About

Training Times

All sessions shall be run on Ohio time, with the day starting at 9:00 am Eastern Time. 

What's Included

Participation in this training is free. Included is access to virtual session. Within the virtual session, you will have the ability to ask questions of the presenter(s) and download handouts for use during and after the session. 

Where is this Offered

https://ncacvtc.org/#/dashboard

Registration Requirements

No requirements are needed in order to register for this training. 

Cancellation, Substitution & Refund Policy

Not applicable since this training is free. 

Continuing Education Credits

The training must be attended in its entirety to be eligible for CE Credits.  Check-in points will be conducted throughout training.  Application has been made to NBCC and the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board.  If approved, this program will be eligible for 29 CE Credits. 

More Information?

ONCAC | PO Box 2045 | Columbus, OH 43216 | (614) 578-8029 | oncac@oncac.org | www.ONCAC.org

Training Details

Summary

Learn the internationally-recognized NCAC Child Forensic Interview Structure online in our interactive virtual classroom. NCAC instructors are practicing interviewers which allows them to engage beyond typical lecture methods with the most current, evidence-based, and practical experience. The training has been adapted to our virtual classroom and includes participant discussion, mock interview practicum with facilitator feedback, review of recorded forensic interviews, and experiential skill-building exercises.

Since 1998, the NCAC has provided Forensic Interviewing of Children Training to thousands of professionals from all 50 states and 12 foreign countries, as well as personnel from the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, and non-governmental organizations. Past participants have been affiliated with children’s advocacy centers, law enforcement, child protective services, medical services, legal agencies, and therapeutic practices. In order to foster a dynamic and unique learning experience, the virtual class size is limited to 30 trainees per session. This training is intended for professionals currently working as part of an investigative agency, a multidisciplinary team (MDT), or a children’s advocacy center (CAC). Because of the high demand for this training, professionals currently working as part of an investigative agency, a MDT, or CAC will be given priority to ensure that they have access to the training they need.

Objectives

• Identify question formats that are appropriate for a forensic interview.
• Implement Stage 1 of the NCAC Child Forensic Interview Structure in a practicum interview.
• Identify strategies for transitioning the forensic interview to abuse-focused topics to accommodate reluctant children.

Teaching Methods

Learn the internationally-recognized NCAC Child Forensic Interview Structure online in our interactive virtual classroom.

 Who Should Attend?

• Professionals who have the responsibility for conducting the initial investigative/forensic interview of a child
• Tenured child abuse professionals desiring to sharpen existing interviewing skills
• Professionals desiring to learn the current NCAC Child Forensic Interview Structure

Training Schedule

May 24 - Training Day 1 

9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Introduction to Forensic Interview

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Forensic Conversations

12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Lunch

1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Forensic Conversations

2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Child Forensic Interview Structure – Stage 1

May 25 - Training Day 2 

9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Child Forensic Interview Structure – Stage 1

12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Lunch

1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Interview Practicum – Individual Exercise with Facilitated Discussion

May 26 - Training Day 3 

9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Child Development

12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Lunch

1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Child Forensic Interview Structure – Stage 2

May 27 - Training Day 4 

9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Putting It Altogether – The NCAC Child Forensic Interview (Slow Motion Interview)

10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Corroboration

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Lunch

12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Memory and Suggestibility – Didactic lecture, group discussion, video examples

2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Preparing to Testify

2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Mock Court

May 28 - Training Day 5 

9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Pre-Interview Planning

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Interviewing Reluctant Children

12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Lunch

1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Interviewing Reluctant Children

2:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Wrap-Up and Closure

Speakers

Kim Madden, MEd, LCMHC – Kim is a trainer and child forensic interview specialist with the National Children’s Advocacy Center (NCAC) in Huntsville, AL. She has 25 years of forensic interviewing experience, having conducted forensic interviews in both children’s advocacy centers (CACs) and hospital-based child medical evaluation settings. She has provided expert witness testimony for criminal and civil court proceedings in multiple jurisdictions. In addition to forensic interviewing, Kim has served in multiple capacities within a CAC setting: mentoring forensic interviewers, providing trauma-informed therapy services to child/adult victims, facilitating family violence support groups, and teaching evidence-based parenting interventions. Kim currently teaches the NCAC’s Forensic Interviewing of Children Training, Advanced Forensic Interviewing Training, as well as presents on forensic interviewing and victim advocacy topics at international, national, state, and local levels. Additionally, she worked with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency as a faculty member for the Interdiction for the Protection of Children, a state-wide training initiative to help Alabama highway patrol officers recognize and effectively respond to vulnerable children. Kim received her master’s degree in counseling from the University of Toledo and is a licensed clinical mental health counselor. She also completed two years of additional training in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy through the North Carolina Child Treatment Program.

