Biographies and abstracts by chronological order of the program starting at session 1
Laura BUTLER
Biography:
Laura Butler coordinates the implementation of Equitas’ Play it Fair! program across Canada. Before joining Equitas in 2006, Laura worked with various non-governmental organizations in El Salvador, Guatemala, China, Switzerland and the UK with a focus on rural economic development. Laura has a BSc in Development Economics and a MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics.
Title: Play it Fair! – Promoting Children’s Rights and Participation through Purposeful Play
Amélie DOYON
Biography:
Amélie Doyon works for the Violence and Abuse Prevention Program of the Canadian Red Cross. She holds a Master's degree in International Relations from Laval University and has a special interest in child protection. She has worked on violence prevention initiatives of the Red Cross in Canada, Haiti and the Philippines.
Title: Bullying prevention: Engaging youth in the solution
Kiana BAKER-SOHN
Biography: Youth Facilitator for Beyond the Hurt, the Bullying Prevention Program of the Canadian Red Cross, Kiana will be presenting with Amélie Doyon.
Title: Bullying prevention: Engaging youth in the solution
David McFALL
Biography:
David McFall is an elementary school principal in Gatineau, Quebec. For the past 20 years, David has worked as a high school teacher, vice-principal and elementary principal with the Western Quebec School Board. In recent years, David has been studying with Dr. Gordon Neufeld in the developmental science of maturation and attachment. David will present a successful and unique approach to building a safe and healthy school with particular focus on: building positive student-teacher relationships, finding individual success and well-being, and facilitating a caring and respectful school ethos.
Title: Reframing Violence Prevention in Schools: Attaching to the Unattached
Claire BEAUMONT
Biography:
Claire Beaumont, Ph. D., is a psychologist and professor at the Faculté des sciences de l’éducation, Laval University. She is also holder of the Chaire de recherche sur la sécurité et la violence en milieu éducatif.
Abstract:
Title: Prevent violence in schools or improve the school quality of life? What reveal the global and positive approach regarding prevention
Several approaches were imagined to address directly the problem of the violence in schools. The repressive interventions, encouraged by the fruitless approach of the Zero Tolerance (punishments, suspensions, evictions) were used for a long time to the said pupils "aggressors" even bringing in the law to try to dissuade this type of behaviour. But this relational and social phenomenon should not be resolved by referring to an approach rather systematic, centered on the prevention and the progressive intervention adapted to the situations? Also, should we improve the school quality of life or only focussing to prevent violence in schools? This communication will present what reveal the global and positive approach, favouring an educational philosophy, including not only all the adults of the school, but also the members of the community.
Debra PEPLER
Biography:
Dr. Debra Pepler is a Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology at York University and a Senior Adjunct Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children. Her research focuses on aggression and victimization among children and adolescents, as well as children in families at risk. Her research identifies bullying as a relationship problem that transforms to other problems of power and aggression over the lifespan. . Dr. Pepler consults to and conducts research on four programs: the SNAP® Girls’ Connection – for aggressive girls at the Child Development Institute, Breaking the Cycle – for substance using mothers and their young children, Pine River Institute for youth with substance and mental health problems, and the Canadian Red Cross Walking the Prevention Circle – a program developed by and for Aboriginal communities Together with Dr. Wendy Craig, Dr. Pepler is leading a federally funded national network, PREVNet (Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network). PREVNet’s mission is to promote safe and healthy relationships and prevent bullying for children and youth (www.prevnet.ca).
Abstract:
Title: Bullying and Children’s Rights: It’s Not Just About Safety
All children have the right to be safe and those involved in bullying (both those victimized and those who perpetrate bullying) are not safe. There is a growing body of evidence that children involved in the relationship problem of bullying have a wide range of physical and mental health problems. In our own longitudinal research, we found that children who were victimized chronically from elementary to high school exhibited high levels of mental health and relationship problems with parents and peers. Our research also showed that children who bullied at a high and persistent rate had a range of mental health and antisocial behaviour problems, as well as relationship problems with parents and peers. It is our responsibility to ensure that all children are safe in their relationships because healthy development depends on healthy relationships.
