NASPA Strategies Conferences

The 2026 AODVP conference planning committee invites you to submit sessions that meet the themes and learning outcomes below. We encourage you to consider reviewing the CDC’s published definitions of substance use and violence prevention as you prepare your program submissions. 

Campus or Community Coalitions and Partnerships

If you are interested in submitting under this theme, it might be helpful to ask yourself: How have you utilized campus or community collaboration to build and implement policy? How can you or have you utilized coalition work to navigate restrictions while still providing programming and prevention? How have you built partnerships with unique groups, offices, departments, organizations?

• Understand the ways in which partners across the campus and the larger community can work collaboratively to address alcohol and other drug use/misuse or violence prevention and best serve the needs of campus community members

• Recognize the role that faculty and staff in academic units within the campus community can play in collaborating with AODVP and contribute to campus environments that support student well-being and success.

• Analyze models of collaboration, case studies from integrated systems, successful partnerships, and efforts to engage all partners in prevention efforts, including individual and environmental level strategies

• Identify and evaluate health promotion efforts for alcohol and other drug misuse and violence prevention through collective impact

• Explore how campuses are addressing violence prevention with an intersectional lens including (but not limited to) mental health, substance use/misuse, and health promotion. 

Current Trends and Emerging Issues in an Ever-Changing Environment

If you are interested in submitting under this theme, it might be helpful to ask yourself: How has your campus supported the increasing accessibility and education around use of naloxone and fentanyl test strips? How has the decriminalization, legalization and regulation of Cannabis and its products affect your campus community? How have recent restrictions impacted your alcohol, other drug, and violence prevention practices? How have you navigated policies/guidance to provide inclusive programming and prevention? 

• Analyze ongoing data and research surrounding alcohol, tobacco and other drug misuse or campus violence prevention efforts, especially those addressing use patterns and implications for college students (including, but not limited to: cannabis and its products, fake pills, hallucinogens, and illicit fentanyl)

• Evaluate the scope of alcohol and other drug misuse on campus as well as its relationship to academic attainment, sense of belonging and retention 

• Evaluate the scope of AODV and the intersection with other prevention efforts (suicide prevention, sexual violence and harm, interpersonal violence, hazing prevention, etc.)

• Identify and examine emerging issues related to addictive behaviors, including behavioral addictions such as gambling, disordered eating, compulsive sexual behavior, and online shopping, in order to inform comprehensive AODV prevention and intervention efforts.

• Amplify the voices and experiences around alcohol and other drug misuse and campus violence of populations

• Explore strategies and identify best practices for navigating changes in campus culture resulting from campus, local, state, or federal policies related to alcohol and other drugs within the current sociopolitical climate.

• Identify strategies to support and sustain professionals/paraprofessionals in the AODVP field as they navigate the changing sociopolitical climate, and how it impacts  experiences, personal values, and engagement with higher education. 

Evidence-Based and Evidence Informed Practices

If you are interested in submitting under this theme, it might be helpful to ask yourself: Is there a case study example of the way we are using evidence to inform our prevention work? What is that evidence? How are we utilizing CollegeAIM? How are we partnering with faculty? How can other campuses adopt and implement an evidence-based or evidence-informed program for their campus context?

• Examine how evidence-based prevention strategies can be modified to fit varying institutions, communities, populations, and resource levels

• Identify evidence-based and evidence informed programs and strategies while navigating campus, local, state or federal policies surrounding alcohol and other drugs. 

• Explore replicable and adaptable evidence-based policies, programs, and practices

• Evaluate the efficacy and fidelity of prevention strategies led through a variety of technical modalities 

• Explore evidence-based strategies to foster a campus culture that supports all students—including those in recovery, those who choose not to use alcohol and other drugs, and those who are sober curious

The Strategic Prevention Framework 

If you are interested in submitting under this theme, it might be helpful to ask yourself: How are you using the Strategic Prevention Framework? What are lessons/case studies you can share around implementation? How are you building sustainability in your prevention work? How are people, places, and systems empowering prevention professionals around political navigation, professional empowerment, and garnering buy-in from across campus?

• Use local data to assess drug misuse and related problems; risk and protective factors, and capacity for prevention

• Effectively communicate data-informed stories to advocate for relevant policy and programmatic changes in ADOVP 

• Build capacity (i.e., resources and readiness) to take action to address prevention priorities

• Plan how to best address identified prevention needs and associated factors, ensuring it is designed to meet the specific needs of the campus 

• Implement evidence-based and evidence-informed programs and strategies according to a strategically developed prevention plan

• Evaluate the processes and outcomes of the prevention interventions to reduce uncertainty, improve effectiveness, and make decisions

• Address issues around cultural competency and cultural humility and their importance in prevention efforts

• Build sustainability into all efforts in the spectrum of prevention and health promotion to maintain desired long-term results

Creating Capacity

• Explore new and innovative service models to address growing client waiting lists, increased demand, and limited or reduced provider capacity.

