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Dulwich Centre |
... a gateway to narrative therapy, community work and
psychosocial support
Dulwich Centre Publications Pty
Ltd |
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Dulwich Centre Institute of
Community Practice and Dulwich Centre Foundation |
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www.dulwichcentre.com.au |
Dulwich
Centre Institute of Community
Practice
How can narrative ideas be used with groups and communities?
How can therapeutic work with individuals be informed by a collective ethic and
contribute to local social action?
How can our work contribute to so-called personal issues being understood and
addressed in wider social forums?
How can we support workers
and communities in different parts of the world who are responding to
significant trauma?
How can narrative ideas be used in contexts where counselling or therapy are not
culturally appropriate?
These are some of the questions and challenges that the Dulwich Centre Institute
of Community Practice is engaged with. Through community work, collective
practice, teaching, writing and various special projects we hope to find ways
for narrative ideas to be relevant and helpful to practitioners and community
members in varied contexts and cultures. We hope you will join us in these
explorations.
The Dulwich Centre Foundation, Inc
The Dulwich Centre Foundation, Inc,
is a not-for-profit association that supports workers and communities in
different parts of the world who are responding to significant trauma. Over
the past five years we have been involved in work within Indigenous
Australian communities as well as in Bangladesh, East Timor, The Palestinian
Territories, in Kuwait (training Iraqis who are setting up a trauma centre
in Basra), Uganda, Zimbabwe and Rwanda. Our work involves training and
capacity building of local workers. It also involves collaboratively
developing ways of working that are culturally and context-specific.
Ideally, after providing training and support to local workers, we work with
them to develop their own ways of working which we then document and
circulate to a broader audience. We have found this process to be
considerably empowering of local workers and their knowledge and skills.
For example, from our work in
Zimbabwe, we jointly developed a way of working called the 'Tree of Life'
exercise which enables vulnerable children to speak about their lives in
ways that make them stronger. It also enables them to collectively speak
about difficulties they are experiencing and share skills and knowledges in
ways of dealing with these. This way of working has been published and is
proving very popular in a range of settings and countries (recent interest
has come from workers in Nepal and Sudan). We have filmed and produced a DVD
of Ncazelo Ncube (from Zimbabwe/South Africa) presenting this work last
year in Uganda and it is now being circulated in different parts of the
world.
Past projects have taken place in: Papua New Guinea; Ramallah, Palestinian
Territories (in partnership with
Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture);
Nablus, Palestinian Territories (in partnership with
Medecins Du Monde); Zimbabwe (in
partnership with
REPSSI); Uganda (in partnership with
REPSSI); Bangladesh (in partnership with Acid Survivors
Foundation and
Ain o Salish Kendra);
East Timor (in partnership with PRADET); Australian Indigenous Communities;
India; Iraq/Kuwait (Training workers from Basra, Iraq. This took place in
partnership with
International Rehabilitation Council for Torture
Victims (IRCT)); Mongolia (in
partnership with Mongolian National Center Against
Violence); Rwanda (in partnership with Ibuka, and with support from SMEC
Foundation and the Australian Government Direct Aid Assistance Program)
Interested in being a part of this work?
There are a range of ways in which you can be a part of these explorations:
Attend a workshop: Recent workshops on the
theme Towards collective and
community practices: Narrative ways of working with groups and communities
have been facilitated by Barbara Wingard, Cheryl White, David Denborough
in Australia, Russia, Canada, USA and Rwanda. Further workshops are
currently planned for Canada, USA and Hong Kong. For more information see:
www.dulwichcentre.com.au/InstituteofCommunityPractice.htm
Contribute your ideas/suggestions to current
projects which include: developing culturally diverse collective methodologies
(Including the Tree of Life: Working with vulnerable children and the
Team of Life which uses football metaphors as ways of inviting rich
description in the lives of young people who have experienced trauma); responding to the challenges of the work of Paulo Freire;
supporting workers in contexts of war and armed conflict; bringing a collective ethic to work with men who have
enacted violence; responding to feminist challenges to individualist
ways of working; Preventing Prisoner Rape Project; Deconstructing Addiction League;
and a continuing invitation to narrative practitioners to address
privilege and dominance. For more information see: www.dulwichcentre.com.au/InstituteofCommunityPractice.htm
Support the Foundation:
The demand from developing countries
for assistance in relation to responding to trauma in culturally
appropriate, collective ways is quite overwhelming and while we have
considerable experience in these realms, we are only a very small group of
people! If you are interested in supporting the upcoming trip to Rwanda, or
the work of the Dulwich Centre Foundation more generally, we would delighted
to hear from you. If you provide a donation of AUD$100 or more, we will send
you email updates in relation to the work of the Foundation. Please contact
us c/o
dulwich@senet.com.au
For more information about the Foundation see:
www.dulwichcentre.com.au/Foundation.html
Who are we?
The Dulwich Centre Foundation and Dulwich Centre Institute of Community
Practice consist of Cheryl White, Virginia Leake and David Denborough.
A range of experienced
international consultants regularly offer their services through the
foundation including: Jill Freedman (USA), Charles Waldegrave (New Zealand),
Mark Gordon (Australia), Shona Russell (Australia), John Stillman (USA),
Maggie Carey (Australia), Cheryl White (Australia), Geir Lundby (Norway),
Chris Behan (USA), Angel Yuen (Canada), David Denborough (Australia) & Sue
Mitchell (Australia).
Contact us
If you are interested in the
work of the Dulwich Centre Institute of Community Practice and/or The
Dulwich Centre Foundation please contact us c/o
dulwich@senet.com.au or via our
website: www.dulwichcentre.com.au
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