Child Abuse Prevention Awareness WEBINAR: Understanding and Preventing Child Maltreatment Fatalities

Social Work hours and Certificate of Participation available. Penn State is an approved provider as defined by Pa. Code Sections 47.36(a)(3), 48.36(a)(3), and 49.36(a)(3). Social workers, marriage and family therapists, and professional counselors licensed by the state of Pennsylvania can earn 3 clock hours of continuing education for completing this course.

REGISTER HERE:  https://psu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ApkIlsqjTSCs0TNtQ37gyA

AGENDA:  2025 CMSN Webinar Agenda.pdf

TALK TITLES:

Child Maltreatment Fatalities – Data, Reflections, and a Case Study in Prevention (Emily Putnam-Hornstein)
This talk will discuss the limitations of national child maltreatment data, sharing insights available through the newly launched Lives Cut Short project. This will be followed by a case study to underscore that it is possible to reduce near-fatal and fatal maltreatment through more targeted practices.

Preventing Firearm Injuries and Deaths Among Children and Youth (Rebeccah Sokul)
This talk will start with a focus on firearms within the child welfare system and expand out to consider strategies that can prevent firearm-involved deaths among all children and youth.

Motivating Elected Officials to Act on Child Fatalities Using Research, Citizen Advocacy and Media Relations (Rich Gehrman)
This presentation explores how to raise public awareness of child fatalities and make your state’s child welfare system a legislative priority by working with investigative reporters, doing original research, and organizing citizen advocates.

Emily Putnam-Hornstein

John A. Tate Distinguished Professor for Children in Need, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Emily Putnam-Hornstein is the John A. Tate Distinguished Professor for Children in Need at the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and faculty co-director of the Children’s Data Network. She also maintains appointments as a distinguished scholar at the University of Southern California and as a research specialist with the California Child Welfare Indicators Project at UC Berkeley.

For nearly two decades, Putnam-Hornstein has partnered with public agencies to carry out applied research to inform child welfare policy and practice. Her analysis of large-scale, linked administrative data has provided insight into where scarce resources may be most effectively targeted and informs understanding of maltreated children within a broader, population-based context. Her research has been used to develop risk stratification tools, including those implemented in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and Los Angeles County, California. These tools support caseworkers and supervisors in reviewing hundreds of factors relevant to a child’s risk and safety when making initial screening and triaging decisions.

Rebeccah Sokol 

Assistant Professor of Social Work, University of Michigan

Rebeccah Sokol, PhD, is a behavioral scientist who studies youth trauma exposure. Her overarching research agenda seeks to ease the burden of adversity experienced in childhood and adolescence, with a central focus on reducing youth violence exposure and involvement. Sokol uses a developmental lens, public health framework, quasi-experimental methods and data science techniques to inform strategies that prevent youth trauma. A common thread of Sokol’s research involves describing risk and identifying etiological factors for youth firearm violence exposure in different populations, with the ultimate goal of improving firearm injury and violence prevention interventions and policies.

Rich Gehrman

Founder and Executive Director Emeritus of Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota

Since 2009 Safe Passage has combined data with citizen advocacy to promote improvements to child protection and foster care systems. Mr. Gehrman worked with street youth in Boston, followed by community organizing in the Boston Public Schools. He served as the chief finance and administrative officer for the Westchester County New York Department of Social Services, the Maryland Department of Human Services, and the City of Saint Paul Minnesota. As a consultant, Mr. Gehrman managed projects in federal, state, and county governments in the areas of health, human services, state court administration, higher education, and juvenile justice. He continues to support the work of Safe Passage particularly through research and project management.