• Identify and explore the multiple and very complex roles assumed by mental health professionals, including clinical, advocacy, administrative, and other roles.

• Identify challenges, successes, and lessons learned in addressing administrative, financial, and other barriers to student access to mental health services.

• Explore effective strategies to promote help-seeking and referral to mental health services.

• Highlight innovative strategies to promote access to mental health service delivery across the prevention and intervention spectrum.

• Identify new and innovative strategies to promote increased awareness of and access to mental health services for students.

• Identify the unique challenges to and develop strategies for recruiting and retaining mental health staff on college campuses.

• Explore approaches for preventing and addressing professional burnout.

Cross-Campus Collaboration and Coordination

• Highlight successful interdisciplinary and interdepartmental collaboration models.

• Explore models of successful collaborations with local, state, and national organizations aimed to promote mental health on campus.

• Develop strategies to successful cross-campus collaboration in the delivery of mental health services.

• Explore how mental health intersects with violence prevention and response,  substance use, and collegiate recovery efforts on campus.

Advancing Campus Climate, Belonging, and Student Success

• Identify barriers to mental health and well-being among a wide range of campus populations, strategies to address access to opportunities and resources, and managing sociopolitical related stress.
• Highlight models supporting the provision of supportive services, as well as the recruitment, hiring, and retention of representative staff members to respond to current and emerging student needs.
• Discuss the strategic, ethical, and practical aspects of mental health services and the promotion of a healthy environment for all members of the campus community.
• Explore the mental health needs and best practices to respond and serve students of various backgrounds and experiences with consideration of social influence and hierarchy.
• Identify institutional policies and practices that support mental health in light of the local, state, and federal changes.

Current Trends and Emerging Issues

• Highlight innovative and effective programming across the public health spectrum focused on supporting and enhancing student mental health.

• Examine current national trends and sociopolitical  issues and their relationship to the provision of mental health services on campus.

• Identify effective treatment strategies to address depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, substance misuse, risk for suicide, and other mental health concerns experienced by college students.

• Explore professional and ethical considerations in the delivery of mental health services.

• Explore new and innovative strategies to support the engagement of students, faculty, staff members, and administrators on campus.

• Examine barriers as well as solutions to providing increased mental health support and outreach on campus.

• Identify strategies to effectively communicate the need for increased resources to the institution.

• Discuss strategies to address and overcome institutional barriers.

• Explore strategies to address basic needs scarcity with college students (i.e., housing, food, transportation).

• Analyze the complex interplay between social, environmental, and individual factors that contribute to the mental health consequences of gun violence.

Successful and Innovative Solutions

• Explore innovative and effective strategies that are relevant and responsive to a range of target populations, including first-year students, student-athletes, veterans, international students, first-year students, students with families, survivors of trauma, and other groups.

• Highlight  innovative and effective programming across the public health spectrum focused on supporting and enhancing student mental health.

• Explore new and innovative strategies, programs, and policies to promote student resilience, connection, and belonging. 

• Identify strategies and practices that reimagine the cross section  of resilience among mental health professionals during an epidemic.

• Explore strategies for campus partner collaboration aimed at developing unified and actionable mental health and well-being goals and messaging.

• Identify effective strategies for communicating to students the variety of mental health resources that exist on a college campus.

Current Trends and Emerging Issues

Sessions in this category should expose peer educators and/or advisors to emerging issues, evolving trends, and forward-facing challenges that may influence the peer education landscape. Sessions should raise awareness, spark critical thinking, and equip attendees to respond proactively to new developments affecting student wellness and peer-led initiatives.

• Identify emerging trends in campus, community, and digital wellness that impact peer education initiatives.

• Explore effective strategies for engaging a broad range of student perspectives within peer education efforts.

• Assess evolving factors influencing peer educator group development, recruitment, and retention, and discuss adaptable solutions for various campus environments.

Individual Skill Building and Leadership Development

Sessions in this category should focus on equipping peer educators and/or advisors with practical skills to strengthen their impact and confidence. Sessions may build core leadership competencies (public speaking, program planning, group facilitation, retention strategies, etc.) and/or enhance attendees’ ability to effectively engage with key content areas (mental health and well-being, substance misuse prevention, bystander intervention, sexual health, etc.).

