Conference Imperatives: Key Challenges

Women face unique biological, psychological, and social challenges that can impact their substance use and substance use treatment outcomes. Justice-involved women often face even more complex challenges when it comes to substance use and treatment outcomes including an increased likelihood of co-occurring mental health disorders and a history of trauma and victimization.

For these reasons, justice-involved women are likely to have continued engagement in substance use and other high-risk behaviors, which may contribute to recidivism and continued criminal justice involvement. Despite the prevalence of substance use in justice-involved women, few practitioners use evidence-based substance use treatment programs specifically designed for justice-involved women.

Symposium

The inaugural annual Justice-Involved Women and Substance Use Symposium strives to improve substance use treatment outcomes for justice-involved women. The two-day hybrid symposium includes keynote presentations, panels, fireside chats, and research presentations. Discussions include gender-responsive and trauma-informed care, implementation barriers for community practitioners, and collaborative environments between higher education students and community practitioners.

The symposium’s objective is to provide a unique and timely opportunity to accelerate the application of evidence-based, gender-responsive, and trauma-informed practices by bringing together a diverse group of experts from the criminal justice, social work, and public health fields around the shared goal of improving substance use treatment outcomes for justice-involved women.

The symposium aims to:

• disseminate evidence-based, gender-responsive, and trauma-informed practice priorities for practitioners working in the criminal justice, social work, and public health fields
• support practitioners in building implementation capacity for evidence-based practice priorities through small-group workshops
• create a collaborative environment between community practitioners and higher education students.

The symposium series will contribute to the existing knowledge base by advancing the understanding of evidence-based, gender-responsive, and trauma-informed practices and provide a vehicle to aid practitioners in implementing these evidence-based practices. The direct focus on practitioners and implementation outcomes will support the systematic implementation of gender-responsive and trauma-informed practices that improve the quality, effectiveness, and safety of substance use treatment for justice-involved women.

Conference Focus Areas

• Abuse, Violence, and Trauma-Informed Care
• Gender-Responsive Strategies and Programming
• Dual Diagnosis: Substance Use and Mental Illness
• Marginalized Justice-Involved Populations (LGBTQIA+)
• Cultural Competency

Conference Overview

• Date: March 2025 (date to be announced soon)
• Times: 8:30 am – 4:00 pm
• Host: Meredith College, Criminal Justice Department
• Location: Meredith College, 3800 Hillsborough St, Raleigh, NC 27607
• Attire: Business casual
• Food/Beverages: Breakfast, lunch, snacks

Who Should Attend

The symposium brings together a variety of professionals in various industries to collaborate and facilitate successful outcomes for justice-involved women.

• Criminal justice professionals
• First responders
• Reentry service professionals
• Parole officers
• Substance use professionals
• Medical practitioners
• State and federal agencies
• Social work and education professionals
• Legal advocates, lawyers
• Therapists, counselors
• Students and faculty
• Individuals and organizations dedicated to successful outcomes for justice-involved women