29th Annual BISC-MI Conference

Dates: November 4, 5, 6, 2025

Spotlight On Solutions:
From Intervention to Transformation

AT THE KENSINGTON HOTEL – Ann Arbor, Michigan!

Conference description: Join us for Spotlight on Solutions: From Intervention to Transformation – a premier three-day event from November 4-6, 2025, exclusively designed for professionals who are passionate about revolutionizing intervention programs for those who choose to be abusive to their partners. This dynamic conference offers a unique platform to explore cutting-edge strategies that promote participant accountability, foster genuine compassion, and prioritize victim safety.

Experience a collaborative environment where leading Battering and Abuse Intervention Programs, community partners, and research experts share groundbreaking ideas and innovative approaches. Engage in thought-provoking sessions that examine conventional practices and explore adaptive interventions tailored to the evolving needs of diverse communities.

We hope you can join us in November, in-person or virtually, to elevate your professional practice, expand your network with industry pioneers, and be at the forefront of a transformative movement in intervention programming. Secure your place at an event that promises to inspire change and drive systemic progress.

Cost: The fee for attending this conference in-person versus virtually is the same because those attending in-person will have meals and snacks or dessert provided at evening networking events, and those attending virtually will be paying for the additional technological fees associated with making this conference possible to attend virtually.

Membership Fee Reduction: There is a reduced fee for in-person or virtual attendees who are BISC-MI members. For more information about membership, go to: https://www.biscmi.org/about/get-membership/

Registration Now Open!Registration link

Three Day Registration By October 15, 2025:
Member Early Bird (In person or virtual): $360.00
Non-Member Early Bird (In person or virtual): $460.00

In recognition of the current fiscal climate and our commitment to supporting our partners and communities,
we have decided not to increase the conference registration fee after the early bird deadline.
The registration rate will remain the same through the close of registration.

We hope this decision helps make participation more accessible for all attendees,
and we look forward to connecting with you at the conference!

Three Day Registration After October 15, 2025:
Member(In person or virtual): $460.00
Non-Member (In person or virtual): $560.00

Daily Registration:
Member $160.00
Non-Member $205.00
Registration rates will also include a minimal processing fee at the registration site

Click here if you require a W9 from BISC-MI

Student Reduced Rate Available
(See Student Rate Info Below)

In person attendees must attend all three days.
In-person registration includes two meals, snacks, and an opportunity to attend evening events.
Virtual registration covers additional technology expenses.

Virtual attendees have the option of attending all or part of this conference.

The conference will not be recorded: This conference will only be offered live with participation online or in person

This course is approved by the Michigan Social Work
Continuing Education Collaborative
Course Approval: #072225-00
*Up to 18.5 Michigan Social Work CE Hours
*6.0 Social Work Ethics, Ethics CEs for specifically identified sessions

Fee for Michigan-approved Social Work CEs:
$50.00 for all three days,
For those covered by Michigan NASW CE’s Up to 18.5 BIP CEs for in person: 18.5 CEs for virtual attendance (6.0 CEs for Ethics)

Other states are dependent on reciprocity with Michigan|

Student Rate offered for Virtual or In-Person Conference

Students interested in a low-cost conference:

BISC-MI is offering student scholarships and seeking applications available to
undergraduate and graduate students, for our 2025 hybrid conference.

Students whose applications are accepted can attend virtually or in-person for $35.00 per day,
with the choice of attending one, two, or three of the days.

Note for students attending in-person:  The $35.00 daily fee covers meals and conference registration.
Lodging costs are not included at or near the Kensington Hotel in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

To fill out an application to apply for the student rate, click: https://forms.gle/ByprdLumNh4CzxgYA

Make lodging reservations early with THE KENSINGTON HOTEL – ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN!

NOTE: Lodging reservations is a separate process from conference registration

LODGING RATES & RESERVATIONS:
https://www.kcourtaa.com/

RATES & RESERVATIONS
The Kensington Hotel – Ann Arbor offers BISC-MI guests a reduced rate of $112.00/night for single and double occupancy, plus applicable taxes. If you are state of Michigan tax exempt, be sure to present appropriate documentation at hotel check in.

DON’T WAIT!
The deadline for making reservations is Monday, October 13, 2025 but the conference block may easily fill sooner and rooms may no longer be available at the reduced rate. After this cut-off date, reservations may be accepted at the group rate on a space available, rate available basis. If the Kensington Hotel block fills, BISC-MI will share information for alternate partner hotels in the area, but reduced rate offers are not guaranteed. Group room rate is offered the nights of Sunday November 2, 2025 through Thursday, Nov 6, 2025 (checking out Friday November 7, 2025).