• Build practical and interpersonal skills to strengthen a peer educator’s or advisor’s effectiveness in their role

• Evaluate current research and best practices in contemporary health education to design high-impact programming

• Develop leadership, supervision, and mentorship skills that foster meaningful connection, collaboration, and support

Adaptable Solutions and Innovative Approaches

Sessions in this category should highlight creative, student-driven programs and forward-thinking strategies that can be adapted and implemented across campuses. Topics may include successful policy advocacy, data-informed program redesign, or innovative wellness initiatives. Sessions should leave attendees with tangible tools, templates, or actionable ideas they can apply to their own peer education efforts.

• Identify innovative and promising strategies for prevention, harm reduction, and risk reduction programming

• Explore how successful peer education initiatives can be adapted across different campus contexts

• Apply evaluation data to strengthen programs, inform planning, and promote student engagement

• Demonstrate how peer education groups can foster collaboration to support students engaging in high-risk behaviors

• Train student leaders to use creative, solution-focused approaches to address campus challenges

Personal, Professional, and Community Sustainability and Development

• Explore opportunities to increase professional well-being and implement interventions to help prevent employee burnout, addressing impacts including but not limited to secondary trauma and moral dilemmas.

• Explore strategies for establishing and maintaining sustainable boundaries that balance our personal and professional lives to support overall well-being.

• Build institutional capacity through navigating external funding and/or internal institutional priorities.

• Develop cross-campus, local, state, and national relationships to build a network of creative and supportive professionals (advocates, prevention educators, etc.).

• Identify models of collaborative partnerships utilizing multiple intervention strategies to increase effectiveness of prevention, response, policy, and advocacy efforts.

Evidence-informed Policy and Practice

• Identify evidence-informed approaches to violence prevention and response from a range of disciplines/fields.

• Explore strategic use of assessment and data to inform and influence policies, programs, organization, infrastructure, and other higher order change that helps build a culture in which violence is eliminated.

• Discuss best practices in: implementing sustainable, evidence-informed prevention programs, strategies, and initiatives; improving campus response to violence and those who have survived harms and/or acts of violence; and evaluating the impact of these efforts.

• Review strategies for developing and/or advocating for changes to comprehensive campus sexual misconduct policies including how they are impacted by the latest federal and state legislative policy changes.

• Identify gaps that exist within evidence-informed policy and practice and discuss ways to address them.

Transforming Social Narratives

• Examine and interrupt the problematic dominant narratives of violence including narratives around those who experience violence and those who perpetrate violence.

• Describe the ways in which professionals who prevent and respond to violence can identify their own participation in upholding these dominant narratives and work to combat them.

• Propose new perspectives, approaches, and strategies for a campus wide violence prevention and response work.

• Promote increased engagement of men and male-identified people in all aspects of this work.

• Identify practices that foster inclusive and equitable efforts to address power-based violence.

• Examine how society develops sexual scripts and the impact of those scripts. In the context of media, explore ways to increase media literacy and how this relates to the perpetuation of violence. 

• Propose ways to reevaluate safety by challenging traditional safety and security methods and uplift utilization of indigenous and community-led approaches.

Developing or Expanding Campus and Community Partnerships

• Discuss the ways in which various partners from within and across the campus and the larger community can work collaboratively to address violence and best serve the needs of campus community members.

• Describe models of collaboration, case studies from integrated systems, successful partnerships, and efforts to engage all community members in violence prevention and response.

• Describe collaboration and identify strategies for working with local, state, and national organizations to prevent and respond to campus violence.

• Explore best practices for campus safety that go beyond the use of law enforcement to foster collaborative relationships with local organizations, implement preventive measures, and promote community engagement.

• Identify specific resources that specialize in serving communities with less access to resources and opportunities. 

Engagement, Collaboration & Cross-functional Partnerships

• Understand the importance of fostering engagement and collaboration for effective health promotion and well-being initiatives.

• Develop skills and strategies to establish, develop, lead, and maintain cross-functional partnerships for collaborative impact in promoting health and well-being. 

• Learn effective communication and advocacy techniques to engage and mobilize partners across different departments and disciplines. 

• Gain insights into leadership approaches that support and enhance engagement, collaboration, and cross-functional partnerships for long-term success in advancing health promotion and well-being. 

• Describe various models of partnership and collaboration advancing flourishing campuses.

• Leadership, capacity building, and growing mid level professionals.

Healthy People, Healthy Communities, and Healthy Systems

• Develop a comprehensive understanding of the ways in which health disparities manifest in populations and communities with less access to resources and opportunities.

• Analyze the impact of social determinants of health disparities in higher education settings, and identify strategies to address them through health promotion initiatives. 

• Discuss the ways in which position differentials operate, are experienced, and are reinforced in the health promotion process at individual, group, community, institutional, and global levels.

• Explore innovative approaches and best practices for promoting health and well-being for all while reducing barriers to access  in all campus settings and communities. 

• Discuss how social, political, and historical movements have shaped health promotion strategies to intentionally address systems and settings in higher education.

