Atlantic Canada Child Welfare Forum: Speakers & Presenters
Speakers & Presenters
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Monday, September 8, 2008Assistant Deputy Minister,
Department of Social Development
Government of New Brunswick
Géraldine Poirier Baiani is a Social Work graduate from the University of Moncton. She’s had numerous management and supervisory positions over the past 30 years while with the provincial government. Prior to her nomination as Assistant Deputy Minster she was Regional Director of the Department of Family and Community Services in Moncton. Géraldine has been involved with many community organizations including Board and Campaign chair for United Way of Southeastern New Brunswick. Born and raised in Moncton, she is an avid reader, loves to travel, the arts and theatre. She also enjoys spending her spare time with her husband Ben and their two lovely daughters Laura and Sophie. région sud-est du Nouveau-Brunswick. Tuesday, September 9, 2008Honourable Mary Schryer Mary Schryer was elected to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick on September 18, 2006. A Liberal MLA, she represents the electoral district of Quispamsis. She was sworn in as Minister of State for Seniors and Minister of State for Housing on October 3, 2006. Mary has over a dozen years of experience as a self-employed financial advisor. She specialized in financial planning, employee health and dental benefits and workplace financial seminars. Mary has served her community in a number of different capacities. She spent more than seven years as a member of the Quispamsis Town Council, and three years as a member of the board of directors of the Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation, which oversees Health Region 2, which stretches from Sussex to St. Stephen. She is a former member of the Saint John Trade and Convention Centre; former director for the Economic Development Commission; former president and founding director of the Kennebecasis Valley Chamber of Commerce; former member of the committee on Land for Public Purposes; Chair of the 2006 Kidney Foundation Fundraising Drive; and former director of the Rothesay Regional Police Commission. During her time on the Commission, the Rothesay Regional Police Force moved into expanded facilities in Quispamsis.
Marvin M. Bernstein, B.A., LL.B., LL.M. Marv Bernstein was appointed as Saskatchewan’s second Children’s Advocate and took office on September 6, 2005. At the time of his appointment, Marv had 28 years of advocacy and senior leadership experience in the child welfare field in the Province of Ontario. After spending 20 years as Chief Counsel to the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, he served as Director of Policy Development and Legal Support for the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies from 2001-2005. The latter Association provides advocacy and support to the 53 children’s aid societies in the Province of Ontario. Marv Bernstein was appointed as Saskatchewan’s second Children’s Advocate and took office on September 6, 2005. At the time of his appointment, Marv had 28 years of advocacy and senior leadership experience in the child welfare field in the Province of Ontario. After spending 20 years as Chief Counsel to the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, he served as Director of Policy Development and Legal Support for the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies from 2001-2005. The latter Association provides advocacy and support to the 53 children’s aid societies in the Province of Ontario. Marv is a member of the Saskatchewan Partnership for Children and Youth, a Board member of the Adoption Council of Canada and a long-serving member of the Children in Limbo Task Force of the Sparrow Lake Alliance. Marv is an independent officer of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan and thus does not report to any Branch of the Provincial Government. Instead, he reports directly to the Legislative Assembly through the Speaker. In February, 2006, he was awarded the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal for having made a significant contribution to the Province.
Presentation: Impact of Trans-racial Placements on Identity and Mental Health Wanda Thomas Bernard, Ph.D. Social Worker, Educator, Researcher, Community activist, Advocate, and Mentor, Dr. Thomas Bernard has been a professor at the Dalhousie School of Social Work since 1990, where she has held the position of Director since 2001, and was appointed Full Professor in 2007. Dr. Thomas Bernard previously worked in mental health at the Nova Scotia Hospital, in rural community practice with the Family Services Association. Her teaching at the School is in the area of direct practice, with an emphasis on anti-racist and anti-oppressive social work theory and practice. Dr. Thomas Bernard has provided leadership in developing culturally relevant services and culturally specific programs in the health professions, including the development of an assessment tool to help determine best practices in trans-racial placements for Black and Bi-racial children. Her research with Black men and the violence of racism, particularly in the criminal justice system, has had significant impact on not only academic work but also agency and community-based practice.
New BrunswickDesneige Robichaud Johanne Webster Blake Fullerton is from PEEL agency, Moncton. Charles Boulay, Director of Operation Support, Department of Social Development, Fredericton, Protocol for Children/Youth with Complex Needs Language.
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NewfoundlandLack of resources for mental health programs for children and families is not unique to Newfoundland and Labrador. The Janeway Family Centre, a division of the Mental Health and Addictions Program, Eastern Regional Health Authority, has successfully offered group treatment programs to children, youth and families throughout the St John’s region of Newfoundland & Labrador since 1990. Aware of the need for these programs to be available to children, youth and families in other areas of the province, the Janeway Family Centre sought funding that would allow them to package the group treatment programs as training modules to train group leaders throughout the province. The Reaching Out Project, funded in part by the Royal Bank of Canada, will help to ensure that the province’s children, youth and families receive the best mental health care possible. The goal of the project is to train professionals in the four regional Health Authorities of the province who will then offer the group programs in their home communities. The project is designed to respond to the specific needs identified in each local area by offering a choice of group programs that can be selected to suite the treatment needs of each of the four areas of Newfoundland and Labrador. The project has the potential to reach thousands of children and families. The audience will learn about
Donna Ronan, M.S.W., R.S.W. Donna is also in private practice as a mental health consultant with Aspens and Oaks.
Nova ScotiaVicki Black Ilonka Thomas, MSW, RSW Robert Wright, Executive Director, Child and Youth Strategy.
Prince Edward IslandFamily Ties is a family preservation and youth counselling program. Our staff consists of three Youth and Family Therapists and two Youth Counsellors. The role of the Family Ties Program is to strengthen families where there are adolescent mental health issues. This can include issues such as parent-child conflict, adolescent depression, anxiety or self-harming behaviours. We are a voluntary service and work with families and youth who are between the ages of 12-18. Family Ties staff work together with families to determine the type of service provided and identify their unique goals for service. These services can include family counselling, individual youth counselling or a one to one service. Family Ties is under the umbrella of Child and Family Services, however we work collaboratively with various other community agencies such as Probation Services, Community Mental Health and the Department of Education. Stacey Hutchinson-Maund graduated from Acadia University with a BA majoring in psychology in 2000. She then attended the two year MSW program at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto where she had two practicums experiences at the Muki Baum Centre and Yorktown Child and Family Counselling Services. Stacey began her career at the Charlottetown office of Child and Family Services in PEI. She worked on the Intake team investigating and assessing child protection referrals for over five years. Stacey has been a Youth and Family Therapist at the Family Ties Youth and Family Counselling Program since November 2006. Mary Lou White graduated from UPEI in 1979 majoring in sociology. She attended a two year BSW program at Dalhousie University from 1985-1987. Mary Lou has worked for Child and Family Services since 1987. She spent 20 years working on child protection teams, mainly with investigations and assessments. Mary Lou has worked at Family Ties since October 2007 as therapist and program supervisor. Andy Wedge graduated in 1988 with a BA majoring in Sociology from the University of Prince Edward Island. Andy began his career working with the (WOW) Work Orientation Workshops with Adolescents. He then worked with youth in a secure custody facility with Justice. Andy was also a house manager for the Provincial Adolescent Group Home and he has also spent time working with Permanent Wards with the Resource team at Child and Family Services. Currently, for the past eight years, Andy serves a dual role dividing his time between duties as a youth counsellor at the Family Ties program and as the co-ordinator of the Family Preservation Program (One to one service) within Child and Family Services and Family Ties. John MacMillan received his MSW in the clinical stream from Wilfrid Laurier University in 1980. He has worked for the past 28 years on PEI in child protection, community mental health and residential treatment as a clinician, supervisor and administrator. John has been a part time learning manager in the Holland College Child and Youth Worker Program since 1986 and has had a private clinical practise since 1996. John has particular clinical interest in suicide risk assessment and intervention, treatment of eating disorders and critical incident stress management. Wednesday, September 10, 2008Presentation: Differential Response and Evidence-Based Practice
Aron Shlonsky is associate professor and Factor-Inwentash Chair in Child Welfare at the University of Toronto, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and is the director of the Bell Canada Child Welfare Research Unit. Prior to his appointment at University of Toronto, he was an assistant professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work and also spent a number of years as a child protective services worker, sexual abuse therapist, and substance abuse counselor in Los Angeles. His professional interests center largely on child welfare and include risk assessment, kinship foster care, and sibling relationships in out-of-home care. He also has an abiding interest in evidence-based practice and evaluation research. He is co-author of ‘Child Welfare Research: Advances for Child Welfare Practice and Policy’ (2008, Oxford University Press) and has authored and co-authored numerous manuscripts appearing in scholarly journals and books highlighting the use of actuarial tools in child welfare settings, the predictors and effects of sibling separation in foster care, issues surrounding kinship foster care, the implementation of subsidized legal guardianship for relative caregivers, and the teaching and implementation of evidence-based practice.
