Need Legal Aid Help? Get Started

Advocate Training: Break the Silence 2023


Mar 16

Mar 16, 2023
9:00 am-4:30 pm


Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center
215 S. Depeyster Street, Kent, Ohio 44240


Break the Silence is a one-day conference organized by Community Legal Aid focused on serving vulnerable populations who are experiencing intimate partner violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking.

Learn about serving survivors who experience abuse later in life and explore the connection between domestic violence, sexual assault, and elder abuse. Survivors of abuse later in life are older adults who experience abuse, neglect, abandonment, or financial exploitation by someone in an ongoing, trust-based relationship.

Topics include:

  • Defining and understanding abuse in later life and how domestic violence, sexual assault, and elder abuse intersect
  • Special considerations for elderly survivors of domestic violence
  • Recognizing and protecting seniors from exploitation and other forms of abuse
  • Making referrals to Adult Protective Services, mandated reporting, and what happens after Adult Protective Services gets involved
  • The differences and similarities Protective Services Orders and Civil Protection Orders
  • Navigating differing philosophical approaches of providing assistance to survivors of abuse later in life

Speakers include:

  • Susan Fitch, Esq., Staff Attorney, Community Legal Aid
  • Susan Mays, Supervisor, Adult Protective Services/Child Care Certification/Transportation Unit, Trumbull County Department of Job and Family Services
  • Sylvia Pla-Raith, M.A., LSW, Lead Staff of the Ohio Attorney General Elder Abuse Commission and Director, Elder Justice Unit- Consumer Protection, Ohio Attorney General
  • Alexandria Ruden, Senior Attorney, Legal Aid Society of Cleveland
  • Catherine Rufener, Deputy Director of Elder and Disabled Services, Summit County Department of Job and Family Services
  • Susan Stroup, LISW-S, Chief Officer of Social Services, Coleman Professional Services

6 CLE and CEU credits have been requested

Cost is $30 and includes lunch

Register online: Advocate Training: Break the Silence 2023 | Community Legal Aid

Quick Exit