Violence, broadly defined, is the most urgent problem of our time.

Gathering together people from all points of intervention in family violence - law enforcement, child protection, legal, health, education and social services, corrections, whānau and families themselves - Dignity Whanganui is an opportunity to learn and engage with the ideas and practices associated with Response Based Practice.
This field of practice was developed by practitioners and indigenous communities in Canada, and over recent years has been shared with communities internationally, including communities in New Zealand.

Response Based Practice works to improve the quality and effectiveness of social responses to violence by various sectors and institutions. It turns on its head common takenfor-granted ways of thinking about and responding to whānau and families’ experiences of violence by recognising that even in the most extreme conditions,
victims work to retain and reassert their basic human dignity.

Download the flyer and registration form for more information (PDF, 812 KB)

Conference presenters:

Dr Allan Wade
Allan lives on Vancouver Island where he works in private practice as a family therapist and researcher. Allan is primarily concerned with addressing the problem of violence in all its forms and in promoting socially just legal and human services work. With colleagues Allan has developed a Response Based approach to working with victims and perpetrators of violence. Allan is a Senior Faculty member with the Master of Counselling Program, City University of Seattle, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of 
Victoria.

Dr Cathy Richardson
Cathy is a Métis family therapist, activist, researcher and professor in social work at the Université de Montréal. She  is co-founder of the Centre for Response Based Practice and developed the Islands of Safety model for safety planning with indigenous families. She is the principal investigator for youth experiencing structural violence in Canada and has been a presenter at the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues.

Contact Tim Metcalfe for further information