For more information contact: [email protected]
How can lawyers and advocates better represent the young people they serve?
Join the conversation in person June 6 and 7, 2024 in Canmore, Alberta.
Join the conversation in person June 6 and 7, 2024 in Canmore, Alberta.
Lawyers, students, academics, and other child-serving professionals are invited to join to reflect and develop new plans for practice.
View our lineup of great speakers!
Go here for more details.
Go here for more details.
Our Headlining Speakers
Dr. Cindy Blackstock
June 6, 2024
It's been 10 years since Dr. Blackstock presented at our conference! So much has happened since that time, we can't wait to hear her!
A member of the Gitxsan First Nation, Cindy is honoured to serve as the Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and a professor at McGill University’s School of Social Work.
She has over 30 years of experience working in child welfare and Indigenous children’s rights and has published on topics relating to reconciliation, Indigenous theory, First Nations child welfare and human rights. A recipient of the SSHRC Gold Medal, Cindy was honoured to work with First Nations colleagues on a successful human rights challenge to Canada’s inequitable provision of child and family services and failure to implement Jordan’s Principle. This hard-fought litigation has resulted in hundreds of thousands of services being provided to First Nations children, youth, and families.
Cindy is honoured to have been named as the recipient of the 2023 World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child, an award adjudicated by millions of children worldwide and referred to as "The Children’s Nobel Prize". Cindy is frequently sighted in the company of the Caring Society’s reconciliation Ambearrister, Spirit Bear, engaging children in meaningful actions to implement the TRC Calls to Action.
A member of the Gitxsan First Nation, Cindy is honoured to serve as the Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and a professor at McGill University’s School of Social Work.
She has over 30 years of experience working in child welfare and Indigenous children’s rights and has published on topics relating to reconciliation, Indigenous theory, First Nations child welfare and human rights. A recipient of the SSHRC Gold Medal, Cindy was honoured to work with First Nations colleagues on a successful human rights challenge to Canada’s inequitable provision of child and family services and failure to implement Jordan’s Principle. This hard-fought litigation has resulted in hundreds of thousands of services being provided to First Nations children, youth, and families.
Cindy is honoured to have been named as the recipient of the 2023 World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child, an award adjudicated by millions of children worldwide and referred to as "The Children’s Nobel Prize". Cindy is frequently sighted in the company of the Caring Society’s reconciliation Ambearrister, Spirit Bear, engaging children in meaningful actions to implement the TRC Calls to Action.
Dr. Michael Ungar
June 7, 2024
If you heard him speak at our conference in September 2023, you won't want to miss this session!
Dr. Ungar is equally well known as the author of books for parents and caregivers as he is for his world-renowned research on the topic of resilience. As a writer he has adapted ideas from his research and clinical practice into best-selling works like his newest release Change Your World: The Science of Resilience and the True Path to Success. Other popular titles include Too Safe For Their Own Good: How Risk and Responsibility Help Teens Thrive and I Still Love You: Nine Things Troubled Kids Need from Their Parents.
In total, Dr. Ungar has published 17 books and over 250 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters. When not on the road and back at his home in Halifax, Canada, he is the Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience at Dalhousie University, and the founder and Director of the Resilience Research Centre.
As both a family therapist and professor of Social Work, he has helped to identify important factors that influence the resilience of children and adults during periods of transition and stress. In 2012 Dr. Ungar was the recipient of the Canadian Association of Social Workers National Distinguished Service Award.
Dr. Ungar is equally well known as the author of books for parents and caregivers as he is for his world-renowned research on the topic of resilience. As a writer he has adapted ideas from his research and clinical practice into best-selling works like his newest release Change Your World: The Science of Resilience and the True Path to Success. Other popular titles include Too Safe For Their Own Good: How Risk and Responsibility Help Teens Thrive and I Still Love You: Nine Things Troubled Kids Need from Their Parents.
In total, Dr. Ungar has published 17 books and over 250 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters. When not on the road and back at his home in Halifax, Canada, he is the Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience at Dalhousie University, and the founder and Director of the Resilience Research Centre.
As both a family therapist and professor of Social Work, he has helped to identify important factors that influence the resilience of children and adults during periods of transition and stress. In 2012 Dr. Ungar was the recipient of the Canadian Association of Social Workers National Distinguished Service Award.
About the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate
We represent the rights, interests and viewpoints of Alberta children and youth who receive intervention services or who are involved with the youth justice system. The Child and Youth Advocate Act provides the mandate for our work with vulnerable young people in Alberta.
Advocacy at the OCYA includes a number of activities that are aimed at ensuring the rights, interests and viewpoints of Alberta’s vulnerable children and youth are affirmed and acted upon. These activities include:
Advocacy at the OCYA includes a number of activities that are aimed at ensuring the rights, interests and viewpoints of Alberta’s vulnerable children and youth are affirmed and acted upon. These activities include:
- Providing education on the rights, interest and viewpoints of children and youth,
- Reporting to Alberta’s Legislature on any matter related to the rights, interests and well-being of children and youth involved in designated services,
- Communicating on the work of the office, including systemic issues that are affecting vulnerable children and youth,
- Engaging with children and youth, their communities and others to collaborate on ways in which to address issues affecting children and youth,
- Conducting research related to improving designated services,
- Conducting investigations into systemic issues arising from the serious injury to or death of a child or youth receiving designated services,
- Advocating on behalf of individual children and youth receiving designated services,
- Providing legal representation to children and youth receiving services under the Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act or the Protection of Sexually Exploited Children Act.