Help Build the First Family Shelter for Male Victims of Domestic Violence and their Children
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Carrie McManus
Director of Programs, Sagesse Domestic Violence Prevention Society. Sagesse provides services to victims of abuse in 50 Alberta communities.
Carrie McManus is the Director of Programs at Sagesse Domestic Violence Prevention Society and a respected member of the domestic violence sector in Alberta. Carrie holds a Bachelor of Arts from Dalhousie University in Halifax and a Diploma of Social Work from Mount Royal University in Calgary. Carrie has worked for over 15 years in strategic and program development, small business management, facilitation and education. Beginning her social work career with Mount Royal University’s Stepping Up program, a peer led domestic violence program in Calgary, Carrie then transition into her role as Director of Programs with Sagesse, an agency focused on empowering individuals, organizations and communities to break the cycle of domestic violence. Carrie has a passion for innovation and exploration and has focused her career on expanding Sagesse programming to meet the diverse needs of those impacted by domestic violence. Supported by Carrie’s leadership, Sagesse programs have grown to support over 50 communities across Alberta addressing the unique needs of rural and remote survivors of domestic violence. Carrie has supported the development of programming to address the capacity of friends and family to positively recognize and respond to individuals experiencing domestic violence in their communities. Carrie has also supported the development of an agency wide evaluation framework and is committed to measuring the individual, organizational and community impact of all Sagesse programs and activities.
Steve Doherty
Executive Director, Youth Without Shelter, a Toronto shelter for homeless young people.
Steve Doherty is Executive Director of Youth Without Shelter. Steve’s career has been devoted to children’s mental health and family treatment as well as developmental services for over 25 years. Steve has managed residential treatment facilities and day treatment programs including the first substance abuse treatment program for youth incorporating both harm reduction and family therapy. Steve is a former instructor in the child and youth worker program at Sheridan College. He is a graduate of Saint Mary’s University in Halifax and has presented at local, provincial, and national conferences. Greatest YWS inspiration: the youth who despite their struggles find a way to keep moving forward. He launched his career 24 years ago as a Child and Youth Care Worker at the George Hull Centre. Steve has counselled youth with addictions using a harm-reduction approach to treatment, and believes strongly in a strength-based model of care.
Geoff Thompson
Director of the Manitoba Men’s Resource Centre, the only Canadian shelter for men fleeing intimate partner violence.
Geoff Thompson, B. Kin, MACP, RSW, spent two years organizing and running the only emergency shelter in Canada for men fleeing intimate partner violence, at the Manitoba Men’s Resource Centre, followed by an additional two years acting as a supervising consultant. He is a psychotherapist and social worker currently practicing in Winnipeg, Manitoba’s only resource centre directly serving men and their families. Geoff is now primarily focused on delivering individual and group therapy services for the same not-for-profit men’s centre with an additional role as a mentor for students from the fields of counselling psychology and social work.
Margaret Newall
Pioneer in the women’s shelter movement, Co-founder of the Prairieaction Foundation and its Chair for 10 years, and Co-founder of RESOLVE (Research and Education for Solutions to Violence and Abuse).
Margaret Newall, LL.D., is a pioneer in the women’s shelter movement and a leading voice to end violence against women. Margaret was a founding member of the Prairieaction Foundation, set up to raise $5 million to promote research and education for solutions to violence and abuse. She led the successful campaign visiting corporations, governments and individuals across Central Canada. Margaret used her visits to potential donors to educate people about the issues of violence and abuse. The endowed funds are dedicated to support research and education on family violence and maintain the infrastructure of a network of researchers, service providers and policy makers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. This led to the network RESOLVE (Research and Education for Solutions to Violence and Abuse), which has a formal partnership with seven prairie universities and research centres at the universities of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Calgary. She received an honourary degree from the University of calgary in recognition of their work in the community. Margaret and her husband Ted established an endowment to create the Margaret and Ted Newall Bursaries to support the studies of young people from rural communities.
Gary Sangha
Detective, Special Victims Unit, York Regional Police.
Detective Gary S. Sangha is Police Constable in the Special Victims Unit with the York Regional Police. He received the 2017 St. John Ambulance Life-saving Award from the York Regional Police.
Margaret Arnason
Margaret Arnason works for the Assaulted Women’s Helpline and the City of Toronto. She is a trainer in the Violence Against Women sector around issues of violence against women/gender based violence, and an Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression (ARAO) informed counsellor in the GTA supporting marginalized and homeless clients.
Kaitlyn Anastasiou RN, BScN
Kaitlyn Anastasiou, RN, BScN, is Education Committee Chair for the Ontario Network of Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Treatment Centres, and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE), DVSARP Clinician, Quinte Health Care
Alexandra Lysova
Assistant Professor of Criminology, Simon Fraser University. Her groundbreaking research on male victims of domestic violence is funded by the SSHRC and the Carnegie and Fulbright Foundations.
