The focus of the Canadian Domestic Violence Conference 2 is on helpful conversations with those who perpetrate abuse, those who are abused, or those who have both abused and are abused in the same relationship. These conversations occur in women's shelters, Partner Abuse Response (PAR) programs, probation offices, victim services offices, counselling centres, private practice. The focus of this Conference is to help foster effective conversations with women and men about domestic violence in these various professional contexts.

In recent years the domestic violence field has been focused primarily on "high risk" cases, which often leads to focusing solely on criminal justice practices and protocols. Along with criminal justice responses, this Conference will focus on the individual and personal conversations with people about the issue of domestic violence. The emphasis will include focusing on the continuum of violence – severe, moderate and low; conversations with people who are not only "high risk" but also cases considered "moderate risk" and "low risk". The Conference will focus not only on conversations in which women want to leave, for example, but it will also focus on women who are ambivalent about their relationships and other women who know they want to stay. This broad range of conversations includes individual, couple, family and group conversations.

The Conference will also explore the diversity of helpful conversations occurring in various Canadian communities including immigrant, same sex, aboriginal, African Canadian and European Canadian. As a result of the different social locations of these communities, the awareness of the helpfulness of these conversations often remains in the communities which are having them. Often what is practiced in one community can be helpful for other communities struggling to address domestic violence. To move the field forward, the purpose of this Conference is for participants and presenters to highlight and share the innovative conversations happening in the various communities across Canada.

Pre-Conference Certificate Programs

There are two 2-day pre-conference certificate programs. One will focus on working with women who have been abused. This will be presented by Patricia Evans, the author of the book Verbally Abusive Relationships. The other certificate program will focus on working with men who abuse and will be presented by Alan Jenkins, author of Invitations to Responsibility and Becoming Ethical.

Faculty