Please choose one session from each time slot.
SESSION ONE: 2:00 – 3:00 pm
Who is “She” in Calgary? A panel discussion from leaders working on the frontlines with exploited women
Judy Osborne, Program Director, Emma House
Phil Reimer, Executive Director, Next Step Ministries
Amy Stephenson, Executive Director, C.H.I.L.L.
Kelsi Wind, Leader, The Walk
JuttaWittmeier, Executive Director, Calgary Pregnancy Care Centre
Why People Get Hooked on Porn and How Addiction Works
Daniel Komori, Associate Executive Director, Journey Canada
In this session, we'll explore some of the reasons why people get addicted to pornography, how pornography addiction works, and how habitual use of pornography can lead to sexual exploitation
Fighting Slavery in the Supply Chain:How you can you engage in the fight against slavery as a consumer, in your workplace and as a Canadian citizen.
Angie Redecopp, Associate professor of business and development studies, Ambrose University
Angie will talk about both legal responses and advocacy as tools to fight forced labour and sexual violence in the supply chain of Canadian companies. How can you advocate as a consumer? What actions can you promote in your workplace? What Canadian initiatives and laws are on the horizon to increase corporate accountability for activities that take place in high-risk regions of the world?
SESSION TWO: 3:15 – 4:15 pm
Sex Trafficking in Calgary: Learning about what sexual slavery looks like in our city and across the country
Susan Brandt
Slavery is alive and thriving in the 21st century. To most Canadians, human trafficking evokes images of women smuggled from far-off lands or over the border.
While human trafficking is indeed a global issue, Canadian citizens are often trafficked within their own country, enslaved, bought and sold from province to province. We know that men, women and children fall victim to this crime, although women represent the majority of victims in Canada to date.
Imagine being beaten, forced into sex work, and told you’ll be killed if you try to escape. The constant threat of violence means you’re too scared to go to the authorities, but even if you did, there’s little chance of retribution for your attacker. This might sound like something that would happen in a third-world country, or during some bygone era, but it’s happening now in Calgary, and is a reality for many victims of human trafficking. Lets hear the facts and bear witness to their stories.
The Process of Healing for the Addict
Daniel Komori, Associate Executive Director, Journey Canada
In this session, we'll continue the discussion around pornography addiction and look at the factors that lead to healing for the sexual addict. Practical tools & steps will be explored, as well as opportunity for Q & A.
Understanding the Impact of Trauma (2 hour session)
JuttaWittmeier, Executive Director, Calgary Pregnancy Care Centre
Trauma is an unexpected, and often unbearable, event that has impact beyond normal coping capabilities.
Crisis challenges a person's ability to cope; trauma overwhelms. Trauma can leave a person with ongoing symptoms, on minds, bodies and spirits, not easily healed. It can affect those impacted, as well as, those around them.
As a Christian community we are called to seek Justice. Many of those we will come alongside have had significant losses and trauma in their lives.This workshop will help you better understand how behavior and reactions may be impacted by the past.
We will discuss how to be a compassionate presence, the impact of witnessing the stories of others, how to stay within the limits of appropriate care, and the importance of referral.
SESSION THREE: 4:30 – 5:30 pm
Self-Compassion and Care
Susan Brandt, Streetlevel Consulting
This session will focus on the importance of taking care of yourself in the justice journey in order to stay in the fight longterm. Vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue and processing grief will also be addressed.
Porn as a Public Health Crisis
GlendyneGerrard, Defend Dignity and Julia Beazley, policy analyst in Ottawa for Evangelical Fellowship of Canada
Pornography is harmful to individuals and to society. It needs to be treated as a public health issue so that governments, educators and medical personnel can address it.
Filmed exclusively for Seek Justice Summit from Ontario, this session will be a videoof a session Glendyne and Julia do at their REVEAL conference. Julia speaks first about the harms of porn and why there’s a need for pornography to be treated as a public health crisis.Glendyne follows talking about the need for public engagement to get involved in changing our culture.
Understanding the Impact of Trauma (2 hour session continued)
JuttaWittmeier, Executive Director, Calgary Pregnancy Care Centre
Trauma is an unexpected, and often unbearable, event that has impact beyond normal coping capabilities.
Crisis challenges a person's ability to cope; trauma overwhelms. Trauma can leave a person with ongoing symptoms, on minds, bodies and spirits, not easily healed. It can affect those impacted, as well as, those around them.
As a Christian community we are called to seek Justice. Many of those we will come alongside have had significant losses and trauma in their lives.This workshop will help you better understand how behavior and reactions may be impacted by the past.
We will discuss how to be a compassionate presence, the impact of witnessing the stories of others, how to stay within the limits of appropriate care, and the importance of referral.
The Relentless Pursuit of Justice
Mark Wollenberg, National Director for Church Mobilization, International Justice Mission Canada
As churches engage in seeking justice they will encounter obstacles and challenges. To STAY in the fight of justice we need to prepare the church to be relentless and not to give up. Building legs and lungs of endurance in the fight for justice is important for faith communities to prioritize.