Presentation: Childhood Conduct Disorder: New Challenges for Child Welfare Leena K. Augimeri, PhD., is the Director of Program Development and Centre for Children Committing Offences at the Child Development Institute (CDI) in Toronto, Canada. Her main focus has been on research, training and dissemination of information pertaining to young children who engage in offending behaviour. She was part of the team that developed Canada's longest sustained empirically based program, the SNAP(tm) Under 12 Outreach Project for boys under 12 years of age in conflict with the law. A noted author, researcher and skilled group leader, Dr Augimeri co-authored the Early Assessment Risk List for Boys (EARL - 20B) and Girls (EARL - 21G), which have been translated in various languages and used around the world. She is also known for chairing a task force, which led to the development of Canada's first protocol for children under 12 in conflict with the law. She was presented with the Child Welfare League of Canada's 2004 Outstanding Achievement Research and Evaluation Award for work being conducted in her unit, the Centre for Children Committing Offences.
Presentation: Lessons from Expanding the Prevention Circle D.J. Joseph and Stacey Coy DJ Joseph is a Mi’kmaq from Elsipogtog NB. He worked in the Mental Health field as a Youth Support Worker in his previous position, before becoming employed with the RespectED program in June 2007. He was responsible for organizing the program in Elsipogtog, and helped with the implementation of the Capacity Building Model; a newly formed and now nation wide model used in RespectED for working with Aboriginal communities. He is now the Aboriginal Coordinator for RespectED in the Atlantic Zone. Stacy Coy is a social worker who began working with the Canadian Red Cross in 1997. She has worked with many of the Red Cross programs but primarily within the RespectED program for Atlantic Canada. Her experience includes offering consultation and extensive training programs and workshops for volunteers, schools, coaches, youth serving agencies, as well as remote and aboriginal communities on the issues surrounding the prevention of violence and abuse.
Presentation: In the Best Interests of the Infant Evelyn Wotherspoon, MSW Evelyn Wotherspoon is a social worker and Zero To Three fellow who is an infant mental health consultant for the Calgary Health Region. She has spent over 25 years working with high risk families as a child welfare investigator, supervisor and clinician. She previously managed the developmental services and disruptive behaviour disorder clinics for the Alberta Children’s Hospital. She has contributed to the Infant Mental Health Journal, the Zero To Three Journal (as writer and guest editor), Social Work with Groups, Calgary’s Child, Western Parent, and Canadian Parent. She has given presentations on the needs of maltreated infants throughout the United States and Canada to such groups as the Zero To Three National Training Institute, the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children Child Psychotherapy day, the Alberta and the Canadian Association of Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists, the Canadian Childcare Federation, the Association for the Treatment and Training of Attachment in Children, the University of British Columbia department of continuing education, and others.
Peter M. Dudding, M.M., M.S.W., R.S.W. With over 30 years of senior management experience in child welfare, public health and international development, Peter Dudding serves as the CWLC's Executive Director. He brings to this position a passionate interest in children's services and dedication to improving the quality of life for children, youth and families at risk, and with Aboriginal and multicultural communities. Mr. Dudding's career has included service as the Associate Director of the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa, Director of Finance and Administration with the Borough of East York Public Health Unit, Project Director for the Sri Lanka Soya Project, Executive Director of the Children's Aid Society of Lanark County and Director of Social Services for the Government of Yukon. He currently serves also as Co-Director of the Centre of Excellence for Child Welfare and Co-Chairs the National Steering Committee for the Canadian Incidence Study on Reported Child Abuse and Neglect. He is a board member of SOS Children's Villages/Canada, Great Kids Incorporated (USA) and is on the National Advisory Committee of Invest in Kids foundation (Canada). Mr. Dudding's work includes conducting applied research, establishing best practice models, policy and program development, evaluating outcomes, advocacy, knowledge building and promoting child and youth rights. Mr. Dudding holds a Master of Social Work degree and a Master of Management degree in national voluntary sector leadership. Mr. Dudding is married with two children.
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