We are inviting social workers to share their lived experience as first-voice storytellers at our annual conference on May 24-25, 2024. This conference will be a decentralized hybrid event, with in-person gatherings at regional hubs across Nova Scotia (locations to be finalized).
Theme: Celebrating Courage
You are not alone. We are all connected.
Feedback from past conferences has emphasized the value of breakout discussion spaces to connect with other practitioners, build relationships, and foster critical self-reflection. Many members have reported feeling increasingly isolated since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in tandem with moral distress and burnout amplified by experiences of intersectional oppression and the harms of neoliberal systems.
This conference therefore seeks to create spaces for social workers to gather together and restore faith in themselves and the transformative potential of their practice. We hope to support practitioners in developing deep and nuanced understanding of how their positionality affects the work they do, and create opportunities to learn from first voices with varied experiences. Our goal is to build community for our members and to help us learn from one another, even as we work to liberate ourselves. We will be celebrating intersectional first voices amongst our members and learning from them, as part of our commitment to safer social work practice.
Can you share your voice with us?
Rather than having only one or two keynote speakers, we are looking for NSCSW members who would like to share some of their story and speak on guiding questions such as:
- What is the role of unconscious bias in the work that we do?
- How can we increase awareness and shared understanding of intersectionality?
- What gives you the courage to break free from roles and expectations, fear and shame?
- What gives you the courage to speak your truth?
- How do we learn from those who are different than ourselves? How can we share our experiences with one another?
- How do we deal with systemic limitations, experiences of violence and/or micro-aggressions?
- How do we create safety and advocate? How do we build safety and containment into the ways that we work with first voices in our practice?
- Where do we situate ourselves, and how does this affect the work we do?
- Who are we becoming, and where are we heading?
Conference storytellers will receive free admission to the conference and an honorarium for their contribution, and are expected to attend, either online or at a regional hub close to them. Stories may be prerecorded.
If you are interested in participating in the conference as one of our storytellers, please complete the form below no later than February 15, 2024.
Questions? Suggestions? Contact Naj Siritsky at nsiritsky@nscsw.org.