Montana Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect Conference

April 30 ^th - May 1 ^st 2025 - Helena, MT

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services – Child and Family Services Division (CFSD) is hosting the annual state Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect Conference (PCAN) in-person in Helena, Montana from April 30 ^th- May 1 ^st, 2025 .

The 2025 Montana PCAN Conference theme "Building Bridges, Empowering Futures” is designed to inspire child welfare employees, partners and stakeholders surrounding the Montana child welfare system in working together to help youth and families have a strong and empowering support community around them even as Child and Family Services ends their legal involvement.

The conference will focus on providing educational and inspirational opportunities for those who work in and around child welfare and the prevention of child abuse and neglect, offering coaching, skill building, resource sharing, training opportunities with national recognized speakers and trainers, and networking.

It is an important time for those working in the field of child welfare in Montana to come together! A key element of the work Montana’s child welfare system is engaging in is to strengthen collaboration and community for a collective, impactful response in supporting children and families. The 2025 conference will be tailored to address the sustainable and ongoing supports that can be put in place to empower foster youth and their families even as the Child and Family Services Division ends any legal involvement with the youth. Partnering with youth court and probation, the attendees look to learn creative ways to engage older youth in planning their future, support new or reconstituted family systems, and proactively prepare for the challenges ahead. The hope is to model Montana based community successes and resources that already exist or could be facilitated between current agencies in our communities and state.

For more information contact Tim Radle: tradle@mt.gov

Register Now and Mark Your Calendars! Register Here: 2025 Montana Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect Conference (umt.edu)

The theme for the 2025 Montana Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect Conference is “Building Bridges, Empowering Futures”

Topics of Interest include, but are not limited to:

Supporting Youth Engagement in Their Futures

Youth-led initiatives: Successful programs or projects involving youth to improve their engagement in their futures.
Empowering youth voices: Strategies for amplifying youth voices in decision-making processes and community engagement.
Fostering resilience: Techniques for helping youth develop resilience and coping skills in the face of adversity.
Mentorship and coaching: Effective mentorship and coaching models for supporting youth in achieving their goals.

Building a Community of Practice

Trauma-informed care: Strategies for implementing trauma-informed care in organizations and communities.
Cultural humility: Approaches to cultural humility in working with diverse families and communities.
Secondary trauma and self-care: Strategies for mitigating secondary trauma and promoting self-care among professionals.
Community-based initiatives: Successful community-based initiatives for preventing child abuse and neglect.

Facing Challenges as a Family

Navigating systems: Strategies for helping families navigate complex systems, such as child welfare and healthcare.
Parenting with trauma: Approaches to supporting parents who have experienced trauma.
Kinship care: Strategies for supporting kinship caregivers and the children in their care.
Mental health and substance abuse: Approaches to addressing mental health and substance abuse issues within families.
Economic stability and mobility: Strategies for supporting families in achieving economic stability and mobility.

Call for Presentors

CFSD is soliciting presentations from innovative experts from throughout Montana and the United States. Our intention is to offer professionals surrounding Montana’s child welfare workforce, an opportunity to consider new and emerging and best practices, trends, and research related to the children, youth, and families they serve.

Presentations from state employees within the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services and other Montana state departments are welcomed and encouraged.

To propose a presentation, submit an application via Microsoft Forms. Please consider the scoring criteria when responding to the application. The electronic application must be complete in order to be scored.

Presentation proposals will be scored on the following criteria, allocating the points listed below for a maximum total of 85 points. Please take these criteria into consideration as you prepare presentations. Only presentations proposals that answer all the application questions will be scored.

Workshop presentation proposals must address all the criteria listed below:

Relates to the conference theme “Building Bridges, Empowering Futures” and topics of interest, as described in the call for presentations (20 points)
Research outcomes and promising practices (20 points)
Clear learning objectives (15 points)
Cultural inclusivity and humility (10 points)
Application for policy, practice, and/or advocacy (10 points)
Resources for practitioners (5 points)
Interactive presentation style and clear application of adult learning theory in a Virtual Setting and In-person (5 points)

Presentor FAQs

Montana’s child welfare system is state-supervised and administered by Regional Administrators, making up the six geographic areas across the State. Child and Family Services Division (CFSD) oversees child welfare practice and provides policy direction and grants and contracts management and oversight. It is anticipated that many of the local/regional child welfare case workers and supervisors will attend the conference along with other CFSD staff across Montana.

In addition, practitioners adjacent to the Montana child welfare system are also encouraged to attend to learn more about child welfare practices and collaboration. These professionals include Child Welfare Prevention and Support Services Contractors, Contracted Behavioral specialists, therapists, educators/early childhood professionals, attorneys and other legal advocates and personnel, medical providers, and law enforcement.

Older youth who have aged out of foster care, as well as foster and adoptive parents, and others closely involved with child welfare, are also anticipated to attend. This year CFSD is partnering with Youth Court and Probation on this conference in order to collaborate and build a shared approach for the families we share or who face similar challenges.

Members of the CAN Conference Planning Committee and Child and Family Services Division (CFSD) will evaluate and score presentation submissions based on the outlined criteria to inform the selection process. The CFSD Deputy Division Administrator will ultimately select presentations based on the CAN Conference Planning Committee member presentation scores, CFSD priorities and topics of interest, presenter availability and budget.

The budget for the conference has not been finalized. CFSD will be able to provide a per diem to presenters as the budget allows. The electronic presentation application does provide space to request financial compensation and/or travel and accommodations. If your presentation is selected, you will be notified if CFSD is able to provide the requested per diem.

As this year’s PCAN Conference is being held in-Person, presentation materials will be provided to attendees electronically utilizing a conference app and/or email listserv.

Notification will be sent out electronically to the main contact on all proposals no later than Wednesday, January 31^st.