Conference in Canada
06-11-2010

In the beginning of October projekt UDENFOR took part in an international conference held in Victoria, Canada.

projekt UDENFOR was invited to the conference because we are part of a co-operation on an international Erasmus Mundus project of practical experience focusing upon the work with socially expelled and marginalized persons.

The project is an exchange-programme for students preparing to become social workers. Canada, Denmark and Great Britain take part in the project.

The conference with the title ”Reframing Citizenship and Diversity for Social Work Theory and Practice” was held at the University of Victoria.

- On the conference theorists met people who were working practically with the problems. Discussing the questions from different professional perspectives  brought a very high grade of dynamism into the conference and we had many very fruitful discussions, tells Ann Dorthe Lunde, social worker and street-level worker representing projekt UDENFOR at the conference. Ann Dorthe Lunde also works as an instructor for the students participating in the project and choosing to get their  practical experience in projekt UDENFOR.

On the conference she made a presentation of her experiences with homelesness and social inclusion, experiences she had had as a street-level worker of Project Outside.

She also exemplified her experiences by telling the life-stories of some of the persons she had met on the street.

The audience was listening with great interest and was very impressed by Ann Dorthe Lunde’s inspiring engagement as well as her deep and serious reflexions on the  problems. She was invited to give a lecture on the street-level effort to a class of students on the university.

Ann Dorthe Lunde also had time to visit Gastown in Vancouver, a district in which poor and homeless people as well as prostitutes and drug users and pushers have been placed. Here she had the possibility to talk to several of the inhabitants of the district.

- I never saw anything like that. It does put things into perspective to see so much social misery and poverty in one place. It must be a great challenge to work here, because if you want to make any changes in a district like this you have to work hard on the political level, says Ann Dorthe Lunde.

Read Ann Dorthe Lunde’s personal account here.

See the programme of the conference and videos of the introductory speakers here