The Wisconsin Substance Use Summit brings together people with lived experience, prevention specialists, treatment professionals, recovery advocates, public health leaders, educators, first responders, policymakers, community leaders, and others for two days of learning and networking on Wisconsin's substance use challenges and strategies for better health and wellness for all state residents.
The 2027 Wisconsin Substance Use Summit is scheduled for May 5-6 at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells. More than 1,000 people are expected to attend this event either in person or virtually.
This event is organized by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (Division of Care Treatment and Services) and UW-Milwaukee’s Center for Innovative Transition, Education & Employment.
This call for session proposals is focused on workshops related to prevention and early intervention, lifesaving overdose and infectious disease prevention and response services, treatment services, recovery-oriented systems of care, current or emerging trends, and workforce development.
The planning committee for this event is interested in proposals for 60- or 90-minute session presentations on topics related to substance use that will engage, educate, and equip the audience with new knowledge and skills, including step-by-step processes to implement concepts or practices.
Session Categories
All session proposals should align with at least one of the following categories.
Category 1: Prevention and Early Intervention
These sessions will highlight innovative approaches to prevention and early intervention. Proposal topics could include the following:
- Trauma-informed, locally tailored, healing-centered programs and practices.
- Upstream prevention: addressing root causes that influence substance use before problems develop, including approaches that strengthen protective factors and promote resilience.
- Innovative childhood wraparound services for youth in foster care, justice-impacted youth, or other system-impacted youth, including system of care approaches to bridge efforts across youth and family serving systems through collaboration.
- Youth-led and youth-driven programs, techniques for engaging parents and caregivers in prevention, and early intervention strategies.
- Evidence-based practices communities used and found to yield positive outcomes that possess historical and social contexts that are culturally rooted.
- Substance use policy and systems change initiatives.
- Coalition development, building local social infrastructure among key partners, centering and fostering cross-system partnerships.
- Intergenerational approaches to break cycles of substance use.
- The role of peer professionals in adolescent substance use prevention and early intervention.
Category 2: Lifesaving Overdose and Infectious Disease Prevention and Response Services
These sessions will focus on lifesaving principles, philosophies, and low-barrier care models in practice. Proposals should highlight engaging, strengths-based options that empower people. Proposal topics could include the following:
- Innovations in community overdose and infectious disease prevention outreach and programming.
- Naloxone saturation efforts and strategies to ensure people using substances are prioritized for distribution efforts and can easily access overdose prevention supplies.
- Overdose response for stimulant use or overamping.
- New developments in clinical guidance and state laws and policies for implementing lifesaving services.
- Coalition development, building local social infrastructure among key partners, centering and fostering cross-system partnerships.
- Recovery residence settings that balance low-barrier care principles with patient safety and recovery-oriented environments.
Category 3: Treatment Services
These sessions will highlight innovative approaches and program successes to proactively engage people in treatment and support them in their unique circumstances. Proposal topics could include the following:
- Use of universal screening tools to identify substance use challenges and associated intervention or indicated prevention efforts including SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment).
- Strategies to improve outcomes for individuals living in recovery from a substance use disorder.
- Treatment in settings intended to meet people physically where they are (examples: mobile treatment programs, street medicine, cross-system coordinated efforts, etc.).
- Evidence-based practices treatment providers used and found to yield positive outcomes that possess historical and social contexts that are culturally rooted.
- Integrated treatment and wraparound service models.
- Specialized treatment services based on substance or specific populations (examples: stimulant use disorder, co-occurring with mental health disorder, criminal justice/corrections involved, veterans, pregnant/post-partum, adolescent).
- Innovative medication-assisted treatment and contingency management strategies to reduce substance use related deaths.
- Treatment in the context of family.
- The role and value of peer professionals on a treatment team.
Category 4: Current or Emerging Trends
These sessions will focus on current and emerging trends and improvement to data, tracking, monitoring, and evaluating outcomes related to substance use services. This includes how to use data to transform patient care services, strategically plan, and showcase the effectiveness of programs. Proposal topics could include the following:
- Newly released compelling data or reports on alcohol, opioids, cannabis, stimulants, or other emerging trends in substance use and how the data ties to the development of system or policy change.
- Sustainability in referral systems (examples: county behavioral health in collaboration with hospital systems).
- Newly released program evaluation reports, including statewide and local evaluation efforts.
- Current or emerging trends in the evolving local drug supply.
- New policies, regulations, or statutes that focus on substance use related topics.
Category 5: Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care
These sessions will focus on strategies and opportunities to strengthen recovery capital and improve outcomes for individuals living in recovery from a substance use disorder. Proposal topics may include the following:
- Best practices and achievements for peer recovery support services, recovery services, and incorporating employment services into substance use service care
- Peer support across the continuum of care.
- Resource and referral services.
- Recovery friendly workplaces and recovery-oriented communities
- Recovery services responsive to the unique needs of underserved and under-resourced populations.
- Recovery incentive programs.
- The role of system partners and natural supports when barriers to formal substance use treatment exist.
Category 6: Workforce Development
These sessions will focus on supporting the professionals working in substance use prevention, overdose prevention, treatment services, and recovery supports. Proposal topics may include the following:
- Strategies to reduce burnout, stigma, and compassion fatigue; strategies to improve wellness; and strategies to increase staff retention.
- Leadership development and pathways designed to advance skills and careers for prevention specialists, outreach workers, counselors, peer professionals, etc.
- Clinical supervision for treatment and peer professionals.
- Ethics in substance use prevention, overdose prevention, treatment, recovery, and peer support
- Data literacy skill building to support the interpretation of available data, insightful questions, the development data visualizations, and data-driven decisions
- Up-skilling the youth, adolescent, and family serving mental health workforce to integrate substance use prevention, screening, and early intervention.
- Supporting families in navigating substance use disorder treatment and recovery services and systems.
Notes from the Planning Committee
Proposals from individual speakers or a group of speakers are welcome.
Special consideration will be given to session proposals that meet the objectives of the Wisconsin Substance Use Summit. This event aims to:
- Create and provide spaces and opportunities for providers across the continuum of care throughout Wisconsin to connect with best practices approaches and methodology, resource access points, and experts in the field.
- Provide educational opportunities, practical demonstrations, and real-life examples of collaborative efforts, including work within and across parts of the continuum of care to address substance use issues.
- Create a community of relationships across substance use providers in Wisconsin to learn from and support each other, brainstorm solutions to barriers, and provide peer support.
The opportunity to speak at this event is open to all. Speakers do not need to be residents of Wisconsin. All proposals that meet the criteria outlined in this form and have the potential to advance the knowledge and skills of the people attending this event will be considered.
Speakers must present at the event in person in Wisconsin Dells. Proposals from speakers who wish to present virtually will not be considered.
The planning committee will offer complimentary event registration and up to two nights of lodging for up to two presenters per session selected. No other compensation will be provided to selected presenters.
Session proposals are due October 21, 2026.
Multiple submissions from the same person or group are allowed. Complete this form for each session proposal.
Selected speakers will be notified by email no later than November 30, 2026.
Before proceeding, please make sure you have the following information prepared:
- Presenter name(s), email address(es), phone number(s), headshot(s), and biography(ies) under 500 words
- Session title, category (from above list), length (60- or 90-minutes), audience level of expertise
- Session description under 500 words with three session objectives
Send questions about this form to
dhsdcts@dhs.wisconsin.gov.