APTN airs a special presentation of Every Child Matters featuring ITR graduate Lisa Robinson

On June 3, APTV aired a special presentation of Every Child Matters, a documentary by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation on the legacy of Canada’s residential schools. The videos feature residential school survivors, elders, knowledge keepers, artists and leaders from nations and cultures across the country.

Lisa Robinson, an alumna of the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work’s Indigenous Trauma and Resiliency (ITR) Master of Social Work field of study, was featured in the first video and mentions the training that she received from Jane Middelton-Moz, an assistant professor at FIFSW who helped develop the ITR program. Robinson is director of the Kackaamin Family Development Centre.

“Everything I learned [in the ITR program], I brought back to the centre,” says Robinson. “We set up the social, emotional safety for families that come here through a cultural lens.”

Robinson appears at 28:36 in Every Child Matters: Truth – Act One, embedded above.

Robinson was also featured in a recent article in Tofino-Ucluelet Westerly News. The profile highlights a pilot project she is working on to address the victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse in a holistic, community-wide process. In it, she talks about meeting Jane Middelton-Moz, an assistant professor at FIFSW who was active in developing he MSW Indigenous Trauma and Resiliency (ITR) Field of Study.

From the article:

Middelton-Moz is an internationally renowned author, known for her work in consultation, training and community intervention. Barney Williams, of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, adopted her into his family nearly 50 years ago and she has been awarded the distinction of Honorary Witness for the Truth and Reconciliation Committee of Canada.

Robinson’s first encounter with Middelton-Moz instilled her with a fight and developed into a lifetime of friendship, preparing her to spearhead a new initiative, called Building the Family Circle.

As the executive director of Kackaamin Family Development Centre in Port Alberni, Robinson intends it to be a hub for sexual abuse assessment and treatment – for victims and perpetrators, as well as their families.

With Middelton-Moz’s guidance and training, Robinson – whose roots are from Hesquiaht and is married into Ahousaht – and her team of around 40 are aiming to address sexual abuse in their Nuu-chah-nulth nations. The team of community leaders and cultural support workers have been coming together for the past two years on a voluntary basis.

> Click here to read the full article.

> Read FIFSW’s statement on the discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children in Kamloops, B.C.