This past April 3-5, two staff members from Barrier Free Living’s Secret Garden domestic violence program attended the End Violence Against Women International Conference On Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, and Gender Bias in Chicago, IL.

The annual conference focuses on sexual assault, intimate partner violence, stalking, human trafficking and elder abuse. The conference brought together international members of law enforcement, prosecutors, victim advocates, judges, and health care professionals to collaborate on effective ways to work with survivors.

Workshops explored ways that multi-disciplinary teams can work together to provide the most comprehensive services for their client base.

During the conference, there was a focus on how victim advocates can help train those in the criminal justice system to take a trauma-informed lens in their interactions with victims as well as providing further information for advocates to be able to help survivors navigate the criminal justice systems. There were programs from all over the country and even individuals from International countries such as Canada and Europe.

A Secret Garden social worker who works in collaboration with Brooklyn Legal Services Family Law Unit, attended a workshop that focused on training attorney’s to use a more trauma-informed lens in their questioning of victims and witnesses. She will be utilizing the information from that workshop to work closer with the attorneys at Brooklyn Legal Services and further strengthen the collaboration between the two programs.