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The Dulwich
Centre Foundation, Inc.
The
Dulwich Centre Foundation Inc. is a
not-for-profit charitable association dedicated
to responding to groups and communities which
are facing mental health difficulties as the
result of significant hardships (trauma,
violence, drug and
alcohol issues, grief & loss , poverty, racism,
discrimination, dispossession and so on).
Our work involves:
-
direct counselling and community work with
individuals, groups and communities
-
developing respectful, effective and
culturally appropriate methodologies to
respond to community mental health issues
and collective trauma
-
working in partnership with local
communities to engage with children, young
people and adults using these methodologies
-
building the capacity of local mental health
workers/community members to address mental
health issues in a range of contexts (for
instance, training elders of Aboriginal
communities to be able to work with children
and young people affected by grief and loss)
-
ideally,
as part of this capacity-building, after providing training and support to local
workers/community members, 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, groups and communities.
Current projects in Australia
Work within Aboriginal
communities in the Northern Territory
We
are currently engaged with the Division of
General Practice in the Northern Territory to
work in partnership with a range of central
Australian Aboriginal communities. Members of
the Hermannsburg community will be travelling to
Adelaide to share stories of this work at the
upcoming 9th
International Narrative Therapy and Community
Work Conference. Barbara Wingard, Cheryl
White and David Denborough will be returning to
the Northern Territory in the first few months
of 2009 to continue these partnerships. To read
more about this sort of work, see:
Linking
Stories and Initiatives: A narrative approach to working with the skills and
knowledge of communities by David Denborough, Carolyn Koolmatrie, Djapirri Mununggirritj,
Djuwalpi Marika, Wayne Dhurrkay &
Margaret Yunupingu.
The Tree of Life: responding to vulnerable
children
The 'Tree of Life' exercise
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 was developed by the
Dulwich Centre Foundation in partnership with
REPSSI
and is proving very popular in a range of
settings and countries (recent interest has come
from workers in Nepal and Sudan). We
are now in the process of working with
Indigenous Australian colleagues to develop an
Indigenous Australian version of the Tree of
Life and to engage with this in Indigenous
communities. We are also in the process of
offering workshops and supporting practitioners
within Australia who are seeking to use the Tree
of Life in responding to vulnerable children in
different communities.
Responding to the children of parents with
mental health difficulties
We
are currently involved in developing ways of
responding to the children of parents with
mental health difficulties. In collaboration
with a number of people whose parents have/had
significant mental health concerns, stories have been collected in order to develop a
resource to support workers in this area.
We also hope to develop an interactive web-based
resource which will be accessible to young
people whose parents are struggling with mental
health difficulties.
Women and grief project
The
Foundation is also currently involved in a
collective project designed to assist women who
are experiencing grief. Contributions to this
project are being gathered from women. A framework for workers has also
been developed so that the work of this project
can continue into the future. The project will
deliberately include situations of complex grief
(for instance where issues of violence and abuse
had been present) and socially unsanctioned grief.
Current/recent international projects
These take
place under the auspices of Dulwich Centre
Foundation International
Responding
to survivors of genocide in Rwanda
In November 2007,
a team from the Dulwich Centre Institute of
Community Practice and the Evanston Family
Therapy Centre (Cheryl White, Jill Freedman &
David Denborough) headed to Kigali, Rwanda, to
provide support and training to the workers at
IBUKA, the national association of survivors of
the Rwandan genocide. Ibuka's
workers are responding to the survivors of the
Rwandan genocide (click
here for
an interview with the head of Ibuka, Kaboyi
Benoit). They are all young people who have
received very little training or support for the
work that they are doing. Their work involves
visiting, counselling, supporting those who lost
family members, those who were assaulted and
raped during the genocide, and those who are HIV
positive as a result of these assaults.
Over ten days we met with and offered training
to a group of 34 trauma counsellors and
assistant lawyers, all of whom are themselves
survivors of the genocide. The publication and DVD developed from this
visit are now
available.
Supporting workers and
communities in contexts of war and armed
conflict
Recent visits to Lebanon, Israel and the
Palestinian Territories have led to an increased
determination to assist colleagues who are
working in contexts of war and armed conflict.
In conjunction with Lebanese colleagues, David
Denborough has recently developed a 'Checklist
for social and psychological resistance' which
can be used with those who have survived
bombings and/or other forms of military attack.
We have also developed the 'Team of Life'
methodology in relation to the experience of
former child soldiers. Both these methodologies
are described in the book 'Collective Narrative
Practice: Responding to individuals, groups and
communities who have experienced trauma' by
David Denborough.
Strengthening
relationships between generations in
immigrant/refugee communities
In partnership with Oolagen (a child and family
mental health organisation in Toronto, Canada),
we are now involved in a community project
designed to strengthen relationships between
generations in immigrant/refugee communities.
All too often, inter-generational relationships
become strained after experiences of migration.
We are involved in developing ways of working
that provide opportunities for
'inter-generational honouring'. More information
about this project will be available in coming
months.
Staff
The Dulwich Centre Foundation consists of Cheryl
White, Virginia Leake and David Denborough. The
Foundation also engages a range of international
consultants to offer training and support to
workers in different contexts. Recent
consultants have included: Jill Freedman (USA),
Sue Mitchell (Australia), Chris Behan (USA),
Michael White (Australia), John Stillman (USA),
Shona Russell (Australia), Mark Gordon
(Australia) and others.
Partners &
past projects
In
coming weeks we will be including here
information about a range of past projects in:
Supporting 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 further trips 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@dulwichcentre.com.au
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