On the Job 

About 120 advocates gathered at the 2017 Two Days in May Conference on Victim Assistance to brainstorm about the crime of child abuse and ways to work together on new methods of prevention, intervention, and accountability.

The theme of the conference was “A Call to Action,” and it included the special event “Idea Incubator: Protecting Our Children.” The two-part workshop was attended by advocates specializing in homeless children, domestic violence, child welfare, prison ministry, and juvenile justice, as well as faith leaders, educators, elected officials, rape crisis advocates, probation officers, court system workers, and lawyers.

Nubia Pena, a training and prevention education specialist with the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault, urged participants to focus on the most vulnerable children and to shake up the status quo.

 “We are here to create change,” she said. “No longer will we move forward with the same thing. We will do something different.”

Pena set the tone by showing the short film ReMoved by Nathanael Matanick and leading a discussion about what the audience saw, felt, and heard. In the drama, a 10-year-old girl navigates her way through the foster care system after being removed from her home and separated from her little brother.

After the film, Idea Incubator participants separated into work groups that generated hundreds of ideas to be combined in a report to be shared among participants.