Safety is necessary but not sufficient. Children today are growing up in a digital world, with all its benefits and challenges. Youth report connecting with their friends more frequently through electronic means than in face-to-face interactions. Youth need us to educate them, not only in academic skills, but also in relationship skills (where we fall very low on the international stage). We need to join with youth to support their learning in how to interact positively in this novel and challenging digital world and how to solve problems when they arise. As one youth expressed to me: “Schools need to be a place where we learn how to be human”.
François BOWEN
Biography:
François Bowen, Ph.D., is Professor and Associate Dean at the Faculty of Education at the University of Montreal, Research Associate at the GRIAS (Groupe de recherche sur les environnements scolaires/Research Group on school environments), Associate Fellow at the School of Public Health, University of Montreal, research member in the Canadian network, PREVNet Promoting Relationships and Elimination of Violence. His research has focused primarily on the development of social competence in schools. Part of his actual research aims to understand how the school environment (i.e., the teaching practices, school organization and staff attitudes, etc.) contributes to the quality of the social adjustment of students. Another important part of his research focuses on the evaluation of programs for the prevention of violence in schools, particularly through the analysis of process implementation of these programs and their efficiency.
Abstract:
Title: Two complementary visions for the prevention of violence: approach using specific programs and those ones that are based on the development of the quality of the living milieu
After 40 years of research dedicated to the development and evaluation of different ways to prevent or reduce violence and bullying in schools, a number of findings emerge. Although it is clear that programs including the development of socio-emotional skills offer real efficiency opportunities, the effectiveness on those programs depends largely on how these practices are implanted in the school milieu. However, other studies suggest that we must rather build interventions that integrate more accurately the characteristics of the school environment. Our presentation will seek to bring these two complementary approaches in order to propose implementation strategies (and conditions) tailored to the characteristics and needs of the community, while allowing to get profits of the combined benefits of these two visions of prevention.
Mónica RUIZ-CASARES
Biography:
Mónica Ruiz-Casares, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and at the Centre for Research on Children and Families at McGill University. She is also a Scientific Advisor at the Centre de Santé et des Services Sociaux de la Montagne in Montreal, where she evaluates health and social programs with ethno-culturally diverse families. Her published works focus on children’s rights, protection, and wellbeing cross-culturally; and ethical and methodological issues involved in research with children. She leads qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods studies related to child protection and wellbeing, mainly in contexts of parent-child separation.
Abstract:
Title: Preventing School-Based Violence: How Do We Know if We Are Making a Difference?
Many anti-violence initiatives are being designed and implemented in order to prevent or reduce aggression involving peers in schools. However, many are not systematically monitored and evaluated thus leaving decision-makers ill equipped to decide whether to continue supporting these initiatives as implemented. This presentation will provide an overview of key methodological and ethical considerations in the design of studies to provide the best empirical evidence of the effectiveness and efficiency of anti-violence initiatives in schools.
Tina DANIELS
Biography:
Tina Daniels, Ph.D., is a developmental psychologist and associate professor of Psychology at Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada. Her research interests include the study of bullying and social aggression. She has developed & implemented Girls United, a National Intervention program to address the use of social aggression within girls’ groups as well as evaluated the WITS program for the prevention of peer victimization in elementary school children.
Abstract:
Title: Social Aggression: Promising Intervention Programs & Questions Still Unanswered
Over the last 20 years we have been examining non-physical forms of aggression that take the form of hurting others’ social relationships, referred to as social or relational aggression and we are beginning to create an evidence base for programs designed to prevent or reduce these forms of bullying behavior. The current paper will examine the necessary elements that have been identified in promising programs for addressing social/relational aggression including a focus on the prevention of social aggression in cyber bullying and will identify some important questions about program effectiveness that remain unanswered.
