image of barnstable county courthouse
MAIN BARNSTABLE COUNTY > MAIN COUNTY FEATURED NEWS > Children’s Cove hosts 18th Annual Champions for Children Conference

Children’s Cove hosts 18th Annual Champions for Children Conference

Published on: October 11, 2019

Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigative reporter Sacha Pfeiffer will be keynote

HYANNIS, Ma. – Sacha Pfeiffer, a reporter on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigative team that first uncovered clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church and was the inspiration for the film “Spotlight,” will be the keynote speaker for 18th Annual Champion for Children Conference.

Organized by Children’s Cove and sponsored by the Cape & Islands District Attorney’s office, the conference will be held over two days on October 17-18, 2019 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hyannis.

Pfeiffer, who is now a correspondent with National Public Radio’s Investigations Team, will kick off the conference on Thursday, October 17th with a “A Conversation with Sacha Pfeiffer” moderated by Mindy Todd, host and producer of WCAI’s “The Point.” The conversation will be followed by a question-and-answer session with audience members.

The conference brings together dozens of nationally recognized experts and hundreds of attendees from across the country working on the front lines in the fight against child sex abuse, physical abuse, neglect, domestic violence, trafficking, and exploitation.

[su_quote]We are constantly working to help educate the public about these difficult issues. However, this particular conference is specifically for professionals who work directly with child victims of crime and who are employed by governmental and nonprofit agencies in the fields of law enforcement, prosecution, child protective services, social work, children’s advocacy, therapy, probation and medicine.  We have been organizing and hosting this conference for nearly two decades now because it’s important for those of us who work in this field to not operate in silos, but to share best-practices and encourage one another in confronting one of the darkest corners of society: crimes against children, said Children’s Cove Director Stacy Gallagher.[/su_quote]

One of the premier child maltreatment gatherings in the country, the Children’s Cove Champions for Children Conference aims to provide attendees with the latest insights and approaches on how to best serve and care for child victims and their non-offending family members, organized primarily around 28 different workshops over a two-day span.

Among the workshops that will be offered at this year’s conference include:

  • A presentation by Amy Derrick, Administrative Chief of the Crimes Against Children and the Adult Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking Divisions with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, that focuses on sexual offense against intellectually disabled victims.
  • Greg Smith, father of Kelsey Smith who was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered in Kansas in 2007. His presentation will highlight the evidence, law enforcement response, and technology that eventually led to the arrest and conviction of Kelsey’s murderer.
  • Former Special Victims prosecutor Roger Canaff, a widely known child protection and anti-violence against women advocate, legal expert, author and public speaker, will lead a workshop on the role of institutions in child abuse.
  • Child sex abuse survivor Kevin Mulcahy, who now works as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Detroit, will lead a discussion on the “7 Sneaky Challenges Facing Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse.”
  • Sayeh Rivazfar, who was abducted as child by her biological mother’s boyfriend, raped and left for dead, will discuss surviving child sexual abuse while navigating the criminal and custodial process.

For more information about the conference please visit www.championsforchildrenconference.com

Media contact: Sean Gonsalves
774-487-9386
sgonsalves@regancomm.com

About Children’s Cove:

Children’s Cove, a department of Barnstable County, has been the Cape and the Island’s Children’s Advocacy Center since 1997. Children’s Cove provides coordinated and comprehensive multidisciplinary services to child victims of sexual abuse, physical abuse, witness to domestic violence and child sexual exploitation and trafficking. To learn more visit www.ChildrensCove.org

 

###