AFCC Spring Half-Day

AFCC- MN Spring Half Day Conference - Creative Approaches for ADR in Diverse Communities 

March 24, 2023 9:00 am – 12:00 pm CST Virtual

CLE and CEU credits: pending

Description:

Professionals are given many learning opportunities and helpful information to inform us about working with clients. Recent literature, presentations, and other learning opportunities have provided guidance on topics such as resist/refuse dynamics, domestic violence, cultural knowledge, diversity, and coordinating services amongst professionals. However, the challenge is often being able to apply the information to our current ways of practice. Many of us leave the information at the door or take one or two items when the knowledge could be very useful in our most challenging cases. In this conference, we will hear about creative approaches to family conflict—approaches that may not be identified in Rule 114, but from which we can learn more creative options to conflict resolution.  We will also leave this conference with more sensitivity to cultural and religious influences on the ADR clients we serve.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this half-day conference, participants will be able to:

1. Identify at least three conflict interventions that have been used historically and uniquely in diverse communities.
2. Adapt current conflict intervention strategies to reflect more creative approaches.
3. Analyze the influence on clients of culture, religion, race, traditions, customs, beliefs, and values and incorporate those factors into ADR and other practices.
4. Create mechanisms for reducing barriers to access to ADR services.

Agenda:

• 9:00 Welcome, Introductions
• 9:15 Speaker Presentations
• 10:45 Break
• 11:00 Case Discussion with panel
• 11:30 Q&A
• 12:00 Adjourn

Speakers

Jennifer Garrido Santos, M.A., LMFT practices as a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Clinical Social Worker. She is employed as a Clinical Director at a non-profit agency called Change Inc. She holds a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy from Argosy University and a Bachelor of Science in Child Psychology from the University of Minnesota. She provides culturally responsive therapy, supervision, and professional development to communities of global majority in the Twin Cities. She serves youth and families in urban schools and at Change Inc.’s community clinic in Minneapolis. At the Change Institute, Jennifer offers and organizes professional development opportunities for therapists from Change and local agencies. She participates in a Cultural and Ethnic Minority Infrastructure grant through the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Through this grant, she offers supervision to clinicians identifying as BIPOC and/or LGTBQ+ that are pursuing licensure as a mental health professional. She has been providing mental health services for the past 17 years and has been supervising graduate and post-graduate interns for 14 years. Jennifer’s pronouns are she/her and she identifies as Puerto Rican or Latinx.

Lisa Xiong, M.A., LMFT. Lisa Xiong holds a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy from Saint Mary’s University and a Bachelor’s of Science in Occupational Science from the College of St. Catherine. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist, registered play therapist, and director of clinical services for Change Inc.’s school based mental health program, Community & School Collaborative (CSC), and outpatient clinic. She spent 10 years in school based mental health providing school-based prevention, early intervention, and mental health services in urban schools. As the Director of Clinical Services, Lisa offers mentorship, training, and supervision for mental health practitioners and professionals. Lisa specializes in working with children, families, and adults who have experienced trauma, depression, anxiety, challenges adjusting to life changes, relational issues, self-esteem, and exploration of intersectional identity. Lisa is also an advocate for social justice and equity in the mental health field.  Lisa dedicates her time to BIPOC mental health workforce development. She is a systemic and relational healer that takes a strength based, trauma informed, and culturally responsive approach. Lisa believes healing is self-paced. She also believes that therapy can be fun and a fun brain is a learning brain.

KC Gammage, MFT Doctorate Candidate KC is a doctoral candidate at North Central University pursuing her doctorate in Marriage and Family Therapy. She holds a certificati  on in the first level of Internal Family Systems; has presented for the MN MAMFT Conference, and has been a guest speaker for MFT and Undergraduate Psychology at St. Cloud State University of Minnesota. She specializes in bringing healing to chaotic environments and is not afraid to interrupt patterns that have led to breakdown in family and martial systems.  She has also been working as a domestic violence relief advocate for the Harriet Tubman Center in Minneapolis for the past 11 years and has a multitude of trainings and group experiences on relational pattern identification and healing groups for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual exploitation.

She enjoys music and expressing herself through spoken word poetry. She is also “chef curry with the pot” and enjoy cooking and hosting events at her home with her close circle of friends. She also loves traveling to different countries.

Maureen Erickson-Robertshaw, Mediator, Custody Evaluator, PC Maureen is a family law mediator, custody evaluator, parenting consultant, international trainer on mediation and intimate partner violence, and parenting time expeditor. She has worked primarily with survivors of intimate partner violence and their children for many years. Her main focus is on helping families, especially high conflict families, function in a healthier way that is tailored to serve their individual needs. She teaches law students internationally on intimate partner violence dynamics and mediation and is one of only two American mediators appointed to be on the Global Advisory Board for MediateGuru. She has studied at Harvard University, the Massachusetts's Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, Cornell University, and the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. She holds a seat on the Minnesota State Bar Association's Alternative Dispute Resolution's Council and is on the Youth Intervention Program Association's Training Committee.

Rabbi Irvin M. Wise was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1948.  He graduated from Cincinnati’s Woodward High School in 1966 and received his bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Indiana University in 1970. He received his Master’s in Hebrew Letters in 1978 from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Cincinnati and his rabbinic ordination there in 1979.  Rabbi Wise served as Assistant Rabbi and Director of Student Affairs at HUC-JIR in Jerusalem from 1979-1981 and then as Executive Director of the Hillel Foundation at Ohio University in Athens and as the community’s rabbi from 1981-1984. He then became the Executive Director of the Hillel Foundation at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis from 1984-1992. Rabbi Wise assumed the position of Senior Rabbi of Adath Israel Congregation, a Conservative synagogue in Cincinnati, in 1992 retiring after 27 years and becoming Rabbi Emeritus of the congregation in September of 2019. Wherever Rabbi Wise has served he has been active in both the Jewish community and general community. serving on many boards, advisory committees, strategic planning and search committees. Rabbi Wise has taught extensively in various educational programs throughout his rabbinate teaching students of all ages with his main interest being adult studies.  Rabbi Wise has been especially involved in poverty work at the United Way of Cincinnati serving on their Impact Cabinet and co-chairing their Poverty Task Force, and was a founding member  of Cincinnati’s Child Poverty Collaborative’s steering committee.  He now serves  as a prison chaplain for the Rhode Island Department of Corrections.  Rabbi Wise is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly and the Central Conference of American Rabbis. He is married to Kathy, and they have three adult children who live in Brooklyn.