Brief Overview
This session’s goal is to bridge work of the Duluth Model Coordinated Community Response (CCR) in conjunction with the Child Advocacy Center model. Domestic violence and child abuse maltreatment co-occurrence is exceptionally high in child abuse investigations. These cases are further challenging due to intentional or unintentional contamination of memories ensuring secrecy by a batterer. Multi-disciplinary team members and systems partners may not recognize the protective factors utilized by survivors and/or the non-offending caregiver. This session will incorporate research on protective measures and the experiences of domestic violence survivors from focus groups conducted in Duluth, MN. The session will cover additional sample questions for forensic interviews to elicit protective factors of the non-offending caregiver. Foundational domestic violence knowledge preferred.
Expert Presenter
Laura Gapske, In her 15 + years of experience, Laura has dedicated her life professionally and personally to ending the violence against women and children. She serves as the co-chair of the St. Louis County Mortality Review Committee for child protection services. At First Witness Child Advocacy Center, she provides oversight of all program staff by providing leadership, mentoring, facilitation of innovation, goal attainment, and forensic interviewing skills.
Laura previously worked at Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs (DAIP) as the Coordinated Community Response Coordinator and co-facilitator in Creating a Process of Change Men’s Non-Violence Groups. Her role maximized the safety of victims who experience domestic violence by working to enhance and maintain an effective coordinated community response to domestic violence. She effectively works with all women, the men who batter them, and their families through systems change methodology. She participates in the development, expansion, and executes training for Zero Abuse Project Child First® Forensic Interview Training and DAIP’s National Training Project.
She conducts forensic interviews and court testimony when allegations of maltreatment or abuse arise to support investigations by social services and/or law enforcement while working with the multi-disciplinary team. Laura provides additional national training on Co-Occurrence: Domestic Violence and Child Sex Abuse Training for Advocates, Advocacy Training for Advocates within a CAC, forensic interviewing, policies and procedures, narrative practice, multidisciplinary team development, and dynamics of maltreatment and abuse.
In her personal life, she serves as an elected official on her local school board and is the proud mother of two boys that are avid soccer players.