new Book: Walking This Path Together: Anti-Racist and Anti-Oppressive Child Welfare Practice, edited by Strega and Carriere

Walking This Path Together: Anti-Racist and Anti-Oppressive Child Welfare Practice, edited by Susan Strega and Jeannine Carrière (Sohki Aski Esquao). See site: http://www.fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/361

This book offers students and experienced practitioners alike the opportunity to explore a range of visions, strategies and concrete skills for anti-racist and anti-oppressive child welfare practice. Significant topics and emerging practice approaches are addressed by contributors who share a passionate commitment to the transformation of child welfare through socially just practices. The book challenges the current Anglo-American child welfare paradigm by centring Indigenous perspectives and voices.

“This collection must be read by all of those wanting to reclaim child welfare practice from its present attention to paper work and management systems to an enterprise focused on social justice for children and families. Emerging and experienced scholars alike grapple with how social workers can change their thinking and acting through adopting anti-oppressive approaches to practice.” — Marilyn Callahan, retired professor of social work, University of Victoria

“Jeannine Carrière, a much respected Aboriginal academic, along with her colleague Susan Strega, have gathered the wisdom of many to create this ground breaking collection on Aboriginal child welfare. I highly recommended it for researchers, policy makers, child welfare workers and community members who are working to ensure that this generation of Aboriginal children has the same opportunity as other Canadian children to live safely at home.“ —Cindy Blackstock, executive director of Caring for First Nations Children Society and member of the Board of Directors for the Child Welfare League of Canada

Contents

* Introduction (Jeannine Carrière and Susan Strega)
* Chapter 1: Children in the Centre: Indigenous Perspectives on Anti-Oppressive Child Welfare Practice (Qwul’sih’yah’maht [Robina Thomas] and Kundouqk [Jacquie Green])
* Chapter 2: “Meeting Here and Now”: Reflections on Racial and Cultural Difference in Social Work Encounters (Donna Jeffery)
* Chapter 3: Race Matters: Social Justice not Assimilation or Cultural Competence (Sarah Maiter)
* Chapter 4: Widening the Circle: Countering Institutional Racism in Child Welfare (Joan Pennell)
* Chapter 5: The Practice of Child Welfare in Indigenous Communities: A Perspective for the Non-Indigenous Social Worker (Christopher Walmsley)
* Chapter 6: Métis Experiences of Social Work Practice (Cathy Richardson)
* Chapter 7: What Parents Say: Service Users’ Theory and Anti-Oppressive Child Welfare Practice (Gary Dumbrill and Winnie Lo)
* Chapter 8: Anti-Oppressive Approaches to Assessment, Risk Assessment and Record-Keeping (Susan Strega)
* Chapter 9: Supporting Youth in Care through Anti-Oppressive Practice (April Feduniw)
* Chapter 10: Reconstructing Neglect and Emotional Maltreatment from an Anti-Oppressive Perspective (Henry Parada)
* Chapter 11: Oppressing Mothers: Protection Practices in Situations of Child Sexual Abuse (Julia Krane and Rosemary Carlton)
* Chapter 12: Taking Resistance Seriously: A Response-Based Approach to Social Work in Cases of Violence against Indigenous Women (Cathy Richardson and Allan Wade)
* Chapter 13: Healing Versus Treatment: Substance Misuse, Child Welfare and Indigenous Families (Betty Bastien, Jeannine Carrière and Susan Strega)
* Chapter 14: Engaging With Fathers in Child Welfare (Leslie Brown, Susan Strega, Lena Dominelli, Christopher Walmsley and Marilyn Callahan)
* Chapter 15: Considerations for Cultural Planning and Indigenous Adoptions (Jeannine Carrière and Raven Sinclair)
* Chapter 16: Practicing From the Heart (Carolyn Peacock)

About the Authors

Jeannine Carriére is Métis, originally from the Red River area of southern Manitoba and teaches at the University of Victoria in the School of Social Work Indigenous Specialization. Her research interests include Indigenous child and family practice, Indigenous ways of knowing, mental health and decolonization for Indigenous people. Jeannine has an extensive background in child welfare services and has published extensively in Aboriginal child and family services.

Susan Strega is Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Victoria. Susan’s areas of teaching specialization and interest include: anti-oppressive/anti-racist practice, research methodologies, discourse analysis, feminist methods, post-structural approaches and violence against women.

Her research interests include the research process itself, for example how it is, and ought to be conducted, and the ethics of research with marginal communities. Her MSW thesis focused on social work ethics and regulatory processes, and she hopes to soon begin a project about ethical practice in child protection. Her PhD work and much of my other research has focused on child welfare and violence against women.

Susan has published several journal articles and book chapters in the areas of social policy, child welfare and sex work. Her articles have appeared in British Journal of Social Work, Violence against Women and Child and Family Social Work. She is co-editor, with Leslie Brown, of Research as Resistance: Critical, Indigenous and Anti-oppressive Approaches.

Susan is a member of the Educational Policy Committee, Canadian Association of Schools of Social Work and is Chair, Research Subcommittee, CNCEW (Canadian National Coalition of Experiential Women).