same time, facility staff reported that the programming reduced their own burnout and renewed their energy for their work.

Yalonda J. Brown, MSOL, CYC-P, Just Say It LLC

Prevention is strengthened or weakened by how we lead. This interactive session introduces the L.I.V.I.N.G. B.O.L.D.L.Y. Framework, a trauma-informed leadership model designed to help youth-serving professionals build trust, integrate lived experience, and disrupt systemic patterns that impact children and families. Participants will explore practical strategies that align leadership behaviors and relational culture with long-term family well-being. Attendees will leave with actionable tools to strengthen prevention efforts within their organizations.

Katherine Kicey, MEd, IMH-E, Arizona State University

This workshop focuses on how early relationships lay the groundwork for lifelong well-being. Participants will explore the foundations of attachment, learn responsive interaction strategies, and practice simple, everyday activities that build connection between caregivers and babies. This engaging session offers practical, strengths-based tools that participants can immediately use and model in their work with families.

Jordan Crouch, LMSW, and Ashley Finch, Fresh Start

Families experiencing chronic stress aren't seeking more resilience – they're seeking relief: relief from functional freeze, overwhelm, and the invisible bandwidth tax that shapes their engagement. This workshop introduces a science-aligned, practitioner-friendly framework for expanding capacity through micro steps, recognition-based techniques, and intentional role modeling. Participants will learn how small, actionable shifts can rewire the recognition-reward cycle, strengthen self-efficacy, and build trust between professionals and families.

Samara Vaught, Family Involvement Center; Camille Feggins and William Feggins, School of HipHop; and Claire Louge, Prevent Child Abuse Arizona

Find Your Village, a 16-minute documentary filmed in Phoenix, was created through a collaboration of the School of HipHop, Prevent Child Abuse Arizona, and lived expert leaders of Thriving Families Safer Children Arizona, and with funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The film focuses on why we must shift our culture to one that supports families rather than surveils them, and how families can get trusted support and connection through Family Resource Centers. This session will begin with an introduction to the film, followed by a screening, followed by a Q&A with the film's creators.

Sandi Cimino, The Well-Made Bed, LLC

Knowledge is a powerful thing. It's exciting and enlightening to learn. Yet, once we step back into our lives and our work, there never seems to be enough time to put all that wonderful knowledge into practice to improve our lives and our work. Through guided individual reflection and group activities, participants will have the chance to identify key insights gleaned from conference workshops, recognize rhythms and patterns in their work, and identify clear, straightforward actions that take knowledge and insights out of the theoretical and into practice.

Schwartzen Precil, Hero Leadership Group LLC

This workshop explores how personal narrative, publishing and leadership principles can enhance child well-being practice and prevention outcomes. Drawing from the presenter's lived experience and over a decade of work empowering individuals and communities, the session will highlight strategies for integrating narrative power into prevention work. Participants will leave with tools to deepen connection, bolster engagement and elevate their purpose-driven practice in supporting families.