• Develop leadership strategies and advocacy skills to create  campus cultures that support students across all groups and backgrounds.

• Identify institutional policies and practices that can mitigate health disparities, and adverse impacts of systems and settings  on students’ wellbeing.

• Equip student affairs professionals with knowledge and skills to navigate and respond to the challenges posed by local, state, or federal policies impacting campus health and well-being.

Current Trends, Promising Practices, and Emerging Issues

• Identify promising practices that are theoretically grounded, evidence-informed and/or interdisciplinary to improve campus well-being.

• Compare and contrast mentorship, coaching, and organizational leadership models across institutions and their impact on well-being.

• Promote innovative practices addressing the social determinants of health, including building and opening access to healthy environments. 

• Identify and share best practices that campuses have utilized, integrating new guidance, to create healthy and well communities.

• Describe future trends in well-being systems and settings at institutions of higher education.

• Examine innovative programming in the field of health promotion.

• Explore how to demonstrate cultures of care and advocate for student well-being in the current sociopolitical  climate.

• Identify and apply core ethical principles—such as transparency and  responsibility–to guide the implementation of AI technologies in student affairs and health promotion spaces.

Data, Policies, Laws, and Research to Advance Well-being

• Discover how data is gathered, disaggregated, contextualized, shared and utilized by campus community members for health promotion.

• Using data and research to tell stories of our campus communities to build champions, influence decisions, and develop resources.

• Describe the complexity of data and its use in building a salutogenic narrative.

• Identify institutional, local and national policy changes that are showing promise in their proposal or implementation stage.

Foundations and Essential Ecosystems for Health Promotion - Centering Well-being in Person, Place and Planet 

• Learn effective strategies for developing leadership qualities and promoting professional growth. 

• Apply foundational frameworks and principles for health promotion strategies in higher education.

• Describe the progression of health promotion in higher education leading to a clear understanding of current industry standards.

• Develop marketing and communication strategies to model effective health and well-being initiatives.

• Discover ways to synergize sustainability and health efforts using a settings and systems approach.

• Foster a viable infrastructure to impact system change and create a culture of well-being. 

• Explore how planetary health serves as a primary driver of well-being.

Types of sessions available to deliver your proposal content:

NASPA thanks the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors for sponsoring this continuing education opportunity for psychologists. The Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. AUCCCD maintains responsibility for this program and its contents. Not all sessions are available for continuing education (CE) credit. Sessions which are eligible for APA credit will be identified within the program book and conference platform. 

To receive APA credit, participants must submit a form online and are encouraged to submit an evaluation following the event. A link to the online form will be made available closer to the event date. Once complete, A PDF certificate will be sent via email after the form has been processed and approved.

NASPA has been approved by the Higher Education Consortium for Student Affairs Certification to provide CE credit for Certified Student Affairs Educators (CSAEd™). Programs that qualify for CE credit in this program are clearly identified. NASPA is solely responsible for all aspects of this program.

The National Advocate Credentialing Program approved the 2025 NASPA Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Conference for 12.5 total continuing education (CE) hours toward renewal requirements. NASPA will work to provide this CE for the 2026 NASPA Strategies Conferences again.

To receive NACP credit, participants must have submitted a form online and were encouraged to submit an evaluation following the event. If approved for 2026, a link to the online form will be made available closer to the event date. Once complete, A PDF certificate will be sent via email after the form has been processed and approved.

This program will apply for approval through the National Association of Social Workers (Approval #: TBD). 

To receive NASW credit, a link to an online form will be made available closer to the event. In addition, attendees must complete an online evaluation of individual sessions, which will be emailed to you shortly after the conference. A PDF certificate will be sent via email after the form has been processed and approved.

NASPA has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. TBD. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified in the program book and MyNASPA app. NASPA is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

To receive NBCC credit, a link to an online form will be made available once closer to the event. In addition, attendees must complete an online evaluation of individual sessions, which will be emailed to you shortly after the conference and a PDF certificate will be sent via email after the form has been processed and approved.

NASPA is a designated provider of continuing education contact hours (CECH) in health education by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc. This program is designated for Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES) and/or Master Certified Health Education Specialists (MCHES) to receive Category 1 continuing education contact hours. Poster sessions are not approved for CHES/MCHES contact hours.

To receive CHES or MCHES credit, a link to an online form will be made available once closer to the event. In addition, attendees must complete an online evaluation of individual sessions, which will be emailed to you shortly after the conference. A PDF certificate will be sent via email after the form has been processed and approved, and individual hours will be reported to NCHEC in April 2025.

Grantees seeking to attend non-OVW sponsored events using their OVW grant funds must contact their OVW grant program specialist directly to request approval to use OVW funds to attend this event.