My name is José Miguel Paez and I am a teacher in the California State University, Northridge (CSUN) Master of
Social Work Department.
It’s with great pleasure to announce that this year the CSUN MSW Department is honored to co-host the 10th Annual Liberation Based Healing Conference (LBHC)—“Challenging Inequities: Decolonizing Practices and Social Action” on November 13-14, 2015.
You may be thinking, what is Liberation Based Healing and Decolonization, and how are they related to my social work practice.
We are in midst of a major social justice movement being led by the efforts of courageous leaders, activists, communities and organizations throughout the country.
This is a time where we need critical spaces to dialogue, reflect and develop social justice based action strategies. We need to rethink the way we have traditionally engaged and served Indigenous communities, communities of color, and other marginalized populations.
The LBHC aims to create space for dialogue and learning from a decolonizing perspective. What does decolonizing mean?
According to Dian Million, American Indian Studies professor at the University of Washington and the author of Therapeutic Nations: Healing in an Age of Indigenous Human Rights, “To ‘decolonize’ means to understand as fully as possible the forms colonialism takes in our own times”. Developing our awareness about the historical trauma and present day effects of colonialism, offers an alternative social justice lens from which to practice.
Two more reasons to attend this year’s LBHC:
- Collective, Interdisciplinary, and Collaborative:
- We bring together a diverse collection of local and national organizations and communities, social workers, mental health practitioners, academics, students, activists, and community members. We expect 100 to 200 people each day.
- The interactions and critical dialogues will empower participants to engage creatively and collectively to address current social issues affecting our communities with the goal of inspiring leadership, accountability and social change.
- Cutting Edge and Social Justice Focused:
- Liberation practices center on equity, raise critical consciousness, and expand understanding of cultural context, power and privilege, historical and collective trauma; promote empowerment, accountability, reconciliation, reparations and healing among individuals, families and communities.
We hope that you will join us for this important two-day conference!
If you have any questions, please contact José Paez at jose.paez@csun.edu.
More information can also be found at this link:
