Massachusetts Children’s Alliance is excited to announce that our 15th Annual Statewide Conference, Healing, Hope, and Justice: An Advanced Conversation will be held in person on May 8, 2025, at the Sheraton in Framingham, Massachusetts from 8 AM – 4:30 PM. We expect that this year’s conference will attract over 300 attendees statewide and include the following professions: law enforcement officers (state and local), victim witness advocates, prosecutors, child forensic interviewers, mental health and medical providers, care and protection workers, probation, and Children’s Advocacy Center staff.
The conference is centered around a main goal: to bring accessible education on best practices and innovative methodologies for treating children who have experienced physical and sexual abuse to local law enforcement, prosecutors, victim advocates, Children’s Advocacy Centers, and multi- disciplinary teams.
This year’s conference will feature keynote speaker Rick Goodwin, MSW, RSW, a Training Consultant with 1in6, Inc., a program of the Zero Abuse Project. He will explore the challenges in recognizing male sexual abuse and assault in society, the impact of social misconceptions about male sexual trauma, and how these “untruths” contribute to low disclosure rates and unnecessary suffering. His talk will emphasize the importance of normalizing conversations around male sexual abuse.
In addition to the keynote, the conference will offer workshop sessions on critical topics related to child abuse, including engaging underserved youth, the intersection of rural and familial child trafficking, supporting children with developmental disabilities in Child Advocacy Centers (CACs), safety planning for youth with problematic sexual behaviors, and the latest developments in AI-generated CSAM and cyber crimes, including sextortion.