Alexandra Lysova, PhD is an assistant professor in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University in Canada. Her research focuses on intimate partner violence, male victims of partner violence, homicide, and cross-national patterns of crime. Her research has been supported by the Trudeau Foundation and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in Canada and by the international research foundations, including Fulbright foundation, Carnegie foundation, Humboldt foundation, U.S. Library of Congress, and Max Planck Institute Scholarship. Her recent publications appear in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Journal of Family Violence, Violence and Victims, European Journal of Criminology, Theoretical Criminology, and Handbook of European Homicide.
Don Wright
Founder and 28 years Executive Director of the British Columbia Society for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse, supporting male victims of sexual and domestic violence.
Don Wright, MEd is the founder of the Victoria Male Survivors of Sexual Assault Society and the Vancouver Society for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse, and served for 28 years as the Executive Director of the British Columbia Society for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse. Don travels throughout western Canada providing training to professionals in the sexual abuse field, and consultation to government—both Provincial and Federal—on various projects related to victims of crime and criminal justice. Mr. Wright served on the Board of Directors of the National Organization on Male Sexual Victimization for six years. In November 2001, the B.C. Human Rights Coalition awarded Mr. Wright with a human rights medal of honour for his pioneering work in this field.
Naz Ghodrati
Domestic Abuse Training and Coordination Manager, Greater Manchester Local Authority, United Kingdom
Naz Ghodrati, MBACP AIP, is currently Domestic Abuse Training and Coordination manager in a Greater Manchester (UK) Local Authority, where she has worked to incorporate first of their kind services for men in the UK. She is responsible for overseeing the implementation of policies, quality of learning, and the delivery of domestic abuse services by multiple service providers to meet the need of the survivors, the victims, and their families. Naz has worked in domestic abuse, drug and alcohol and rape and sexual violence services since 2002 in multiple roles and capacities. She is BACP registered therapist and a social policy scholar, interested and invested highlighting gaps in creating accessible services for groups and demographics, missing from mainstream government policies.
Sandy Prentice
Counsellor at a GTA Violence Against Women Shelter and Caseworker in shelter and homelessness agency.
Maria Barcelos
Executive Director, The Gatehouse, an agency for m en and women who have experienced abuse. She is founding member of the Centre for Transformative Social change.
Maria Barcelos, MA(C), B.A. Justice Studies, HRM Diploma, and is ASIST trained. Maria is the Executive Director at The Gatehouse. She believes wholeheartedly in community engagement and the importance of community-based responses to underlying social issues. She motivates, acknowledges and empowers students, volunteers and staff to be part of the change they want to see in the world. An avid believer in the principles of transformative community justice, she values building safer communities through collaborative knowledge sharing, idea and process formulation, and implementation. Maria is a graduate of the University of Guelph-Humber BA Justice Studies and George Brown College’s HR Management Diploma program. She is currently completing Yorkville University Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology. Maria volunteers her time in the community as part of an advisory panel in the Community Development Program at Humber College Lakeshore campus. Maria is also a founding member of the Centre for Transformative Social Change.
Don Neufeld
Program lead and social worker, Caring Dads parenting group and the Partner Assault Response program.
Don Neufeld (MSW, RSW) is a social worker with 25 years of practice, the first 18 ½ years in child welfare, and since 2010 in private practice as a therapist. Though serving a broad demographic, his interests have increasingly focused on issues of men and masculinity, and has included co-leading both Caring Dads (parenting group for men) and Partner Assault Response (for men convicted for domestic violence offenses) groups for the past five years.
Marcus Jackson
Manages Taylor House, a domestic violence shelter for men and children, in Batesville, Arkansas.
Marcus Jackson – Native of Memphis, Tennessee – Served in the US Army of Signal Corp for 7 years, with Honorable Discharge – Bachelors of Science Degree from Oral Roberts University, Tulsa Oklahoma 1999. Worked directly in various at Risk Programs for Youth and adults for over 20 years, in Tennessee, Oklahoma, and now Arkansas. Worked as a Contract Worker/Manager of an 18 Pre-Release Prison Program within the Arkansas Department of Correction for up to 7 years (2014) – (InnerChange Freedom Initiative and Pathway To Freedom, Inc.). Currently manages a Domestic Violence Shelter for Men Children (Taylor House) within Family Violence Prevention, Inc. Batesville, Arkansas since Nov. 2015.
Zoli Kertesz
Special Constable, Toronto Police Services.
Zoli Kertesz spent almost 9 years as a Special Constable with the Toronto Police Service. In 2017 he graduated from York University with a Master’s of Public Policy, Administration and Law and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Justice System Administration. An experienced professional with a demonstrated history within the criminal justice sector his interests focus on policy development specifically in relation to male victims of domestic violence.
