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Social Workers on the Frontline of the Echo Pandemic in Family Law: Enhancing Children’s Voices, Safety and Wellbeing, with Michael Saini
March 7, 2022 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Alumni, students, faculty and members of the public are invited to the next lecture in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work Alumni Association’s 2021-2022 Alumni Series.
We will be joined by Professor Michael Saini in his talk titled, “Social Workers on the Frontline of the Echo Pandemic in Family Law: Enhancing Children’s Voices, Safety and Wellbeing.”
Date: Monday, March 7, 2022
Time: 6:30pm—8:00pm EST
Location: Zoom
All are welcome to attend.
About the talk:
Due in part to COVID-19’s mitigation strategies (shelter in place, social isolation, etc.) and resulting effects (higher rates of family breakdown, intimate partner violence, child abuse, mental health issues, financial stresses, etc.), family courts are overwhelmed with backlogs, long delays and a diminished capacity to provide access to justice. This echo pandemic in family law necessitates social workers to be active agents to assist families transitioning out of the Covid-19 global pandemic. In this presentation , the role of social work in family law will be highlighted as we take on child-centred, innovative and differential approaches to respond to the increased pressures on family court services, to improve access to justice, and to harness our collective strength to help navigate families through this crisis.
Professor Saini’s lecture will be followed by an opportunity for questions. As this event will be recorded, questions that are general in nature (rather than case-specific) are welcomed.
About Professor Michael Saini
Michael Saini is a Professor, holds the endowed Factor-Inwentash Chair in Law and Social Work, and is the Co-Director of the Combined J.D. and M.S.W. program with the Law Faculty at the University of Toronto. Dr. Saini has generated new knowledge regarding the assessment of co-parenting; the complexity of strained parent-child relationships; and the impact of interparental conflict and crossover cases between child welfare and family law. He is a Board Member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), Access for Parents and Children of Ontario (APCO), Family Mediation Canada (FMC), the Canadian Coalition of the Rights of the Child (CCRC). He is an Associate Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers and a consultant to the National Centre of State Courts. In 2019, he was awarded the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts’ Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award, sponsored by the Oregon Family Institute.