RESERVATION INSTRUCTIONS
Please make note of the hotel cancellation policy when making your reservations, and remember to make any reservation changes according to the policy. BISC-MI is not responsible for any fees incurred for personal hotel reservations during the conference.

Hotel check-in time is 4:00 pm; check-out is 11:00 am

To make hotel lodging reservations online:

• In order to receive the discounted hotel rate, you must use this link: https://reservations.travelclick.com/113707?groupID=4593529
• Enter the dates of your stay

The reservation links accepts reservations for the nights of November 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 only.

Hotel phone: 734.761.7800

Please note: some features and information display differently across various mobile and desktop devices.
Please contact the hotel with questions or issues about the online reservation process.

THE KENSINGTON HOTEL – ANN ARBOR

Address:  3500 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48108
Phone: 866.315.7075
Email: ask@kcourtaa.com

Easy Parking!
Ample, free self-parking is available at the Kensington Hotel Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108

Note: Conference is Eastern Time (ET)
Pre-Conference: Monday, November 3, 2025

8:00 pm-9:30 pm ET Conference Check-In: At the registration area near the Grand Ballroom in Kensington hotel in Ann Arbor.

Day One: Tuesday, November 4, 2025

8:30 am – 9:30 am ET Registration and Continental Breakfast Provided

9:30 am – 10:00 am ET Welcome: Welcome to the BISC-MI 29th Annual Conference

10:00-11:30 am ET The Ethics Of Addressing Women’s Use Of Force In A Coordinated Community Response & Nonviolence Program

Description: Are the women who are being arrested and/or court ordered to nonviolence programs battering their partners, using resistive violence, or neither? Does the local Coordinated Community Response (CCR) have a differentiated response or are all cases of domestic violence treated the same? What are effective interventions that address the violence women experience and the violence they use?

Interventions to end domestic violence that are successful always account for: 1) the abuser; 2) the victim of the abuse; 3) those who are in relationships with the abuser and/or victim (children, family members, friends); and 4) the outside intervener. When the facts are clear the role of the intervener is clear. However, getting those facts and putting them into context isn’t always easy. To be effective, interventions for women who use violence must address the contextual factors of women’s lives.

Turning Points: A Nonviolence Curriculum for Women is a group curriculum for women who have used violence in their intimate partner relationships. The Turning Points curriculum focuses on helping women understand the connections between the violence they experience and the violence they use. This training will cover the underlying assumptions of Turning Points and the three parts of the curriculum.
Faculty: Melissa Scaia

11:30 am – 11:45 pm ET Break

11:45 am – 12:45 pm ET Nuggets Of Wisdom: A Reluctant Retiree Relies On Your Collective Work
Description: Ah, the dilemma of retirement when there’s still so much to do! At age four I used a broom to chase away a boy who was making my three-year-old cousin cry, and I began an unintentional career working for victims of abuse by intervening with perpetrators. I’ve dropped the broom, refined my strategies, and some additional original tactics. Now I’ll share “affirmation projects,” the “stick figure” exercise, and other unique practical tools that can be integrated into curricula for safety and healthy relationships.
Faculty: Juanita Sprenkle Jones

12:45 pm – 1:45 pm ET Lunch Buffet Provided (Door Prizes)

1:45 pm – 3:15 pm ET Research Evidence From Australia On The Intergenerational Impact Of Violence And Men’s Behaviour Change Program Initiatives
Description: This session will cover research evidence regarding the intergenerational impact of violence from childhood experiences of parental/career domestic violence (DV) and their own use of violence in the family home during adolescence. Findings will be used to explore opportunities for early, child-centered, and whole family interventions.

