The 2025 PLAN VOCA Grantee Training will be held virtually the week of May 19, 2025. Two virtual sessions will be held per day. 

These trainings will fulfill the 10-hour mandatory training requirement established by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) for VOCA grantees. The intended audience includes staff from legal services, domestic violence, and sexual assault programs that receive VOCA funding. Individuals from these communities who do not currently receive VOCA funding are also welcome to attend.

All webinars will be eligible for Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit. Sessions will range from 60 to 90 minutes in length. A total of 1.5 ethics CLE credits and 10.5 substantive CLE credits will be available.

See the schedule of virtual workshops below for details and registration links. 

PLEASE NOTE: YOU MUST REGISTER FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL SESSION TO BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SESSION.  

You will receive a confirmation email after you register for each session.  Please keep these emails as it will give you the information and link you will need to join the sessions.

Certificates of Participation will be distributed after all training sessions have concluded for attendees to include in their personnel files.

Please Note: Individuals working under a VOCA grant must complete the required training hours and maintain appropriate documentation in their personnel files to remain in compliance.

If you are unable to attend any of the scheduled sessions but still need to fulfill your organization’s VOCA training requirement, please visit the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) website for additional training opportunities.

Schedule of Workshops

Monday, May 19, 2025

• 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM. - Trauma-Informed Advocacy
  Presenter: Richard Prebil, Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania -1.5 substantive CLE credit
  
  A trauma-informed approach to services acknowledges the prevalence and impact of trauma, while attempting to create safety for all participants. Through trauma-informed, client-centered advocacy we have the ability to help an individual be empowered to make their own choice, collaboratively with an advocate they trust. Furthermore, advocates can be aware of its impact on our own lives so that we can mitigate the effects of vicarious trauma and burnout.
  
        
  
   
• 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM - Tax Law for The Family Law Practitioner
  Presenter: Robert Hamilton, MidPenn Legal Services - 1 substantive CLE credit
  
  This session will provide a general overview on federal income tax law and how it can affect and intersect with issues involved parents, families, and separated individuals. Specific topics will include innocent and injured spouse relief, which parent has the right to claim a dependent(s), audits, tax debt collection alternatives, identity theft, and tax credits such as the earned income tax credit and child tax credit.
   
       
   

Tuesday May 20, 2025

• 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM – Addressing the Utility Needs of Survivors of Domestic Violence
  Presenters: Elizabeth Marx and Ria Pereira, Pennsylvania Utility Law Project - 1 substantive CLE Credit
  
  In this interactive session, participants will be provided information and tools to address a pervasive economic issue for survivors: utility debt. Participants will engage in a discussion about the unique difficulties survivors face in establishing and maintaining utility services. The discussion will then turn towards how participants can assist survivors to resolve utility issues and best practices for utility advocacy. 
  
  Topics for discussion will include: recognizing the unique obstacles to survivors establishing and maintaining utility services; available legal protections and assistance programs to address utility affordability; how to understand and navigate the utility termination and reconnection processes; and special protections available to survivors and other vulnerable consumer who are facing utility unaffordability or termination of services.
  
       
  
   
• 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM – Victims’ Rights and Legal Standing – Understanding Act 77 of 2022
  Presenters: Andrea Levy, Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and Danni Beinschoroth, Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence – 1 substantive CLE credit
  
  With passage of Act 77 of 2022, crime victims in Pennsylvania now have legal standing to enforce their rights in criminal court. Presenters will provide an overview of the legal rights that are available to a victim in criminal proceedings and how lawyers can seek to protect and enforce those rights. 
  
  The training will discuss what to look for during the criminal justice process and basic trauma informed legal strategies when providing advice, representation, and/or referrals to victims. The session will explore victims’ rights assertion though a holistic lens which seeks to avoid retraumatizing survivors of violence while ensuring that their rights are protected.
  
       
   

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

• 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM – Navigating the Tender Years Hearsay Exception: Understanding 42 Pa.C.S 5985.1 and Its Application in Civil Proceedings
  Presenter: Schawnne Kilgus, MidPenn Legal Services – 1 substantive CLE credit
  
  Gain a comprehensive understanding of Pennsylvania's Tender Years Hearsay Exception and how it can be leveraged in PFA cases. Learn the history of the exception, the statutory requirements for admissibility, the standards for determining witness availability, and the procedural considerations necessary to effectively utilize this exception. Finally, acquire the knowledge to confidently navigate this complex area of law.
  
