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NAPD 2026 We The Defenders
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Venue: Auditorium clear filter
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Tuesday, October 6
 

9:00am EDT

Welcome and Opening Remarks
Tuesday October 6, 2026 9:00am - 9:15am EDT
Tuesday October 6, 2026 9:00am - 9:15am EDT
Auditorium

9:15am EDT

Deep Forgiveness - Opening Plenary
Tuesday October 6, 2026 9:15am - 10:15am EDT
Tuesday October 6, 2026 9:15am - 10:15am EDT
Auditorium

10:30am EDT

The Defender's Toolbox for Public Speaking
Tuesday October 6, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am EDT
Explore your potential as a confident and effective speaker with "The Defender's Toolbox for Public Speaking." This is a lively, interactive session that will utilize exercises and approaches to performance that are designed to boost your public speaking skills in a supportive, playful environment.

Whether you're gearing up to testify, leading your team, or just looking to spice up your communication abilities, this session is crafted to fit your needs. You'll walk away with useful tools for a variety of speaking settings, a boost to your confidence, and new perspectives on public speaking.
Tuesday October 6, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am EDT
Auditorium

1:00pm EDT

Social Worker Plenary: Telling A Mitigation Story You Can Feel
Tuesday October 6, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT
*This session is eligible for NASW CEU Credit

Stories activate the parts of the human brain that would be used if we were actually experiencing the story. How we tell our clients' stories impacts how the listeners experience and understand the information. In this session, we will discuss strategies for turning the facts of a case into stories that paint a picture decision-makers can feel.

Learning Objectives:
1. understand the difference between stating facts and telling a story
2. apply trauma-informed interviewing techniques that can help elicit descriptive language
3. practice telling a story by turning a list of facts into a descriptive story

Tuesday October 6, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT
Auditorium

2:15pm EDT

Writing Workshop: Journalistic Tools for Mitigation Storytelling
Tuesday October 6, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT
*This session is eligible for NASW CEU Credit

This one‑hour workshop equips mitigation specialists with practical writing tools grounded in the Just Practice framework and journalistic techniques. Participants will learn to distill complex client narratives into clear, compelling stories that emphasize resilience while maintaining ethical integrity. Through structured prompts, they will practice crafting headlines and leads, designing open‑ended interview questions, reflecting on ethical storytelling, and constructing cohesive narratives. The session balances hands‑on writing practice with guided reflection, ensuring participants leave with actionable strategies to strengthen their reports and advocacy.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
  1. Apply journalistic writing techniques such as headlines, leads, and narrative clarity to frame client stories in ways that highlight adversity, resilience, power differentials, and humanize context.
  2. Develop and refine interview questions that elicit detailed, unbiased information from clients and collateral sources, supporting accurate and ethically grounded storytelling based on a client’s biopsychosocial history.
  3. Integrate ethical reflection into narrative construction by identifying potential risks of harm, articulating guiding principles, and producing client-centered narratives that balance advocacy with accuracy.
Tuesday October 6, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT
Auditorium

3:30pm EDT

An Introduction to Defense-Victim Outreach (DVO)
Tuesday October 6, 2026 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT
*This session is eligible for NASW CEU Credit

For 25 years, defense attorneys in criminal cases have been engaging Defense-Victim Outreach (DVO) specialists to assist in reaching out to family members whose loved ones have been murdered and to survivors of violent crime. This session is an introduction to DVO that covers key concepts and ideas, and offers tools for engaging a DVO in your cases.

Learning Objectives: 
1. Understand what defense-victim outreach is and is not!
2. Understand the role of a DVO Specialist in your case.
3. Develop tools for identifying and engaging a DVO specialist.
Tuesday October 6, 2026 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT
Auditorium

4:30pm EDT

Shirt Exchange, Additional Merch Purchasing
Tuesday October 6, 2026 4:30pm - 5:15pm EDT
Tuesday October 6, 2026 4:30pm - 5:15pm EDT
Auditorium
 
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