The second part of the session will focus on research evidence from diverse examples of men’s behaviour change program initiatives, including a ‘standard format’ of an MBCP in Australia, a pilot program addressing comorbid substance use and use of DV and a father-focused MBCP. Findings will be used to explore opportunities for diverse approaches to MBCPs, including barriers to and enablers of engagement, completion and maintaining behaviour change. This part of the presentation will draw on program participant and (ex)-partner data to ensure the voices of victim-survivors are incorporated into MBCP evidence and inform future policy and practice.
Faculty: Silke Meyer

3:15 pm – 3:30 pm ET Break

3:30 pm – 5:00 pm ET Partner Contact in Abuse Intervention: Current Practice Standards and Future Directions
Description: Effective partner outreach has the potential to extend the positive impact of abuse intervention (batterer) programs. Although partner outreach is a component of many abuse intervention programs, very little research has focused on this part of our work. A content analysis of partner contact requirements and recommendations in U.S state standards reveals wide variation in current practice. These findings raise important questions about the philosophy and purpose of partner contact, common challenges in conducting outreach to partners, and best practices for promoting the safety, well-being, and autonomy of victims. This presentation will review data from a needs analysis conducted with partners of individuals receiving abuse intervention services, along with research on their help-seeking patterns to suggest strategies for innovation and enhancement of this component of our work.
Faculty: Chris Murphy

5:00 pm – 6:30 pm ET Beyond the Group Room: Ethics and Advocacy During Policy Shifts
Description: We will examine and discuss how recent and emerging shifts in Federal policies and procedures are influencing the work of battering intervention programs (BIPs) as well as advocacy efforts to enhance survivor safety and well-being. Panelists will discuss the evolving landscape of immigration policy, funding structures, new programmatic requirements, and how these changes are prompting BIPs and community-based organizations to take on expanded roles. The conversation will also highlight the value of Coordinated Community Response (CCR) models in adapting to these developments, emphasizing the importance of cross-sector collaboration in maintaining effective, offender focused/survivor-centered strategies in an uncertain and changing policy environment.
Moderators: David Garvin & Kathy Hagenian

6:30 pm – 8:30 pm ET Dinner on your own

8:30 pm – 9:30 pm ET Cookies & Chat (for in-person attendees only)
Description: In-person conference attendees are encouraged to continue discussion from the days events.

Total Number of CEs for Day One: 7.0 CEs

Day Two: Wednesday, November 5, 2025

8:30 am – 9:30 am ET Registration and Continental Breakfast Provided

9:30 am – 10:00 am ET Welcome: Johanna Kononen, Associate Director Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence (MCEDSV)

10:00 am – 11:30 am ET Bridging Accountability And Support: Effectively Engaging Men For Lasting Change
Description: This presentation explores the complexities of working with men who have caused harm, focusing on understanding their experiences while holding them accountable for their actions. Engaging men in meaningful change requires a balanced approach—one that acknowledges the personal, societal, and systemic factors influencing their behaviors while maintaining clear expectations for responsibility and transformation.

Highlighting the work of InvolvedDad, this session will provide real-world strategies and interactive discussions on how to effectively connect with men and guide them toward positive change. Participants will learn how to reduce defensiveness, foster self-awareness, and encourage accountability while ensuring interventions are ethical, impactful, and sustainable.
Faculty: Shon Hart

11:30-11:45 am ET Break  

11:45 am – 1:15 pm ET Abuse Intervention Participants: Hearing Directly From The Participants
Description: This Zoom panel will feature a number of abusive men who have participated in a number of abuse intervention groups, including some who have attended for years. They will discuss what led them to initially engage in services as well as what have been some of the key takeaways for them. There will be ample time allowed to field questions from the audience.
Moderator: Chris Huffine & Holly Rosen

1:15 pm – 2:15 pm ET Lunch Buffet Provided (Door Prizes)

2:15 pm – 2:45 pm ET Awards Ceremony
The COMPASS Award: Rich Tolman
The Michigan Icon Award: Jim Henderson

2:45 pm – 4:15 pm ET The Experience Of Associazione LUI: an Italian BIP
Description: In addition to meaning ‘him’ in Italian, LUI is also the acronym that, back in 2010, was chosen by two friends—one a psychotherapist, the other a lawyer—to name an association that aimed to serve as a platform for dialogue on masculinity in all its forms. Associazione LUI began in Livorno, Tuscany, as a male self-awareness group and, over the years, expanded to include more activities focused on combating domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence. Among these initiatives is a BIP (Batterer Intervention Program) built on the Association’s founding principles, which continues to evolve both in terms of content and legal framework.