       
  
   
• 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM – What Every Family Lawyer Needs to Know When Representing Immigrant Survivors
  Presenter: Leslye E. Orloff, National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project, American University, Washington College of Law and Susan Pearlstein, Philadelphia Legal Aid – 1.5 substantive CLE credit
  
  This training will provide an opportunity for attorneys working with immigrant victims to learn best practices for addressing issues that arise in family court cases involving immigrant domestic and sexual violence survivors and their children. Attendees will learn how to identify and develop litigation strategies to anticipate and counter perpetrator’s efforts to use immigration related issues to gain advantage in custody, divorce, and protection order cases. 
  
  Topics to be covered will include enforcing Affidavits of Support in divorce/support proceedings and successfully using federal VAWA confidentiality laws to prevent family court discovery of information about or contents of a victim’s immigration case file. Attendees receive access to toolkits, tools, and resources on immigrant crime victims’ legal rights and to NIWAP’s web library, online webinars, and will learn about NIWAP’s technical assistance on individual cases of immigrant survivors that attorneys encounter in their work.
  
  By the end of this training participants will be able to:
   
  • Implement family court litigation strategies that inform judges about the immigration related abuse and legal immigration status for victims;
  • Counter perpetrators’ attempts to use victim’s immigration status to gain advantage in family court cases; and
  • Help immigrant survivors access the financial support they are owed through Affidavit of Support enforcement and spousal/child support awards.
  • Prevent discovery of VAWA confidentiality protected immigration case file information.
    
    
     

Thursday, May 22, 2025

• 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM – Firearm Prohibitions under Civil and Criminal Law
  Presenter: Lois Fasnacht, Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence – 1 substantive CLE credit
  
  This session will give you an understanding of the PFA Act's firearm relinquishment under Act 79. You will be able to recognize state and federal firearm prohibitions for domestic violence offenders.
  
       
  
   
• 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM – The Role of Immigration Status in Accessing Services and Legal Protections for Immigrant Survivors in Pennsylvania
  Presenter: Leslye E. Orloff, National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project, American University, Washington College of Law – 1.5 substantive CLE credit
  
  Attorneys play a crucial role helping immigrant domestic violence, child/elder abuse, sexual assault, stalking, and human trafficking victims gain access to justice and the full range of services and assistance they are legally entitled to receive. This training will provide an overview of legal immigration status for immigrant survivors. It will then discuss the benefits and services immigrant survivors qualify for in Pennsylvania as they apply for and are granted legal immigration status. 
  
  Participants will build skills to identify the benefits for which immigrant victims qualify and will learn best practices for accompanying immigrant survivors applying for benefits they or their children are eligible to receive. The workshop attendees will learn how to use NIWAP’s public benefits map and state charts and will receive tools, training materials, resources, and technical assistance to support their work with immigrant survivors and their children.
  
  By the end of this training participants will be able to:
   
  • Screen immigrant survivors for legal immigration status eligibility;
  • Quickly identify which immigrant victims and their children qualify for which types of publicly funded benefits and services (e.g. housing, healthcare) in the Pennsylvania;
  • Understand how pursuing legal immigration status impacts benefit and services option for immigrant survivors.
     
    
     

Friday, May 23, 2025

• 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM – The Intersection of PFAs and Divorce: General Divorce Basics for PFA Attorneys 
  Presenter: Shawnee S. Burton, Lancaster Law Group, LLC – 1 substantive CLE credit
  
  Join us for an overview of basic items for PFA attorneys to think about when negotiating agreements if there is a pending divorce. We will cover potential issues, good questions to ask your clients, and some strategies to consider for your client’s benefit. We will also discuss common myths regarding martial/non-martial property, and client’s rights in equitable distribution.
  
       
  
   
• 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM – Ethical Scenarios in Everyday Practice
  Presenter: Laurie Baughman, MidPenn Legal Services – 1.5 ETHICS CLE Credit
  
  Join us to explore various scenarios VOCA attorneys face in their daily representation of clients. Participants will engage with their peers to develop a strategy for each scenario that incorporates their allowable actions per the Rules of Professional Conduct. The break-out groups will then come together to discuss their strategies.