Call for Programs:   Come Together: Advocacy and Community Thru Adversity

ACCA is excited to announce that we are seeking submissions for our 2024 Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida: Come Together: Advocacy and Community Thru Adversity. Our mission is to select a comprehensive set of programs that provides both breadth and depth of education and training for the variety of professionals who provide mental health services on college and university campuses, at all levels of experience and work settings.

SESSION FORMATS

Sessions for the conference can be in one of three formats:

• Breakout sessions: These 90-minute sessions can take various forms, from a single presenter or panel presentation.
• Pre-Conference sessions:  These half day or full day sessions can take a deeper dive into advanced clinical concepts.
• Poster session: Posters will be on display throughout the conference with a specified period for authors to answer questions about their study and findings.

SESSION TOPICS:

The mental health field is continually transforming, particularly in response to many societal changes, especially in recent legislation in some states. As the field evolves, so does the specific division of college counseling. Each campus has taken a different approach to revolutionizing collegiate mental health care based on the needs and demands of our student populations.

This year’s theme is dedicated to highlighting what it means to address oppression and ally with people experiencing these challenges across the country. We are interested in topics that explore ideas related to this theme and promote the advancement of the field of college counseling

Our preferred session topics for the 2024 conference are:

• Diversity/Inclusion/Equity: Unpacking historical and current oppression in education and mental health institutions to build bridges forward. Addressing topics including, but not limited to, broaching, intersectionality, microaggressions, unconscious bias, ally vs. accomplice, identity, racial trauma, and social justice.
• Integrative Wellbeing/Wellness: Community and campus-wide mental health initiatives to promote health and wellness by bringing students together in supportive groups/community, addressing counselor self-care and resiliency, and creating innovative institutional programming.
• Innovative Counseling Theory/Practice:  Thinking about what current counseling services look like as we move into the future.  Some institutions are fully back in person, others are providing a hybrid model.  Novel approaches to providing counseling services, managing crises, building and maintaining groups, psychoeducational programming and maintaining the therapeutic relationship in a college setting.
• Leadership: Inspiring your staff, leadership development, and advocating for resources, innovations in meeting demand.
• Clinical Supervision and Training: Best practices in clinical supervision, creating internship programming, promoting growth during supervision.
• Community College Focus: Acknowledging the differences in community college centers while appreciating our common goals.
• Research and Program Evaluation: Research design methods, findings and evaluation. 

PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS
To submit your conference proposal, you will need to provide the following information:
For each presenter (primary and co-presenters): 

• Name
• Credentials
• Title
• Degree/License
• Organization
• Email
• Address
• CV/Vita (upload)
• Brief Bio
• Headshot (jpeg or png file)

For each presentation the following information will be needed:

• Session Topic
• Instructional Level
• Abstract - 200 word maximum
• Learning Objectives (minimum of 2)
• Research Citations (minimum of 3, within the last 10 years)
• Primary Presenter credentials
   

All presentations must be submitted by October 9, 2023
 
We very much look forward to receiving your breakout, pre-conference, and/or poster presentation proposals and we thank you in advance for having the interest and taking the time to submit your program! If you have questions or any problems accessing the form, please contact the ACCA Office, office@collegecounseling.org or 855-220-8760.