NASPA Strategies Conferences

Types of sessions available to deliver your proposal content:

General Interest Session (60 mins) Download Session Template	The most common educational opportunity at the conference, usually consisting of the presentation of a program, data, research, or theoretical concept followed by audience questions and brief discussion.
Extended General Interest Session (90 mins) Download Session Template	Provide additional time for audience engagement or discussion. This format is also appropriate for panel discussions, skill demonstration and practice, or multi-institutional case study presentations. There are a limited number of extended general interest session opportunities.
Roundtable Discussion Session (60 mins) Download Session Template	Less formal ways to engage other attendees around a central topic or program area. Facilitators usually provide a brief introduction to a topic (5-10 minutes) and then lead a discussion with several prompting questions.
Poster Session Download Session Template	Poster sessions are appropriate for sharing research or program evaluation. Participants will visually represent their data and conduct several brief presentations for small groups of attendees (3-5 minutes, usually). All Poster Sessions will be hosted during the Thursday Opening Reception from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Pre-Conference Session (3 hours) Download Session Template	Pre-conference sessions are three hour sessions offered the day before the conference. Designed as highly specialized opportunities to discuss a specific topic or program. Pre-conference sessions will require participants to pre-register for a fee.
Pre-Conference Institutes (8 hours) Download Session Template	Pre-conference institutes are full-day (eight hours) programs held prior to the conference. These events are usually coordinated directly with the applicable conference committee or a related NASPA constituent group. Pre-conference institutes will require participants to pre-register for a fee.

Program reviewers rely on a well-written description to enhance their understanding of the content and goals of the presentation. The conference planning committees encourage program proposals with proven practices and content that will engage participants in fruitful discussions and provide meaningful content to bring back to their campuses.

Successful proposals should include: 

• Lengthy description about session content that you will present.
• Relationship of the program to the conference themes outlined below in 'Conference Themes & Learning Outcomes'
• Identification of the program format (e.g., lecture, panel, debate) including methods for participant involvement (e.g., discussion, effective practice sharing, case study analysis).
• Discussions of replicability: to what extent can the information presented in this program be replicated at other institutions?
• Evidence of the conceptual foundation for proposal content including ways the program content is grounded in research, relevant experience, a cogent model, or appropriate theory.
  • Program proposals should establish a clear connection to the research, framework, model, or theory included in their discussions.
  • A list of references to relevant research, models, or theory must be listed in the "References" section. 

Tips:

• Draft and save your work in a word processing program to ensure you keep a copy for your records. When you are ready, copy and paste the your description and outline into the text box below. 
• There are no word limits on this section. Please provide enough details so that program reviewers can understand the breadth, depth, and scope of your program. This description will not be printed in the program book, website, or otherwise.
• Ensure correct spelling and grammar.

For additional tips, please visit NASPA’s Program Submission Guidelines: https://www.naspa.org/events/program-submission-guidelines.  

Please select ONE THEME that most aligns with your presentation proposal. Please read through the intended learning outcomes of each theme.

 

Campus or Community Coalitions and Partnerships

• Understand the ways in which diverse stakeholders across the campus and the larger community can work collaboratively to address substance misuse or violence prevention and best serve the needs of campus community members
• Analyze models of collaboration, case studies from integrated systems, successful partnerships, and efforts to engage all stakeholders in prevention efforts, including individual and environmental level strategies
• Identify and evaluate health promotion efforts
• Utilize evaluation data to build capacity, inform strategic planning, and promote community engagement

Current Trends and Emerging Issues in an Ever-Changing Environment

• Analyze ongoing data and research surrounding substance misuse or campus violence prevention efforts, especially those addressing use patterns and implications for college students
• Evaluate the scope of alcohol and other drug misuse on campus as well as its relationship to academic attainment
• Explore considerations for health equity on prevention efforts
• Amplify the voices and experiences around substance misuse and campus violence of underrepresented populations
• Explore best practices from other fields to identify areas of application

Evidence-Based and Evidence Informed Practices

• 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
• Explore replicable and adaptable evidence-based policies, programs, and practices
• Identify best practices for campus policies surrounding alcohol and other drugs

Innovative Solutions and Changing Practices

• Evaluate the efficacy and fidelity of prevention strategies led online/virtually
• Identify changes in prevention strategies due to COVID-19 and the long term impact for students and staff
• Articulate how to support students who choose not to use substances and those in recovery communities, using innovative strategies, based on a foundational theory, model, or adaptation

The Strategic Prevention Framework 

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

Please select ONE THEME that most aligns with your presentation proposal. Please read through the intended learning outcomes of each theme.

 

Creating Capacity

• Explore new and innovative service models to address growing client waiting lists and limited or reduced provider capacity;
• 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;
• Explore innovative strategies to promote equitable access and inclusion in 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 recruiting and retaining mental health staff on college campuses;
• Develop strategies to enhance retention and recruitment of mental health staff on college campuses.

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
• Identify keys to successful cross-campus collaboration in the delivery of mental health services
• Explore how mental health intersects with violence prevention and response,  substance misuse, and collegiate recovery efforts on campus
• Identify and explore the intersections among the multiple and very complex roles assumed by mental health professionals, including clinical, advocacy, administrative, and other roles

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

• Identify barriers to mental health and well-being among traditionally underserved and historically marginalized populations and strategies to address social justice and identity-related stress;
• Highlight models supporting the provision of inclusive services, as well as the recruitment, hiring, and retention of diverse staff members to respond to current and emerging student needs;
• Discuss the strategic, ethical, and practical aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion on the delivery of mental health services and the promotion of a healthy environment for all members of the campus community;
• Explore the mental health needs of students representing individual and cultural diversity and best practices to respond to these needs within the contextual framework of power and privilege.

