Leveraging the Research on Gender-Responsive and Trauma-informed Care to Transform Interventions and Improve Outcomes with Women

SESSION INFO

Tuesday, August 20, 2019
3:45 PM - 5:15 PM
Session Type: Workshop

Research demonstrates that using gender-responsive and trauma-informed approaches with women improves outcomes, increases their rates of supervision completion, and reduces their re-arrests, revocations, and re-incarceration. This presentation will share cutting edge data from the APPA Women and Girls Survey as well as concrete strategies that can be used to transform justice practices and outcomes with women. It will emphasize the steps that agencies and systems can take to build their capacity to meet the needs of women, including the development of gender-responsive and trauma-informed policies and the effective engagement of justice system stakeholders, the directly impacted women and their families, and community leaders. This promises to be a highly interactive, practical, and motivating session with content applicable to women and girls. Participants will leave with a variety of ideas they can take back to their agencies to either launch a gender-responsive and trauma-informed initiative or enrich the work they are already doing.

SESSION PRESENTERS

Alyssa Benedict
Executive Director, CORE Associates, LLC


Alyssa Benedict is the founder and Executive Director of CORE Associates and provides training and technical assistance in the assessment, development, implementation, and evaluation of gender-specific, trauma-informed and culturally responsive services/interventions. She has worked with various states and organizations and is a thought leader and change agent regarding critical issues affecting system-involved girls and women. Alyssa has a sub-specialty in the neurobiology and ecology of trauma and is dedicated to creating trauma-informed organizations and systems. She is a federal partner with the National Resource Center for Justice Involved Women, a co-founder of the Women’s Justice Institute, has been a national consultant for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the National Institute of Corrections, and has served as a consultant and faculty member on various federal initiatives. She is a co-author of NIC's Gender Informed Practices Assessment and has authored, co-authored and contributed to various publications and models designed to support administrators and staff. Her most recent publications include the pioneering trauma-informed staff communication model “CR/2: Creating Regulation and Resilience” and “Using Trauma-informed Practices to enhance Safety and Security in Women's Corrections Facilities".


Deanne Benos
Co-Founder, The Women's Justice Institute (WJI), The Women's Justice Institute (WJI)


Deanne Benos: Deanne Benos is Founder of The Women’s Justice Institute (WJI), an advocacy and technical assistance project promoting sustainable, gender responsive criminal justice systems with an emphasis on de-carceration; and Co-Chair of the American Probation & Parole Association (APPA) Women & Girls Committee. Previously, as the first woman appointed Assistant Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, she championed transformational Parole reform initiatives aligned with nationally-recognized recidivism and population reduction programs, including one of one of the nation’s first prison nurseries, “Moms & Babies,” which touted nearly zero percent recidivism on its 10th anniversary, and the Sheridan Drug Treatment Prison & Reentry Program. She also served as an Associate Director for criminal justice on the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Bill Clinton.