It will address both the specific features and common challenges faced by Batterer Intervention Programs, with particular emphasis on creating content and stimuli that comply with legal provisions and foster the integration of key concepts and awareness into participants’ perspectives, while also referencing the statistical model that Associazione LUI is refining to monitor each user’s progress within the program in light of recent European and Italian legislative changes.
Faculty: Giulia Degeia, Gabriele Lessi, and Jacopo Piampaini: Italy 

4:15 pm – 4:30 pm ET Break  

4:30 pm – 6:00 pm ET When You’ve Heard It All: Vicarious Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, and Caring for Yourself in Battering Intervention Work
Description: Vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue are prevalent occupational challenges in fields of counseling, healthcare, law enforcement, prosecution, corrections and probation, victim services, and more. While many people think of vicarious trauma in the victim services or first responders realm, it is relevant across sectors, as vicarious trauma simply refers to being exposed to details of abuse, violence, or other trauma from any source.

Exposure to accounts of others’ trauma has been shown to change the worldview of professionals and can put individuals and organizations at risk for a range of negative consequences including compassion fatigue, or a diminished capacity to feel sympathy and feelings of helpless and hopelessness at work. The good news is that with proper awareness, support, organizational policies, and personal practices, professionals exposed to trauma can mitigate the effects of vicarious trauma. This session will provide an overview of the effects of trauma exposure at work, warning signs for recognizing when the work is starting to take a toll, and practical “tools for resilience” to improve your professional and personal quality of life.
Faculty: Apryl Pooley

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm ET Dinner on your own

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm ET Cookies & Chat (for in-person attendees only)
Description: In-person conference attendees are encouraged to continue discussion from the days events.

Total Number of CEs for Day Two: 6.0 CEs

Day Three: Thursday, November 6, 2025

8:30 am – 9:30 am ET Registration and Continental Breakfast Provided

9:30 am – 10:00 am ET Welcome: Angelita Gunn, Deputy Director, Division of Victim Services, Michigan Department of Health & Human Services

10:00 am – 11:30 am ET The Intersection Of Brain Injury And Domestic Violence: Finding A Path Forward
Description: Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) affect about 18.2% of the general population (Karamian, Luck-Wold, SEifi, 2024), yet rates soar in criminal justice settings. In a Colorado study, 45% of legal system participants had a TBI—with 55% among adults. Among probationers (the most common sentence for domestic violence offenders), TBI correlated with previous felonies, higher reoffending risk, more intensive supervision, and increased recidivism (Gorgens, Meyer & Dettmer, 2020). Higher containment levels further amplify these rates.

This presentation explains how brain injuries are often overlooked, as their impairments mimic and overlap with mental health issues, substance use disorders, and criminogenic needs. It will outline simple, brain injury-informed adjustments to intervention, to identify brain injuries and strategies that foster healthier, less controlling interpersonal behaviors.
Faculty: Russha Knauer

11:30 am – 11:45 am ET Break

11:45 am – 1:15 pm ET The Ethical Role Of An Abuse Intervention Program (AIP) In A CCR?
Description: This session will seek to answer the questions: What is the role of a Men’s Battering Intervention Program in a Coordinated Community Response (CCR)? What is the role of a Women Who Use Force program in a CCR? What is a CCR and how is it different from a task force or a monthly networking meeting? What is the role of an abuse intervention program (AIP) in coordination with other community and government agencies? This session will explore the role of AIPs in a CCR and how an AIP can contributes to or can diminish survivor safety.
Faculty: Melissa Scaia

1:15 pm – 2:15 pm ET Lunch Buffet Provided (Door Prizes)

2:15 pm -3:15 pm ET Let’s Keep Talking! BIP Involvement In The Coordinated Community Response
Break-out Description: This will be an opportunity to continue the panel conversation. Conference participants will meet in small, facilitated groups to share their questions, perspectives, expertise, and wisdom with each other.
Hosted discussion: Faculty and Board members

3:15 pm -4:45 pm ET The Ethics of Working with Personality Disorders in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Populations
Description: This session is intended to provide frameworks for identifying, understanding, and intervening with personality disorders and related trait patterns in intimate partner violence perpetrator populations.
Faculty: Erin Gazelka

4:45 pm ET CONFERENCE CLOSING:  Raffle for 2 Free Registrations for the 2026 BISC-MI Conference (In-Person and Virtual) Must be present to win!

Total Number of CEs for Day Three: 5.5 CEU’s

Total Number of CEs Hours: Day One: 7.0  | Day Two: 6.0  | Day Three: 5.5  | Total for Three Days:  18.5
6.0 Michigan Ethics CEs

Click here for the conference materials page (coming soon!)

Click here to learn about the faculty

Many Thanks to our Conference Supporters!