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 socio-political  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 re-engagement of students, faculty, staff members, and administrators on campus as the nation emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Examine institutional and other potential barriers to providing increased mental health services on campus;
• Identify strategies to effectively communicate the need for increased resources to the institution;
• Explore strategies to address and overcome institutional barriers.

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, 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 to address the challenges facing campus community members who are supporting students (e.g., mental health providers, student affairs staff, faculty, administrators, etc.) through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond;
• Identify strategies and practices that reimagine the intersection of resilience among mental health professionals during an endemic (i.e., COVID, Social Justice, Opioid, Mental Health);
• Explore strategies for campus stakeholder collaboration aimed at developing unified and actionable mental health and wellbeing goals and messaging.

Please select ONE THEME that most aligns with your presentation proposal. Please read through the intended learning outcomes of each theme.

 

Personal, Professional, and Community Sustainability and Development

• Consider the implications of secondary trauma and explore opportunities to increase professional well-being and prevent burnout 
• Strategize and discuss the establishment and maintenance of personal and professional boundaries
• 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 with diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts to increase effectiveness of prevention, response, and advocacy efforts 

Evidence-informed Policy and Practice

• Identify evidence-informed approaches to sexual violence prevention and response
• Demonstrate 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 sexual, gender-based, and relationship violence is eliminated
• Discuss best practices in: implementing sustainable, evidence-informed prevention programs; improving campus response to violence and those who have survived acts of violence; and evaluating the impact of these efforts
• Describe strategies for developing or revising comprehensive campus sexual misconduct policies, including how they are impacted by the latest federal and state legislative policy changes

Innovative or Promising Approaches to Prevention and Response

• Identify strategies, programs, and policies which are innovative and whose grounding in foundational theories, models, or frameworks make them promising in their efficacy
• Describe project implementation and program evaluation associated with these initiatives
• Discuss innovative/promising approaches to the prevention of and response to sexual violence in higher education, including discussions of lessons learned, assessment and evaluation, and replicability
• Explore and discuss restorative and transformative justice and community based accountability practices

Transforming Social Narratives

• Examine and interrupt the problematic dominant narratives of sexual, gender-based, and relationship violence (e.g. racism, sexism, heteronormativity, gender identity, ableism, U.S.-centrism), including narratives around those who experience violence; those who perpetrate violence; as well the ways in which those who work to prevent and respond to violence participate in these dominant narratives
• Create and propose new perspectives, approaches, and strategies to honor all identities in sexual, gender-based, and relationship violence work
• Examine societal and institutional systems and structures that contribute to, are complicit in, or perpetuate violence, and identify practices that foster inclusive and equitable efforts to address sexual, gender-based, and relationship violence

Developing or Expanding Campus and Community Partnerships

• Discuss the ways in which a diversity of stakeholders from within and across the campus and the larger community can work collaboratively to address sexual 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 stakeholders in sexual violence prevention and response
• Describe collaboration with local, state, and national organizations to prevent and respond to campus sexual violence
• Identify strategies to expand and strengthen relationships among and between campuses and community service providers, in an effort to augment support for reporting and responding parties and increase communication around and collaboration in prevention and response

Please select ONE THEME that most aligns with your presentation proposal. Please read through the intended learning outcomes of each theme.

 

Foundations and Essential References for Health Promotion- Centering Well-being

• Discuss the ways in which power differentials operate, are experienced, and are reinforced in the health promotion process at individual, group, community, institutional, and global levels
• Apply foundational frameworks and principles for effective health promotion in higher education as a public health setting
• Describe the evolution of health promotion in higher education leading to a clear understanding of current industry standards
• Discuss core knowledge and relevant case studies of quality health promotion practice

Research and Data that Informs Health Promotion Work

• Discuss implications for health promotion with historically underrepresented populations
• Discover how data is gathered, disaggregated, contextualized, shared and utilized by campus community members for health promotion
• Combating and addressing misinformation
• Using data and research to support grant writing efforts and aid in funding opportunities
• Describe the complexity of data and its use in building the narrative of well-being on campus
• Compare and contrast key terminology and the impact of the language we use

Partnerships and Collaborations to Advance Well-being

• Discuss through a health equity lens how social, political, and historical movements that have shaped and created systems of power, privilege, and oppression
• Discover ways to synergize environmental factors using settings approaches
• Describe how to lead coalition building to collectively strive for a flourishing campus community
• Foster a sustainable infrastructure to impact system change and create a culture of well-being 
• Articulate how to develop and maintain meaningful external and internal partnerships

Leadership Development for Health & Well-being

• Develop leadership and supervision skills that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion
• Compare and contrast leadership models and their impact on well-being
• Describe the characteristics of leadership styles that are effective for non-linear, communal outcomes
• Develop communication strategies to effectively lead health and well-being initiatives
• Build sustainable infrastructure and evolving systems to create a culture of well-being
• Discuss the role of restorative practice in change management

Promising Practices, Creative Strategies, Innovations, and Emerging Trends

• Discuss innovative practices that are addressing the social determinants of health including, but not limited to, health equity and environmental justice 
• Discuss the practices that campuses have utilized, integrating new guidance, to create healthy and well communities
• Identify promising practices that are theoretically grounded, evidence-informed and/or interdisciplinary to improve campus well-being
• Discover policy changes that are showing promise in their proposal or implementation stage
• Describe future trends in systemic well-being on university campuses
• Apply learning from the pandemic response to the future of the field