Lunch & Learn Series
Fall 2024 Series | MASOC & MACAProgram Overview
CE Credits: 1 credit per session
This Lunch and Learn series is a monthly, 1-hour, high-octane focus on the emerging issues for clinicians and allied professionals working with children and youth engaging in problematic sexual behaviors. This is a collaborative effort between MACA and MASOC.
This series offers CE credits to augment this unique professional development opportunity. Credits are free to MA professionals thanks to the generous support of the Children’s Trust of MA. If you are from out of state, the cost for CE credits is $10/session.
Dates & Topics
Webinars are recorded and available on-demand. Register to view recordings.
The Building Blocks of Consent Culture with Isy Abraham-Raveson
September 17, 2024 | 12-1 PM ET
Let’s Talk with Joan Tabachnick, Emma Halper, and Rachel King, PhD
October 15, 2024 | 12-1 PM ET
Online Child Sexual Abuse with David Finkelhor, PhD
November 19, 2024 | 12-1 PM ET
Responsible Behavior with Younger Children with Luciana Assini-Meytin, PhD, and Amanda Ruzicka, M.A
December 17, 2024 | 12-1 PM ET
September 17, 2024 | 12:00-1:00 PM ET
The Building Blocks of Consent Culture: Teaching skills, setting norms, and reading books
Presenter: Isy Abraham-Raveson
As professionals seeking to prevent and respond to harmful sexual behaviors, we recognize the importance of helping children build skills for consent-based interactions with one another. However, the notion of “consent” contains within it several core skills that children must acquire. This lunch and learn session will use The Great Big Hug, a children’s book about respecting boundaries, to explore some of the component skills that make up the concept of consent. Participants will learn best practices and brainstorm additional strategies for building a culture of consent when working with younger children.
This activity has been certified by NEAFAST on behalf of the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Allied Mental Health & Human Services Professions, for 1.0 LMFT professional continuing education units. Certification #PD-042464.
This program has been approved for 1.0 Social Work Continuing Education hours for relicensure, in accordance with 258 CMR. NASW-MA Chapter CE Approving Program, Authorization Number D92819.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this Lunch and Learn session, participants will be able to:
- Identify the core skills which comprise the concept of consent for young children.
- Recognize the core skills in children’s literature and describe how to use literature to boost protective factors in learning environments.
- Apply one aspect of this session to your work with children with problem sexual behaviors.
Speaker Bio
Isy Abraham-Raveson (they/she) is a sexuality educator and former preschool teacher based in Philadelphia. They have a Master’s degree in sexuality education from Widener University and a Bachelor’s degree in Gender and Sexuality Studies from Williams College. Isy co-founded the organization YES! (@yestoconsent), which provides anti-oppressive, consent-based, pleasure-focused sex ed to people of all ages, including children, teachers, parents, and healthcare providers. She is also the author of The Great Big Hug, a children’s book exploring consent and boundaries.
October 15, 2024 | 12:00-1:00 PM ET
“Let’s Talk”: A new resource for adolescents talking with friends about concerning sexual behavior
Presenters: Joan Tabachnick, Emma Halper, and Rachel King, PhD
For decades, sexual violence prevention programs have focused on bystander interventions mostly aimed at individuals witnessing harm or thoes who are the recipients of harm, but very little on those responsible for sexual harm. In these same decades, treatment interventions for sexually abusive behaviors have focused on stopping those behaviors through a cognitive-behavioral approach and limiting the situations that might trigger those behaviors.
The new NSVRC Let’s Talk resource takes on a missing piece of the puzzle by focusing on adolescents and young adults who may want to say something to a friend about their behavior, but lack guidance on holding conversations about a wide range of sexual behaviors, intentions, motivations, and situations. While there are no easy answers to such complex student interactions, “Let’s Talk” offers concrete information about how to talk to a friend or peer when you are concerned about their behavior and even includes guidance on how to receive the information when a friend or peer says they are concerned about your own behaviors.
This workshop is designed for clinicians, administrators, and educators working with adolescents. Join us as we explore the development of the Let’s Talk resource, its contents, and offer recommendations for introducing this resource to your community.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this Lunch and Learn session, participants will be able to:
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Differentiate between normative, problematic and abusive sexual behavior
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Recognize the barriers and risks as well as the opportunities for difficult conversations with and for students whose behavior is of concern
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Describe the tools for how to have a conversation, how to receive information, and the resources available to both students and professionals
Speaker Bios
Over the last 30 years, Joan Tabachnick has developed educational materials and innovative sexual violence prevention programs for national, state and local organizations. Her primary focus is on preventing the perpetration of sexually harmful behaviors, particularly in adolescents and young adults. Joan was the executive director of MASOC, the director of NEARI Press and continues her consulting practice as well as her commitment to opening the door for healing and prevention for those at risk to cause harm. Joan completed a fellowship with the USDOJ SMART Office and is also a fellow of the Association for the Prevention and Treatment of Sexual Abuse (ATSA) and of the Prevention Innovations Research Center (PIRC). Visit joantabachnick.com for more information.
