By Megan Cagney Peña, MA, LLP
The Michigan Chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (MI-ATSA) is pleased to announce the formation of the Juvenile Subcommittee.
This subcommittee has been born out of recognition of the need to increase training and educational opportunities for those who work with youth and families. Our goal is to help support a system of care in the state of Michigan that is equipped with the following:
- the understanding that children with problematic sexual behaviors are different from adults who have committed sexual offenses
- knowledge of normative childhood sexual development and behaviors
- the ability to identify and assess risk, needs, and protective factors with tools specifically focused on youth
- treatment interventions that specifically target identified risk and needs and
- resources for families and caregivers
Tasks of this subcommittee will consist of:
- identifying knowledge gaps in our collective system
- prioritizing training needs
- determining effective ways to share resources.
We welcome your voice in this Juvenile Subcommittee. This committee will meet quarterly, with our first meeting being held on January 5th, from 11am-12pm. A Zoom link will be sent to those interested in participating. All meetings will be held virtually for the near future. If you are interested, please email Mpena@hopenetwork.org.
Additionally, we are excited to share that we are collaborating with Dr. James Worling, Ph.D, who is the developer of the Protective + Risk Observations for Eliminating Sexual Offense Recidivism (PROFESOR). The PROFESOR is a structured checklist designed to help identify and encapsulate protective and risk factors for adolescents and young adults who have sexually offended. We will offer one virtual training opportunity with Dr. Worling on January 27, 2021, and another in Spring 2021.