Building Competence and Resilience in Children and Parents: 
The Advocate as Change Agent

Join us for a two-day training on Building Competence and Resilience in Children and Parents: The Advocate as Change Agent, a curriculum training for Idaho Thriving Families advocates who work with parents and children affected by domestic violence. The foundation for this curriculum is rooted in the power of relationships as essential to healing: the child-parent relationship and the advocate-parent-child relationship. The goal of the training is to strengthen advocates’ skills in supporting and deepening these essential relationships. This curriculum builds upon the publication, “Sixteen Evidence-Based Recommendations for Advocates working with Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence,” published by Futures Without Violence. In this curriculum, these principles are operationalized as strategies, interventions and activities for use with children and their parents. This interactive, skills-based training is organized into 6 modules that can be used together or separately. Light breakfast and lunch provided.

Who should register?

Idaho Thriving Families pilot sites, community or tribal domestic violence programs and partners are encouraged to register.

***The Idaho Coalition will cover travel costs for up to FOUR staff members
to attend that are a Thriving Families pilot site or community or tribal domestic violence program***

Zulema (Ruby) White Starr is an American of Mexican descent born in the border town of Calexico, California and raised in the neighboring city of El Centro. During her illustrious 25 year career in the violence against women’s field, Ruby has operated and led domestic violence shelter and transitional housing programs, provided consultation and training in almost every U.S. city and territory and across Canada and South America, secured and administered over 15 million dollars in funds to improve outcomes for victims of violence, and lead the implementation of more than 50 federal projects to respond to violence against women. She currently serves as the President of National Initiatives, Founder & Director of Latinos United for Peace & Unity (LUPE), an initiative of Caminar Latino. Before launching LUPE, served as the Chief Strategy Officer and Director of Casa de Esperanza’s, National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and Communities (NLN). Prior to joining Casa de Esperanza, Ruby spent over 15 years with National Councilof Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) where she served as the FamilyViolence Program Director. Ms. White’s areas of expertise include childrenexposed to domestic violence, collaboration, systems reform, co-occurrence, resilience, and cultural competency. In addition to her professional experience, Ruby shares her personal experience as a child witness and child, adolescent, and adult victim of violence in hopes that her experiences will lead to better practices and outcomes for women, children, and families who experience violence.

Neena McConnico, Ph.D., LMHC holds a doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology and is a licensed mental health counselor. In addition, Dr. McConnico has a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and has extensive experience working with under-served populations as a mental health provider and teacher in early childhood, elementary and college settings.  Dr. McConnico currently serves as the Program Director for the Child Witness to Violence Project and faculty and consultant on the Boston Defending Childhood Initiative.   She has served as a member of an advisory team and core faculty for Futures Without Violence helping to plan, design and disseminate a national curriculum, Preventing and Responding to Childhood Trauma: New Strategies for Schools and Communities and Building Competence and Resilience in Children and Parents: The Advocate as Change Agent. She has worked with fathers as the Project Director of a Nurturing Father’s Program at a faith-based institution and has provided numerous trainings on the impacts of violence on children, promoting resiliency, secondary trauma and historical and systemic trauma to cross-disciplinary entities including the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Massachusetts Early Intervention Conference, the Albert Schweitzer Leadership Conference, and Zero to Three National Training Institute.  Dr. McConnico has expertise in working with schools and early childhood education systems to create and implement trauma-informed practices and systems of care.

Nivea Castaneda, Ph.D. is a critical Interpersonal, Family, and Health Communication scholar that is interested in the cultural, gendered, and familial discourses that inhibit and enable survival when people experience silenced trauma in the family. More specifically, her research focuses on Latinx family communication with a special emphasis on child sexual abuse disclosures as well as baby loss communication. Her passion is to do transformative community work that helps families learn how to cope and heal through their trauma. On a personal level, Nivea loves to hang out with her family, loves attending and watching sporting events, and loves trying new food.

Mercedes Muñoz, MPA, is an immigrant, daughter of migrant farmworkers, and mother of two amazing children who remind her to always lead with love and joy. From a very young age, she learned to navigate two language and two cultures. While growing up, she would often say, “I’m not from here or there.” Now her attitude is, “I’m from here and from there.”  She is married to a fantastic and supportive partner and strives to be the person her Yorkie, LiliAnn, thinks she is. She has a master’s in public administration, and the bulk of her professional work has been in the area of public health. She has worked in diverse work environment. She has spent her entire career, striving to achieve changes in the communities where she has worked. Ms. Munoz believes that working alongside those that most impacted by systemic violence is paramount to promoting permanent and sustainable change in any community.

This training is supported by Grant Number 90EV0434-01-00 from the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Family and Youth Services Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Points of view in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official positions or policies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.