The seventh annual Stop the Violence Conference is free of cost to the public and will take place virtually on Tuesday, Oct. 5th from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Stop Violence Conference is a community call to action to provide education and tools that will help address interpersonal violence and make our community a safer place for everyone.

Continuing education credit will be provided for Counselors, Social Workers, Law Enforcement, Attorneys, and other professionals seeking CEUs, but anyone who would like to learn more about how to end the cycle of interpersonal violence is invited and encouraged to attend.

Tickets are free, thanks to this year’s sponsors, Abilities First and the Missouri State University Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Register and you will receive a Zoom link the morning of the conference.

Closed captioning and an interpreter for the deaf community will be provided.

This year’s conference will include two keynote speaker sessions: The first features Jessica Naslund and Chris Worth and will focus on building capacity to work with survivors of all abilities. This session is designed with mental health professionals in mind but is applicable to all attendees for one hour of continuing education. The second will include Wambui Bahati. Wambui’s session will focus on the importance of building professionals’ capacity to work with all people. The session will go over how to prevent funneling people folks with disabilities or mental health issues to programs designed for children or other populations, and attendees will be awarded one hour of continuing education. Other topics that will be discussed during the conference include the exploitation of the elderly and people with disabilities from a legal perspective, sex trafficking, abuse of children with disabilities, and the long-term impact of relationship abuse and violence.