Michael Healey
Lead Facilitator, Domestic Abuse Group for Male Victims at the Canadian Centre for Men and Families, and Program Facilitator at John Howard Society of York Region
Michael Healey is the Volunteer Program Co-ordinator and Lead Facilitator with the Domestic Abuse Group for men who have experienced intimate partner violence or abuse at the Canadian Centre for Men and Families (Toronto). Peer-led facilitation training for this program was provided by The Gatehouse. Michael is Lead Developer and Facilitator for the John Howard Society of York Region MiNDSET (emotional literacy) and REACH (support program for men who’ve had involvement with the criminal justice system) Programs. Additionally, Michael provides community-based, government, health care and other social service agencies with educational programs, in the form of webinars and in-person training, in best practices in working with
and supporting men who’ve experienced IPV/A. Michael has been consulting since 1987 with businesses and organizations that understand the value of developing organizational culture and their people as a foundation for continual improvement, staff recruitment/retention, and enhancing organizational capacity.
Lori Cohen
Certified Counsellor, Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, and Volunteer, Montreal Women’s Shelter
Lori Cohen has a Master’s of Education in Educational Psychology from McGill University, and a Master’s in Educational Counselling from the University of Ottawa. She is a Canadian Certified Counsellor with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, and a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario. She has worked as a volunteer in a woman’s shelter in Montreal, and in a community-based domestic abuse program in Ottawa. Currently she is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of Ottawa, where her research focuses abusive relationships in young adults.
Sheri MacDonald
President of the Ontario Network of Victim Service Providers
Sheri MacDonald is a recognized expert in victim issues with almost 30 years of experience training, coaching and leading in the Victim Service sector. Sheri is the founding and current Executive Director of Victim Services of Haldimand Norfolk Mississauga’s of the Credit First Nations. She holds credentials as an International Crisis Responder and International Crisis Advocate with complex specialties. She is a registered nurse with specialties in trauma and mental health and is a certified master coach practitioner. Sheri has been serving since 2016 as the President of the Ontario Network of Victim Service Providers, a Collaborative network of front-line victim service providers across the Ontario.
Lauren Vanspall
Police Constable and Crime Prevention/Community Relations Officer, 31 Division, Toronto Police Service
A police officer since 2006, Lauren has worked in various units within the Toronto Police Service, including the Primary Response Unit, Criminal Investigative Bureau and Community Response Unit and enjoyed a three year posting as a School Resource Officer where she was imbedded within the school environment, working in both the Toronto public and Catholic school systems. Currently posted to the Crime Prevention/Community Relations Officer position, Lauren is dedicated to creating new – and improving existing – relationships between police, community members and community organizations and to enhancing public safety through education and community engagement.
John Telfer
Child Welfare Supervisor, Children’s Aid Society of Toronto
Sharon Hurd
Former President of the BC Society of Transition Houses and Former Executive Director of the Phoenix Transition Society
A pioneer in the movement to end violence against women and children, Sharon was elected President of the BC Society of Transition Houses and for the next 40 years committed her life to provide shelter for women and children fleeing abuse. She worked as Executive Director of the Phoenix Transition Society, growing the agency from a 10 bed shelter to a 30 bed shelter. Sharon was part of the development of groups for Children Who Witness Violence (now called P.E.A.C.E) and the creation of the Women’s Equality Ministry. During her lengthy career, she was President of Quesnel Alcohol and Drug Society, Quesnel Community Law Society (Human Rights and Civil Liberties), Prince George Crisis Line, Price George Council of Seniors, and the Northern John Howard Society. She received the Governor General’s Award for service to her community, the Queens Diamond Jubilee Award and she was named Citizen of the Year by the City of Prince George.
Yonas Jongkind
Executive Director, The Men’s Centre
Yonas Jongkind is the Executive Director for The Men’s Centre and active participant in Men’s Groups and on a squad in the Arka Brotherhood. His passions include being a father, mens work, personal growth, sailing and computer programming.
Denis Boyd MA., R.Psych.
Denis is working in semi-retirement mode as a psychologist. His areas of focus include marriage and family, loss and grief and distress management. Denis was the owner of Denis Boyd & Associates (psychologists and Counsellors) www.boyd&associates.com until January of 2022 when two of his children, Chris and Joanna took over ownership of the practice and are now the “bosses.” He has written a book entitled “Marriage can be Great….No Really!” and authored a number of articles which can be found at www.psychealth.com
Steve Richardson
COO for Housing, Alexandra Community Health Centre (The Alex), Calgary
Steven Richardson, MSc. is the Chief Operations Officer for Housing with the Alexandra Community Health Centre (The Alex) in Calgary, Alberta. He has worked within the homeless sector in Calgary for 12+ years and enthusiastically works to elevate and assist socially and structurally marginalized persons through the development and operationalization of housing programs and outreach teams utilizing a whole health and harm reduction philosophy.