Two-Day Training Event on Dignity and Resistance
Registration Info
Dates
Cost
From $54.58 – Register here
Program
DAY 1 : Dignity-Driven Child Protection in Practice
April 20, 2023 | 8:30am – 3:30pm
On April 20, we will focus on the use of “response-based” practice in child protection work in cases of interpersonal violence, drawing on examples from B.C. and New South Wales, Australia, under the name “dignity-driven” practice. We will provide a practice framework for use in interviewing adults and children in cases of violence, in obtaining accurate accounts of violence and resistance, and in developing contextual assessments (e.g., of parental capacity, of safety and risk).
DAY 2: Telling It Like It Is: How Accurate Language Supports Interviewing and Prosecution
April 21, 2023 | 9:30am – 4:30pm
Effective interventions in cases of violence depend on accurate descriptions that convey “who did what to whom” in what setting/context. On April 21, we will focus on interviewing methods and the use of accurate language in criminal justice settings. We will show how language is used to (a) conceal violence, (b) obscure offender responsibility, (c) conceal victim/survivor responses and resistance, and (d) blame and pathologize victims/survivors. Alternatively, we will show how language can be used in interviewing and documentation to (a) reveal violence, (b) reveal offender responsibility, (c) acknowledge the resistance of victims/survivors and (d) challenge the blaming and pathologizing of victims/survivors that is common across institutional setting.
Speaker Info
Susan Predy, M.A.
Susan lives and works on unceded Quw’utsun traditional territory, in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. Susan worked in child protection for over 21 years primarily in a supervisory capacity on an assessment team that responded to high numbers of new domestic violence reports. Using response-based practice with child protection policies and legislation, Susan focused on supporting staff to respond to clients in ways that uphold dignity, while fully assessing for violence and safety in context. In interviews, staff focused on responses and resistance to violence and the use of accurate language that does not mutualize violence, blame or pathologize victims or obscure perpetrator responsibility. Susan applies response-based practice in her current role as manager with Reviews & Investigations at the BC Office of the Representative for Children and Youth and while teaching undergraduate students as a sessional instructor.
Shelly Dean, Ph.D.
Shelly Dean (Bonnah) is a family therapist, clinical supervisor and organizational consultant from Kamloops, BC. As a therapist, Shelly works with children, youth and adults who have experienced violence and other forms of adversity, with a special interest in victims of institutionalized violence. Her doctoral research focused on children’s responses and resistance to violence–specifically understanding their behaviour in context, the nature of social interactions with young people, the connection between violence and mutualizing language, and the social responses that they receive. Prior to opening the Centre for the Centre for Response-Based Practice in the Interior of BC, Shelly was the Chief Operating Officer of a multi-service, non-profit organization. In this setting, Shelly applied the principles of Reponses-Based ideas to leadership and other organizational priorities such as policies and human relations challenges. Shelly was also a foster parent for just over 15 years and had over 30 children in her family over that time. Currently, Shelly works with other professionals who are interested in Response-Based Practice as a clinical supervisor and an organizational consultant. She has also taught in the Master of Counselling programs through City University of Seattle and the Master of Education program at Thompson Rivers University.
Allan Wade, Ph.D.
Allan lives on the unceded territory of the Quw’utsun First Nation, on southern Vancouver Island, B.C. He works as a family therapist, researcher and consultant with a primary interest in promoting socially just and effective responses to violence and other forms of adversity. Allan works with individuals and families, with youth and adults, with people who have committed violence and people who have been harmed by violence. Allan works extensively with Indigenous peoples locally, in the Canadian north, and abroad.
Allan provides training to the network of service providers who become involved in cases of violence: child protection, police, lawyers and judges, counsellors, shelter and refuge staff, youth workers, victim assistance workers, and educators. He teaches locally and internationally and has published many articles on the power of dignity and resistance, working with victims/survivors and offenders, the importance of institutional responses to violence, and the connection between violence and language.
