Animal Abuse and the Link to Child Abuse and Neglect: Promoting Child Welfare Professional Awareness of Animal-Human Relationships
January 11, 2022
10 a.m. PST | 1 p.m. EST
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) is offering a continuing webinar series on the links between animal abuse and interpersonal violence to help judges understand the link so that they can respond appropriately to cases that involve co-occurring harms against humans and animals. These webinars are part of NCJFCJ’s partnership with the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) and feature judges, attorneys, advocates, and child welfare professionals offering perspectives and expertise on key aspects of the link between interpersonal violence and animal abuse.
This webinar is intended for judicial officers and child welfare professionals. The faculty will discuss the importance of increasing awareness among child welfare professionals of the link between animal abuse and child abuse and neglect. Learn about the options child welfare professionals have for responding to the co-occurrence of child abuse and animal abuse, including cross-reporting.
Participants can also receive a certificate of attendance to use towards CEU/CLE credits. Due to the varying requirements of different jurisdictions and disciplines, the NCJFCJ does not seek prior accreditation of educational programs for CLE/CEUs. Please consult the rules of your jurisdiction regarding procedures for receiving continuing education credits.
For more information about this series, please contact Lynelle Hartway, Program Manager, NCJFCJ at lhartway@ncjfcj.org.
Presenters:
Hon. Rosa Figarola (Ret.), Florida 11th Judicial District Court
Recently retired, Judge Rosa Figarola was appointed to the Circuit Court in 2011 by Governor Rick Scott. She was promptly assigned to the Dependency Division, a position she sought from the onset, and which was the motivating factor for wishing to be appointed to the Circuit Court Bench.
Before her Circuit Court assignment, Judge Figarola served as a County Court Judge. Her tenure in County Court included assignments in the Criminal Court and Domestic Violence Divisions. Judge Figarola is a 1982 graduate from the University of Miami School of Law.
Upon graduation from law school, she joined the Office of the Public Defender where she served in the trial and appellate divisions until her appointment as a County Court Judge by Governor Bush in December 2009. She is presently an adjunct professor at St. Thomas School of Law where she teaches family law. She serves on the Miami-Dade County Domestic Violence Oversight Board, as well as the Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Council where she heads committees dealing with the impact of Domestic Violence on our community.
Dr. Maureen MacNamara, Ph.D., MSW, Assoc. Professor, Department of Social Work, Appalachian State University
Dr. MacNamara’s focus is on interprofessional relationships in organizational learning and change strategies, and nonprofit service development and evaluation. Dr. MacNamara is a pioneer in the development, implementation, and evaluation of animal-assisted interventions (AAI) and has 30 years of experience designing goal-directed human-animal activities resulting in measurable client change and developing and delivering staff training to support these
programs.
Her research interests include the influence of macro-level strategies on the success of innovation implementation and diffusion, the influence of climate change on rural sustainable development; and community factors influencing the place and consequence of human-animal relationships.