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Two Days in May

A special note to our participants

The 2021 Two Days in May Conference on Victim Assistance will be delayed this year, as the Attorney General’s Office is exploring contingencies to ensure that the event is both safe and meaningful for all of our stakeholders and participants. Updates will be posted to this webpage as additional information becomes available. We appreciate your patience.

Two Days in May is an annual training event where victim advocates from around the state receive updates about best practices, trends, and developments in the field, network with colleagues who also care about victims, and honor those who are doing exceptional work.

Ohio Attorney General's 29th Annual Conference

The Ohio Attorney General’s 29th annual Conference on Victim Assistance convened virtually, on May 21st, 2020, for one day only due to COVID-19 concerns.

Please enjoy this video from the 2020 virtual conference.

FEATURED SPEAKERS

AGENDA

9 a.m. 9:10 - 9:40 a.m. | Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, Welcome Trauma Recovery Centers Dr. Sue Marasco, May Dugan Center, Cleveland

Dr. Sue Marasco has spent 20 years researching cultural trauma and developing an understanding of how social services can best help survivors to succeed. Since joining Cleveland’s May Dugan Center in 2010, she has worked to create community-based, trauma-informed services and an award-winning education program for adults, both encompassing best practices and outcome-based measurements. The trauma recovery program reaches out to victims of crime to provide immediate, whole-person support. In the basic-literacy, test-prep and job-training program, lesson plans are tailored to each person’s goals, promoting personal growth and healing in a safe environment. Marasco also trains trainers for the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, having contributed more than 200 hours to nonprofits, social services agencies, educational programs and hospitals. She has a doctorate focusing on historical and cultural trauma.

9:40 - 10:40 a.m. | Who Experiences Violent Victimization and Who Accesses Services Heather Warnken, J.D., LL.M, Visiting Fellow, U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime and Bureau of Justice Statistics

The National Crime Victimization Survey identifies groups facing the highest risk of serious violence and, correspondingly, the greatest need for services. Such information can be used by local service providers, system stakeholders and broader communities to create data-driven strategies for victim assistance and other support services, especially relevant in a time of critical funding and policy changes in the national victim services realm. in a time of critical funding and policy updates in the national realm of victim services.

Heather Warnken works across the Bureau of Justice Statistics and Office for Victims of Crime in the Department of Justice’s first position designed to improve the dissemination and translation of data and social science research for the victim assistance field. She previously worked in positions bridging the gap between research and real-life practices at the Warren Institute on Law & Social Policy at University of California-Berkeley School of Law, San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department and Partners for Each and Every Child, in addition to serving as a pro bono legal service provider in domestic violence and child welfare matters. Warnken holds an LL.M. from UC Berkeley Law School; a J.D., cum laude with pro bono distinction, from Suffolk University Law School; and a bachelor’s, with honors, from Johns Hopkins University.

10:40 - 11 a.m. | 2020 Two Days in May Awards

John Martin
AGvocate

Kathy Mull
Special Courage

Women Helping Women
Promising Practice Award

Alexandria Ruden, Esq.
Robert Denton Special Achievement Award

AWARDS

Robert Denton Special Achievement Award | Alexandria Ruden, Esq.

This award honors an individual selflessly dedicated to increasing victim’s rights.

Alexandria Ruden, Esq., is a senior attorney at The Legal Aid Society in Cleveland who has helped more than 5,000 survivors since beginning her legal career in 1980 at the Free Clinic of Greater Cleveland. She dedicates herself to providing her clients the support they need during the most difficult time of their lives. Known across the state as an expert on laws deal-ing with domestic violence, stalking and juvenile protection, Ruden also has been tapped to improve services in partnership with the Ohio Supreme Court, Cuyahoga County Juvenile and Domestic Relations courts, state legislators and many boards and committees. All the while, she makes time to mentor law students and raise public awareness about the rights and needs of crime victims.

Promising Practice Award | Women Helping Women

This award honors organizations investing time, creativity and talent in projects that better serve victims of crime.

Since 2018, Women Helping Women, a Cincinnati organization that provides services in response to gender-based violence, has run the Domestic Violence Enhanced Response Team. DVERT advocates work with law enforcement to provide immediate trauma-informed support for victims at crime scenes, where they create emergency 24-hour safety plans and offer follow-up services. Police have called in the advocates, who are available 24 hours a day, on more than 90% of cases with a domestic violence aspect in Cincinnati’s five jurisdictions. As the model has proved successful, the service has been expanded to Norwood, Delhi Township and North College Hill.

Special Courage Award | Kathy Mull

This award honors an individual who has shown strength, resiliency and perseverance in serving crime victims.

Kathy Mull is executive director of The Cocoon, Wood County’s only domestic and sexual violence agency, where her staff says her knowledge, passion, commitment and solution-focused drive serve as constant motivation. In more than 17 years working with survivors, she has pushed to build a community that brings in police, courts, hospitals and social services and focuses them around the beliefs that victim blaming must end, everyone deserves to live violence-free, and domestic and sexual violence can be eradicated. As director of The Cocoon, Mull, a licensed social worker, has made tough decisions without sacrificing the mission or her values and integrity. Her team members say they are supported by her practicality and inspired by her passion.

AGvocate Award | John Martin

This award honors a team member of the Attorney General’s Office who goes above and beyond to help Ohioans.

John Martin supervises the claims investigation team that handles the most challenging cases (homicide and police-involved ones) received by the Attorney General’s Crime Victims Services Section. He excels at encouraging his colleagues and guiding them to efficient and effective results. Martin honestly answers victims’ questions, providing them with facts, and reassures them that the office is working diligently on their behalf. In addition, he was instrumental in the launch of an upgraded claims management system and in coordinating the section’s coronavirus-mandated work-from-home methods to ensure the victim compensation program never faltered. A generous volunteer, Martin goes out of his way to help with any office event, such as Two Days in May, or charitable activity.

TRAINING ON DEMAND

CONFERENCE PARTNERS