Our 2026 symposium will focus on practical tools and creative strategies that help advocates support victims/survivors while also caring for themselves and their teams.

This event will bring together about 150 participants, most of whom are MNCASA members at advocacy organizations who provide direct services to victims/survivors of sexual assault. . Sessions should be designed with advocates in mind, people who support victims/survivors through crisis intervention, legal and medical advocacy, shelter, support groups, prevention work, and community education. Presenters are encouraged to offer tangible tools, real-world strategies, and examples that reflect the diverse communities advocates serve.

We are looking for sessions that are interactive, practical, and rooted in compassion and respect. We invite you to share what you know.

You do not need to be an experienced presenter to apply. If you have an idea that could help others in this movement, we encourage you to take a chance and submit a proposal. We’re especially excited about sessions that get people engaging, creating, and trying something new.

Focus Area 1: Practical Advocacy Skills
These sessions should help participants build useful skills attendees can bring back to their day-to-day work. We’re looking for concrete, participatory sessions that show what advocacy looks like in action and help advocates meet survivors where they are. We are particularly interested in sessions that utilize a harm-reduction approach to working with victims/survivors.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:
  • Supporting victims/survivors who use substances; including recognizing and responding to overdoses
  • Mobile advocacy
  • Creative safety planning with victims/survivors who are unhoused, non-citizens, or facing other substantial barriers
  • Peer-support models; creating spaces where victims/survivors support and learn from each other
  • Making shelter or housing programs more flexible and accessible for victims/survivors of sexual violence
  • Documentation and data-collection that minimize harm
  • De-escalation and emotional first aid
  • Empowerment-based self-defense
  • First aid, CPR, AED
  • Practical community-based violence prevention strategies
  • Auditing organization policies and practices for barriers
  • Supervising and caring for staff who handle crisis situations
  • Sharing tangible tools for healing, like art, mindfulness, or other grounding techniques victims/survivors can use right away — and giving advocates the opportunity to try them out together at the conference

Focus Area 2: Advocate Well-Being and Sustainability
These sessions should focus on how we sustain ourselves and this work, both individually and together. We are interested in honest, down-to-earth conversations about burnout, boundaries, resilience, and hope, as well as creative ways to rest, recharge, and stay connected to purpose.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:
  • Supervising in ways that reflect our values and support advocates
  • Supporting advocates who are also victims/survivors - tending to the experiences of advocates who are currently surviving harm or healing from past harm
  • Creating harm reduction cultures within our teams- building practices and policies that reduce burnout, center compassion in accountability, and make space for imperfection
  • Sustaining ourselves in advocacy- doing the work without self-sacrifice by setting and honoring personal boundaries
  • Caring for each other as a team in small or rural programs
  • Building well-being into planning and budgets
  • Holding grief about our movement

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