This live webinar session is designed to provide domestic and sexual violence professionals with a foundational understanding of substance use, addiction, and recovery. Participants will explore how trauma, coping mechanisms, and the dynamics of abuse intersect with substance use, as well as how stigma and system barriers impact survivors seeking help. The session introduces common substances, signs and symptoms of use, and evidence-based approaches for support and referral. Emphasis is placed on trauma-informed, nonjudgmental engagement strategies that promote safety, empowerment, and healing for survivors who use substances.

Join us February 11th at 10am CT for this live virtual training. Registration is free and open to the public. 

Organizations are mandated to collect and maintain a wide array of data for their federal and community partners for the purpose of documenting that grant goals and objectives were met. However, the data collected, is more than just a count – it is a story, the collective story, of how our organizations work to support, and create change, within our communities. In this session, Katie Allaway, Vela Product Director, will share how organizations within the Domestic & Sexual Violence movement can use the data they are collecting to better understand their work, implement structural change within their organizations that better support advocates and survivors, and create systems change in how the collective story is understood, and cared for, by their wider communities. Celebrating the shared effort of so many advocates that came together to originally create Vela and lifting their continued work to create something meaningful and new in the field, this session will dynamically navigate the complexities between funder obligations and movement-making.

Join us February 25th at 10am CT for this live virtual training led by special guest, Katie Allaway of Vela. Registration is free and open to the public. 

Join us March 4th at 10am CT for this live virtual training. Registration is free and open to the public and will open 1-2 months in advance.

The Senator Tommy Burks Victim Assistance Academy training is a Tennessee-specific 40-hour victim assistance course, designed to provide high-quality, foundational-level training to victim service professionals and enhance the field of victim services across Tennessee. Modeled after the National Victim Assistance Academy and approved by the National Advocate Credentialing Program for Provisional Advocate Certification, the Academy is designed for individuals working in victim advocacy programs, prosecutors’ offices, law enforcement, probation, corrections, emergency responders, domestic and sexual violence programs, child advocacy centers and other victim service agencies. The training is best suited for individuals with 5 years or less experience in the field of victim services.

Save the date! The 2026 in-person Academy will take place May 31st – June 5th at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

A limited number of applicants are accepted to attend each year. Applications for the 2026 Academy will be open December 1st, 2025 – March 26th, 2026.