CASWE-ACFTS Annual Conference
the podcast
Critical Dialogues for Consciousness Raising in Child Welfare Systems
date: 06/1-3/2021
speakers: Cheryl Smith & Nancy Freymond
abstract:
Systems of child welfare preserve and perpetuate deeply colonial relations. This podcast introduces the work of the Child Welfare TRUTH-telling Collective, a group of current and former child welfare workers based in Ontario who are searching for a way to reconciliation. Through a methodological grounding in collective autoethnography, expanded by a series of critical dialogues, we came together to honour a deep yearning to speak unfiltered truths about our situatedness and our experiences of doing child welfare work. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Freire’s critical consciousness-raising, we are committed to compassionate listening and speaking. And, inspired by Indigenous teachings, we are relying on the fullness of our humanity – our minds, bodies, hearts and spirits – to make sense of our child welfare activities and to grow our collective consciousness.
This podcast features the words of Cheryl Smith who has a lifetime of child welfare experiences and Marilee Sherry, a retired child welfare worker about how and why our Collective formed. They take us on a journey into the gradual unveiling of truths about who we are and what we do. They discuss findings about codes located deep in the DNA of these systems, well beyond the rhetoric of how child welfare services are promoted. These codes perpetuate the silence of the everyday child welfare work force, orient significant investments of time, energy and money toward infrastructure that relies on the myth that ‘separation creates safety’ and uphold the protection of Whiteness. Cheryl and Marilee explore how our collective work continues to seek new potentialities for understanding. They conclude with an inspiring message about the importance of truth-telling as a humble first step as we take up our responsibilities in decolonizing ourselves and these systems.