David SMITH
Biography:
Dr. David Smith is Professor of counselling at the University of Ottawa in the Faculty of education. His primary research interests centre on school-based bullying prevention programs, with a particular emphasis on understanding how they can be made to be more effective. His current program of research is designed to study the links among school climate, children's attachment to school and bullying. Dr. Smith is a member of PREVNet and the Bullying Researchers’ Network, both international networks of researchers, educators, and community-based organizations committed to the prevention of bullying and promotion of healthy relationships among children.
Abstract:
Title: Bullying prevention: State of the art and future challenges
Bullying is now recognized as a serious public health problem that affects the academic and psychosocial development of children and youth. Consequently, there is an urgent demand in the education sector for bullying prevention programming that works. Evaluation studies, however, reveal mixed results for bullying prevention efforts. This presentation will review the state of evaluation research on bullying prevention and identify some of the important questions about program effectiveness that remain unanswered.
Zachary JOHNSTONE
Biography:
Zac is a first year student at the University of Ottawa, studying Political Science and Public Administration. He sits on the Board of directors of Jer's Vision, and in that role is working as an organizer for the International Day of Pink. Zac is most passionate about social justice and helps Jer's Vision organize events pertaining to fighting homophobia & transphobia, sexism, racism and, of course, bullying. He has taken an active role as a workshop presenter and educator. While not study or volunteering, Zac works for the City of Ottawa as a lifeguard and swim instructor, as well as with the Forum for Young Canadians, as an outreach assistant. To top it all off, Zac is the only Canadian recipient of this year's Link Crew Scholarship. Zac hopes to continue his volunteerism, and to go on to a career of activism and advocacy in the non-profit sector.
Hannah COLLINS
Biography:
Hannah is an Algonquin College student from Ottawa. She discovered feminism and queer rights at the age of 15 through punk and riot grrrl music. She got involved with Jer's Vision Canada's Youth Diversity Initiative two years ago and through her work with them was nominated for a Capital Pride award in 2012 and won a Leading Women Building Communities Award from The Government of Ontario in 2013. She is currently one of the two educational coordinators at Jer's Vision and spends her time writing new workshops and baking vegan cupcakes.
Kathy VANDERGRIFT
Biography:
Kathy Vandergrift, now past Chair of the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children, led a recent, comprehensive review of how well children’s rights are implemented in Canada. Kathy advocates for fuller implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as sound public policy for children and Canada as a whole, including prevention of violence. After the comprehensive review, Kathy helped organize a conference on Child Rights Impact Assessments, one preventive tool, and she continues to speak with various groups about the benefits of using the Convention as a policy framework that links all aspects of children’s lives. In this presentation, she will focus particularly on the CRC, schools, and public policy in Canada.
Title: Implementing Children’s Rights to Prevent Violence
Tara COLLINS
Biography:
Tara M. Collins, holds a Ph.D. in law, focusing on international child rights, from the University of London. She has worked on children’s rights since 1996. Her professional experience includes work for: Carleton University; Egalitarian World Initiative, School of Social Justice, University College Dublin, Ireland; University of Ottawa; Canadian federal government (Department of Foreign Affairs and CIDA) and Parliament; and the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children. She is Assistant Professor, School of Child & Youth Care, Ryerson University, and co-chair of this year’s IRLRC’s Annual Conference.
Mona PARÉ
Biography:
Mona Paré, Ph.D, is Associate Professor and Vice-Dean, Research, at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, Civil Law Section. She is a founding member of the University's Interdisciplinary Research laboratory on the Rights of the Child (IRLRC-LRIDE). Her research focuses on international human rights law and children’s rights, particularly in relation to equality, participation, and education. Prior to joining the University of Ottawa in 2007, Mona worked for the United Nations in connection with the development of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She is co-chair of this year’s IRLRC’s Annual Conference.