This webinar was hosted by YouthREX.

HERE’S HOW THE HOSTS DESCRIBE THIS WEBINAR:

How can we prioritize meaningful and trauma-informed family engagement when supporting youth? How can we ensure that parents/caregivers feel valued as part of the care team – and that their voices are centered alongside the voices of young people?

We know that family support, engagement, and involvement can serve as a protective factor for youth mental health and wellbeing, especially when that support can be facilitated in ways that are culturally-relevant and community-based. But we may not always have the tools, resources, and supports to engage with families in intentional and meaningful ways.

In this webinar, learn from and with caregivers, advocates, service providers, and researchers through conversations that explored the complexities of parenting/caregiving, as well as strategies for meaningfully engaging equity-deserving families* in youth work.

Together, we:

• surfaced challenges and complexities in families and in family engagement
• unpacked assumptions, stereotypes, and biases around definitions of family, what is possible in our engagement work, and what meaningful engagement may look like
• disrupted current practices at the individual, community, and system levels
• explored how to create safe and accepting spaces for families abandoned by systems
• strategized ways to empower and uplift parents and caregivers
• cocreated inclusive, affirming, and strength-based approaches that advance the wellbeing of youth and families

Access the slide deck by clicking on the Webinar Resource button above. You can also download the practices submitted through the Google Jamboard activity, which asked participants to share how they apply the principles of The 4Es Framework for Culturally Relevant Family Support & Engagement in their work.

This webinar was hosted and facilitated by Dr. Carol Wade, who delivered a keynote presentation, Strengthening Engagement with Families.

Our guests included:

• Lorraine Gale, Coordinator, Out & Proud Program, Children’s Aid Society of Toronto
• Clovis Grant, Co-Founder, Sawubona Africentric Circle of Support
• David Grant, Social Worker, Substance Abuse Program for African Caribbean and Canadian Youth (SAPACCY), Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
• Cora MacDonald, Lead Researcher, Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Demonstration Lab (MtS DEMS)
• Debbie Miles-Senior, Executive Director, Durham Family & Cultural Centre
• Jordan Zaitzow, Families in TRANSition Program Coordinator, Central Toronto Youth Services

Angie Morris, Youth Facilitator, Raising Our Children, Approaches to Community Wellbeing, Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority, was unable to join the live event, but we encourage you to learn more about her work.

This event also featured a live performance from award-winning spoken word artist, writer, and facilitator Amoya Reé.

*We acknowledge that there are a number of equity-deserving groups impacted by these issues and that identities are fluid and intersectional. These conversations are only the beginning of an exploration into how our practice strategies can better meet the needs of the youth with whom we work.