Andra Chamberlin, MA – Andra is a trainer and child forensic interview specialist with the National Children’s Advocacy Center (NCAC) in Huntsville, AL. She has worked in the child abuse field since 1989 and began conducting forensic interviews in 1996. She has conducted forensic interviews in children’s advocacy centers (CACs) in Alabama and Texas. Andra currently teaches the NCAC’s Forensic Interviewing of Child Training, Advanced Forensic Interviewing of Children Training, as well as presents at local, regional, state, national and international child abuse conferences on child forensic interviewing. She is the developer and host of the online video series for forensic interviewers titled Takeaway Tuesday and helped develop the first intermediate online forensic interview training in the United States titled Building Forensic Interviewing Skills. In addition to her ongoing work in the field of child forensic interviewing, she serves as a forensic interviewer mentor as part of the NCAC’s Mentoring and Consultation Groups for Child Forensic Interviewers. Andra was a member of a community organization which established the CAC in Midland, TX where she served as program director/lead forensic interviewer for 14 years. She also piloted the development of a forensic interview protocol for the state of Texas and taught forensic interviewing training for 11 years for the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Texas. Andra has provided expert testimony for both criminal and civil court proceedings in multiple jurisdictions. She received her master’s degree in applied research psychology and bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

David LaBahn, JD - David is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys (APA) in Washington, DC, a national association representing elected and deputy or assistant prosecutors, and city attorneys. He also serves as Director of APA’s Child Abuse Prosecution Project. APA’s Child Abuse Prosecution Project provides national, regional and local specialized trainings and technical assistance to prosecutors and their multi-disciplinary teams. Prior to forming APA, David was the Director of the American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI) and the Director of Research and Development for the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA). In this dual capacity, he directed APRI’s Projects including editing and teaching in the areas of child and adult sexual assault and gang violence. He worked with other national organizations to lobby for increased funding to assist in the investigation and prosecution of child abuse, as well as coordinated the efforts of these federally funded programs. Before joining NDAA in 2003, David was the Executive Director of the California District Attorneys Association (CDAA). During this time, he was involved in creating CDAA’s first Violence against Women Project, the Circuit Environmental Prosecution Project, and the High Technology Prosecution Project. He received his Juris Doctorate from Western State University in Fullerton, CA.

Beth Merachnik, JD - Beth serves as the deputy director of the Association of Prosecuting Attorney’s (APA) Child Abuse Prosecution Project. She is the former director of APA’s Smart Prosecution Project. The Project provided national training and technical assistance for prosecutors, to support and enhance criminal justice initiatives, and promote public safety. She is a former prosecutor from Massachusetts having served for over 20 years in both the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office and the Office of the Attorney General. She prosecuted a wide variety of cases during her career at the district attorney’s office, including crimes of homicide, sexual assault and child abuse. For more than four years Beth held the position director of the Middlesex Domestic Violence Unit in which she was responsible for implementing policy and program development, preparing training programs, facilitating community outreach and designing strategies for prosecution and victim safety. She served at the Office of the Attorney General, first as the chief of the Community-Based Justice Bureau. The bureau was dedicated to developing programs and policies, devising strategies, drafting legislation and providing training in the areas of family violence, child protection, juvenile justice and community safety as well as maintaining oversight of the Victim Compensation and Assistance Division, a unit mandated to provide financial resources to crime victims. Following this, Beth served as senior counsel and trial attorney in the Criminal Bureau, prosecuting financial crime, public corruption and computer crime. She also served on the Governor’s Commission for Sexual and Domestic Violence where she was co-chair of the legislative sub-committee. Beth received her bachelor’s degree from Tufts University in Medford, MA and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Bridgeport, School of Law in Connecticut.

Michael Valentine, JD – Michael is a Senior Attorney Consultant with the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys' Child Abuse Project. He was previously an Assistant County Attorney and the First Assistant County Attorney with the Hillsborough County Attorney's Office in Manchester, NH. He supervised 14 attorneys and maintained a trial caseload focused primarily on child sexual assaults and child pornography. In this capacity he worked extensively with local Child Advocacy Centers, police, and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in his own investigations and reviewing the work of his attorneys. As an Assistant County Attorney, Michael became the leading expert in New Hampshire on the civil commitment of Sexually Violent Predators (SVP) and remains the only prosecutor in the state to successfully try an SVP case. He has presented multiple times on strategies for prosecuting such cases at the NH Attorney General's Child Abuse and Neglect. Conference. He also helped teach and prepare students in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Computer Analysis and Response Team on how to testify as factual and expert witnesses in state and federal courts using practice direct and cross examinations in the FBI's Computer Analysis Response Team (CART) Moot Court trainings.

Registration

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ONCAC Members

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Non-Members

If you are currently not affiliated with any CAC in Ohio that is a member and/or you have NOT accessed the profile area of our main website by creating a login before, you will need to create an Event Registrant profile and then access this section of the website to register for this training.  You will receive an email once you complete the form that will include a link back to the login page for you to complete your registration. 

To do that - CLICK  HERE

Registration - Free

This program is free for ONCAC members and non-members. 

Confirmations

Online registrants will receive immediate confirmations/receipts via email.