truth and witnessing circles
2023 - 2024
As a complement to our CTC series, our witnessing roundtables examined the importance of witnessing others' truths and offered participants the opportunity to practice this skill.
2023
In these transformative circles for child welfare workers, we challenged militarized language, combatted silence, and fostered accountability.
2024
A guided circle for those working in child welfare, including lived experience, workers, counsellors, policymakers, educators, and legal practitioners, to address harm and complicity in the system.
2024
Collective members engage in decolonization dialogues, confront entrenched norms, envision equitable futures and commit to transformative action within child welfare systems.
2023
Through 'crucial conversations' about the child welfare system, participants explored colonialism's impact on practices and language while imagining empathetic approaches to future practices.
2024
In this series, we began to unpack and unravel the deeply entrenched colonial codes within the child welfare system.
2021 - 2022
In these gatherings, we debriefed the discussions in the CTC series to further unpack the revelations that were shared.
2023-2024
Bringing together mothers who have been involved with child welfare systems to share overlooked truths and encourage catharsis by reflecting on their experiences.
2020 - 2022
In our first webinar series, we provided a safe space for individuals to share their truths about their experiences in the child welfare system. In each session, we shared truths about a different topic.
A truth-telling and witnessing circle is a virtual space where we invite you to speak your truth and listen to the truth of others.
Individuals with direct and indirect involvement may include individuals with lived experience, child welfare workers (past or current), counsellors, medical staff, policymakers, educators, foster carers (term may vary), legal practitioners, etc. Individuals who have interacted directly and indirectly with the system may experience harm and be complicit in causing harm within the system and are encouraged to attend.
Each circle experience is unique, and we invite you to attend whether it is your first one or you have been to several. Speaking and witnessing truths about child welfare is not for the faint of heart. Truth telling and witnessing ignite our capacities for taking stock of the harms we’ve committed. It orients us toward our treasured humanity. It is a crucial beginning step forward in reconciliation.
Sharing and witnessing truth is intended to be a holistic experience. We encourage you to bring your authentic self and be fully present in the space. This space is meant to be non-judgemental and aims to challenge colonized practices of silencing within child welfare systems. We will honour these truths and sort out our individual and collective responsibilities in influencing change.
Check out our calendar to see a list of our upcoming circles.