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).
This page briefly summarises our work at a glance. For a more detailed look at our projects, resources, staff, please go to the Dulwich Centre Foundation - Sustaining Hope page.
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 travelled to Adelaide to share stories of this work at the 9th International Narrative Therapy and Community Work Conference. 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, and Margaret Yunupingu. To read more about our work with Aboriginal communities, click here.
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 have also worked 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. For more about the Tree of Life, click here.
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. To read more about this project, click here.
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. To read more about this project, click here.
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, and 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, and 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. To read more about this project, click here.
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. For more information about this work, click here.
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'. For more information, click here.
Staff
The Dulwich Centre Foundation consists of Cheryl White, David Denborough, Barbara Wingard, and Virginia Leake. The Foundation also engages a range of international consultants to offer training and support to workers in different contexts. Past 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. More information about our staff and consultants can be found here.
Partners & supporters
We have worked with a wide range of partners, funders, and supporters throughout Autralia and around the world. To see a full list of these organsations, communities, companies, government departments, and individuals, click here.
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 the work of the Dulwich Centre Foundation, 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.
To donate to the Dulwich Centre Foundation, please click here.
