Plenary Speaker: Tonier Cain
Her Personal Story, Trauma, Incarceration, and Recovery
Tonier ‘Neen’ Cain Tonier is a trauma survivor and internationally recognized trauma informed care expert. Cain’s work focuses on heightening awareness of the characteristics and effects of trauma and improving the performance of service providers, businesses, government agencies and others who interact with trauma victims and survivors.
For 19 nightmarish years, Cain lived on the streets, racking up 66 criminal convictions, until finally treatment for her trauma offered her a way out and up. Her story points to the consequences of untreated trauma to individuals and society at-large, including mental health problems, addiction, homelessness and incarceration.
Trauma blind-spots distort perceptions, lead to costly mistakes, and limit the possibilities of victims and survivors. Tonier Cain illuminates a reality that constrains the prospects of people who deserve understanding and genuine opportunities.
Recognizing Trauma and Its Effects
Trauma, including one-time, multiple, or long-lasting repetitive events, affects everyone differently. It is critical to recognize trauma and to adopt a trauma-informed approach to engage people that acknowledges the role that trauma plays in their lives. A trauma-informed approach is not accomplished through any single particular technique or checklist. It requires constant attention, caring awareness, sensitivity, and possibly a cultural change at an organizational level.
Disability Rights NC is pleased to feature sessions within each breakout hour focused on the theme of the positive impacts of recognizing trauma and its effects.
In addition to her plenary session, Cain will lead a breakout session: The R.I.C.H. Approach, in which she guides providers through the use of trauma informed care practices centering on Respect, Individuality, Connection and Hope. This course, designed to provide the tools to help survivors feel safe so they may begin to heal from past trauma experiences, will also shed light into understanding how survivors copes.
Conference Agenda
(Sessions offered are tentative, please check back for the final agenda and presenter bios.)
7:30 – 8:30 a.m. Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30 – 9:35 a.m. Breakout Sessions I
- Restrictive Interventions in Public Schools (NC CLE 0.5) (Trauma)
- The Ins and Outs of Intake
- EPSDT: Medicaid for Children (NC CLE 1.0)
- How the ADA Came to Be
9:50 – 10:55 a.m. Breakout Sessions II
- Resilience: Documentary Screening (Trauma)
- Guardianship Reform in North Carolina (NC CLE 1.0)
- Medicaid Waivers: Emerging Issues and Appeal Strategies – Part 1 (NC CLE 1.0)
- Employment Essentials: Services and Accommodations (NC CLE 0.5 )
11:10 a.m.- 12:15 p.m. Welcome and Plenary Session with Tonier ‘Neen’ Cain
12:15 – 1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00 – 2:05 p.m. Breakout Sessions III
- System Strategies to Address Trauma and Build Resilience (follow up to Resiliencescreening) (Trauma)
- For Attorneys Only – Trauma Informed Legal Advocacy TRAUMA (follow up to Resiliencescreening) (NC CLE 1.0) (Trauma)
- Medicaid Transformation Listening Session
- Access to Health Care
2:20 – 3:25 p.m. Breakout Sessions IV
- The R.I.C.H Approach (Respect, Individuality, Connection and Hope) (Trauma)
- Medicaid Waivers: Emerging Issues and Appeal Strategies – Part 2 (NC CLE 1.0)
- What’s Happening at the NC General Assembly? (NC CLE 1.0)
- Recent and Upcoming Changes in Special Education
3:40 – 4:45 p.m. Breakout Sessions V
- Accessible Yoga for Disability Rights Advocates (Trauma)
- For Attorneys Only – Ethical Considerations When Representing Clients with Diminished Capacity (NC CLE Ethics 1 .0)
- NCServes – Addressing the Needs of Veterans with Disabilities
- Healing Neen Screening (Trauma)