Emma Halper is a sexual violence preventionist. As an Education Specialist at WOAR – Philadelphia Center Against Sexual Violence, she delivers prevention programs for youth, college students, and professionals. She organizes Teen WOARRIOR, a youth leadership program, and is a member of WOAR’s restorative justice initiative. Emma has also worked with MASOC for three years, managing social media and coordinating special projects, including translating the M-CAAP into Spanish.
Rachel King, Ph.D., is a restorative justice practitioner with RK Resolution LLC, specializing in issues of harassment and sexual misconduct in higher education. She is a former Title IX Coordinator and spent 20 years on college campuses, holding numerous roles in college administration, including Associate Dean of Students and Director of Community Standards and Conflict Resolution. An experienced RJ facilitator, Rachel provides training to schools around the country on how to take a restorative approach to cases of sexual misconduct, including through the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women campus grant program and the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA).
November 19, 2024 | 12:00-1:00 PM ET
Online Child Sexual Abuse: What the data tells us about the connection to teens’ peer relationships
Presenter: David Finkelhor, PhD
As the technological tools available to us have evolved and diversified, our field has rightly focused on the ways technology can facilitate harmful sexual behaviors. Very often, though, everything from the popular imagination to policy interventions zooms in on “stranger danger” online and harm to children and adolescents by adults. Dr. Finkelhor will explore what the data on online sexual abuse involving youth tells us about peer dynamics, clinical impacts, effective policy, effective prevention strategies, and the tools we need for working with youth, as clinicians and as a field.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this Lunch and Learn session, participants will be able to:
- Describe recent data on the dynamics of online sexual abuse of young people.
- Apply information about peer-to-peer dynamics of online sexual abuse to clinical work with young people with harmful sexual behaviors.
- Integrate strategies for policy and programs that improve help-seeking among young people, address the developmental dynamics at play in peer-to-peer online sexual abuse, and link prevention programs for harmful sexual behaviors with programs fostering healthy relationship strategies in adolescents.
Speaker Bio
Dr. David Finkelhor is a professor of sociology and Director of the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center and Co-Director of the Family Research Laboratory. Dr. Finkelhor has been studying the problems of child victimization, child maltreatment and family violence since 1977. He is the the co-founder of several large national data collection efforts including the National Survey of Children Exposed to Violence (NatSCEV) and the National Incidence Study of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children (NISMART). His most recent work has focused on the contexts and characteristics of image-based sexual exploitation and abuse of children and technology-facilitated abuse.
December 17, 2024 | 12:00-1:00 PM ET
Responsible Behavior with Younger Children: A school-based universal prevention approach to prevent teenage problematic sexual behaviors
Presenters: Luciana Assini-Meytin, PhD, and Amanda Ruzicka, M.A
Many efforts to prevent child sexual abuse (CSA) aim to teach children strategies for recognizing, resisting, and reporting victimization. There is limited evidence that victimization-focused efforts actually prevent CSA. Moreover, these efforts often overlook the fact that many children and adolescents engage in problem sexual behavior against younger children. Responsible Behavior with Younger Children (RBYC) is a novel universal school-based perpetration-focused intervention that aims to prevent the onset of inappropriate, harmful, or illegal sexual behavior by adolescents against younger children. RBYC was designed to provide adolescents and their parents with the knowledge and tools to help adolescents interact appropriately with younger children and avoid CSA behaviors. Join the developers of this program to discuss its core components as well as strategies to adapt the content for young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this Lunch and Learn session, participants will be able to:
- Examine a new prevention program aimed at preventing the onset of problematic sexual behavior directed towards younger children and peers by targeting young adolescents with universal prevention programming.
- Identify the primary strengths of the Responsible Behavior with Younger Children.
- Identify at least two strategies that can be used to adapt intervention content for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Speaker Bios
Luciana C. 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 primarily concentrates on developing and evaluating strategies to prevent children from being sexually abused. Specifically, she collaborates on projects addressing child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention in organizational settings, CSA perpetration prevention among middle school students, and policy impacts on CSA prevention and other types of violence. She also utilizes longitudinal cohorts to examine the long-term consequences of CSA and other traumatic events experienced in childhood for both men and women.
Amanda E. Ruzicka, MA, is a Senior Research Associate 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. She has worked in primary prevention for nearly 20 years, and since 2012 has focused on the development, evaluation, and dissemination of effective child sexual abuse prevention strategies. Amanda is a co-developer of several prevention interventions, including a free online course for adolescents and adults with a sexual attraction to children, Help Wanted, and a problem sexual behavior and child sexual abuse prevention curriculum for middle school students, Responsible Behavior with Younger Children (RBYC). Currently she is working to adapt Help Wanted for Mexico and RBYC for Germany, the Philippines, and teens with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Amanda is Co-Chair of the Prevention Committee at the Association for the Treatment & Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA).
Continuing Education for Clinicians
Looking for more professional development and continuing education opportunities? MASOC offers two annual conferences, regular lunch and learns, and on-demand webinars to inform practitioners of best-practices, treatment approaches and emerging research on problematic sexual behaviors.