Ideas into Action 2021 Topics and Presentation Summaries

Navigating Difficult Conversations about Bias, Race, and Privilege

Creating a safe  environment is essential in facilitating organizational effectiveness and sustainability. Adding to the challenge is the critical nature of facilitating conversations around race, privilege, and oppression. These discussions can create fear and anxiety in even the most seasoned team leader, supervisor, clinician, and executive.  Please join your colleagues for this priority topic to examine the concept of equity and how to begin thinking about strategies to incorporate equity into program and organizational discussions. The presenter for this priority topic is Kim Frierson, DSW, CYC-P.

Kim Frierson, DSW, CYC-P
Assistant Professor, Spalding University

Kimberly Frierson, DSW, CYC-P, is an Assistant Professor at Spalding University and a consultant for national organizations. She earned her Doctor of Social Work from Tulane University and is a certified child and youth care practitioner with over 15 years’ experience in youth services. Dr. Frierson is a certified trainer on several youth-serving curricula, including Youth and Families Thrive, Child and Youth Care Foundations, and Reducing the Risk. Through family mediation, case management, training, education, and staff support, she has worked with youth and families in multiple settings, including classrooms, shelters, and community organizations. Her passion lies in “helping helpers”, a role she filled at National Safe Place Network for eight years. Dr. Frierson has traveled across the country as a trainer for policy makers and practitioners in a range of topics, including advocacy, ethics, cultural practice considerations, and trauma-informed care. Her primary areas of interest include diversity, equity and inclusion, anti-oppressive practice, reproductive health, training and implementation, and self-care and community care. Dr. Frierson resides in Kentucky.

The Impact of Organizational Culture and Climate on Efforts to Achieve Mission

How do you do what you do in your organization? This typically isn’t the first question. The first discussion tends to be on what you do. People ask about your organization and you may share the populations you serve, the services you provide, and the impact you hope to have on your community. However, the culture and climate of your organization and their program(s) are primary factors in success not only for the organization, but most important, for those utilizing your services. Research supports the link between positive organizational cultures and effectiveness. This may be even more true in the midst of a global pandemic. Just like individuals should prioritize self-care to do their best work, organizations should prioritize organizational care to ensure people want to be present and feel supported in their efforts to achieve missions. Sustainability, employee retention, public perception, and achieved outcomes are all impacted by the way it feels to work within a program or organization. This session will focus on indicators of culture and climate and will identify ways in which organizations can assess and begin to enhance the way people think and feel about where they work. The presenter for this priority topic is Tammy L. Hopper, MSW, CYC-P.

Tammy L. Hopper, MSW, CYC-P (she/her/hers)
Chief Strategic Initiatives Officer, National Safe Place Network 

Tammy L. Hopper, MSW, CYC-P, brings more than 35 years of experience as a professional youth care worker and clinician to her presentations and partnerships with organizations. Her role as the Chief Strategic Initiatives Officer within National Safe Place Network includes development and support for national initiatives and partnerships. She has served as the Chair of the National Council on Youth Policy, the Director of Public Policy for the National Network for Youth and spent 20 years as a member of the National Safe Place Advisory Board. Hopper has conducted trainings in 42 states over the past 30 years and is recognized as a expert facilitator of group process. She is a certified trainer in trauma-informed care, Youth Thrive, Families Thrive, Child and Youth Care Foundations Training, and others. Hopper has contributed to curricula for training on human trafficking, trauma-informed care, understanding evidence-based practices, developing outcomes, and positive youth development. She was also on the subject matter expert team that developed the national certification exam for grants professionals. Hopper is an advocate and enthusiastic believer in youth development and is committed to working with individuals and organizations that embrace the power and promise that comes from partnering with youth.

Understanding the Psychological Impact of Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking on Children and Families and Addressing Barriers to Effective Intervention

This session on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of Children will include an overview of the issue including understanding child and youth characteristics of risk, the dynamics of trafficking, and the associated psychological impact of exploitation. This session will highlight the need for trauma-informed mental health intervention and explore common challenges in connecting youth and families to effective care. The presenter for this priority topic is Elizabeth Hopper, Ph.D.

Elizabeth Hopper, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Program Director, Justice Resource Institute
Project Director, Metropolitan Boston Complex Trauma Treatment Initiative

Co-Director, National Center on Child Trafficking
Director, New England Coalition Against Human Trafficking (NECAT)

Co-Chair, Mental Health Council, HEAL Trafficking

Elizabeth Hopper, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist with a specialization in traumatic stress. She completed a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at St. Louis University and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Trauma Center in Boston. Dr. Hopper is a Program Director at Justice Resource Institute (JRI), serving as an administrator, supervisor, clinician, and trainer. She holds leadership positions in two National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) centers focused on the dissemination of evidenced-based practices for trauma-impacted children, youth, and families. Dr. Hopper is Project Director of the Metropolitan Boston Complex Trauma Treatment Initiative (MB-CTTI), a mobile service network delivering evidence-based trauma interventions to high-risk and underserved complex trauma-exposed children and youth and families. She is Co-Director of the National Center on Child Trafficking (NCCT), a SAMHSA-funded resource center whose goal is to establish a collaborative, consistent, and integrated mental health response for youth and families who have been impacted by commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking. Dr. Hopper is also Co-Chair of the Mental Health Council for HEAL Trafficking, a national network of health and public health professionals. She has been involved in anti-trafficking work for two decades, including her work as the Director of Project REACH, a national direct services and T/TA program that provided mental health services to survivors of human trafficking and her role as director of the New England Coalition Against Trafficking (NECAT), a regional network of cross-discipline professionals engaged in anti-trafficking work. Dr. Hopper has collaborated with numerous agencies and organizations in developing trauma-informed care systems. She is co-author of two books that address body-oriented intervention, including Treating Adult Survivors of Childhood Emotional Abuse and Neglect: Component-Based Psychotherapy, which presents a complex trauma treatment framework for adults, and Overcoming Trauma Through Yoga: Reclaiming Your Body, a book that introduces yoga as a body-based intervention for trauma. She has written numerous scholarly articles and book chapters on complex trauma, trauma-informed care, homelessness, and human trafficking and has particular interests in the impact of early developmental trauma and human trafficking and integrative models of healing.