More than 430 professionals in the child advocacy field attended the 23^rd Annual Community Response to Child Abuse Conference, held October 5-6 at the Sioux Falls Convention Center.

The conference provided professional training and educational opportunities for teachers, medical professionals, dentists, law enforcement, social workers, mental health providers, youth service providers, the legal community and community members and child advocates.

Presenters discussed topics relevant to the well-being of children and families including:

• Whole Child Approach: Engaging Learners & Families through Relationships
• In My Neighbor’s House: MDT Responses in Rural Communities
• Honoring Our Children by Honoring our Traditions – Overview of Positive Indian Parenting

 The conference was opened with a welcome by Chief Justice Steven R. Jensen of the South Dakota Unified Judicial System and performance by Eagle Voice Singers of Rosebud Sioux Tribe.

Victor Vieth, Zero Abuse Project presented the featured keynote “Unto the Third Generation: A Call to End Child Abuse Within 30 Years.” The address is based on a scholarly work that was published in the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma, and in the Hamline Journal of Public Law and Policy, Fall 2006 and covered the five obstacles that prevent us from ending child abuse and the potential to perhaps eliminate child abuse over the course of the next three generations.

The Outstanding Service Award was presented to Tifanie Petro, who serves as the Director of Advocacy and Prevention for Children’s Home Society of South Dakota. She oversees the Children’s Home Child Advocacy Center in Rapid City, as well as the organization’s statewide Prevention, Training and Education program. At CAC, in addition to supervising collaborative investigations of child abuse cases, Tifanie provides forensic interviews for local, state, federal, and tribal jurisdictions and court room testimony. Through the Prevention program, Tifanie has partnered with CPCM and been instrumental in developing South Dakota’s implementation of ACEs training and the Enough Abuse program. Additionally, Petro wrote SD Senate Bill 70 that revised provisions related to courtroom modifications for child witnesses, keeping children physically and psychologically safe in the courtroom. She served as the driving force behind coordinating a multi-disciplinary training response to victim services along with the Interagency Training Council and laid the groundwork for a Community Justice Center in western SD. To date, under Tifanie’s guidance, Children’s Home Society has partnered with CPCM to train more than 200 ACEs presenters, including adapted training grounded in Lakota and Dakota ways.

The conference offerings will remain available to access through an online training library. Registration for the portal will provide access to 12 recorded sessions through the conference on-demand portal.

Conference sponsors included Center for the Prevention of Child Maltreatment at the University of South Dakota, South Dakota’s Unified Judicial System Court Improvement Program and Child’s Voice at Sanford Health.

For more details about the conference go to https://conference.sdcpcm.com