Youth Rights at the Heart of Social and Criminal Intervention

OPCQ Symposium

This symposium is co-organized by the International Centre for Comparative Criminology (ICCC) and the Professional Order of Criminologists of Quebec (OPCQ).
This paid activity will be recognized by the OPCQ as continuing education for its criminologist members.

Wednesday, November 5, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (Zoom).

Registration required.

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Summary

This training focuses on the place of young people within the follow-up processes deployed in the justice system — whether in the youth sector (Youth Criminal Justice Act) or the adult sector — as well as within the youth protection system.

It explores how young people can meaningfully participate in decisions and intervention processes that concern them, and how professionals can support them in this participation.

The session will revisit key concepts for thinking about youth support, question prevailing representations of young people in judicial and youth protection contexts, and identify promising concrete practices.

More specifically, this training aims to:

1. Better understand the contexts in which social and criminal interventions take place, and what these contexts produce in young people’s relationships with the justice and youth protection systems, as well as with interventions themselves.

2. Provide tools for practitioners concerning youth rights, to encourage concrete intervention approaches that include young people’s voices — notably through an innovative co-created publication developed by, for, and with young people who have experienced youth protection and criminal justice services.

3. Foster dialogue among diverse experiences of interventions directed toward young people in social and criminal contexts, taking into account the realities of different sectors.

The content will draw from a range of knowledge sources: testimonies from two young adults formerly placed in the youth protection and criminal justice systems, current theoretical writings on the issues addressed, and practical know-how through group reflection activities.

Biographies

Marie Dumollard
marie.dumollard@umontreal.ca

Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work, Université de Montréal, since July 2022. Her research focuses on the trajectories of justice-involved youth during the transition to adulthood, on interventions within the penal system (both youth and adult justice), and on public policies addressing youth and socio-penal issues.

She currently leads several research projects on:

1. Age-based social relations in the treatment of young people transitioning to adulthood;

2. The employment trajectories and support processes of justice-involved youth.

She completed a joint Ph.D. in Public Administration and Political Science at the École nationale d’administration publique (ENAP) and the University of Rennes 1 (France) in 2020, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in Sociology and Criminology at INRS – Urbanization, Culture and Society Centre, and at Université Laval’s School of Social Work and Criminology in 2022.
Before pursuing her research career in Quebec, she worked as a research officer at the French National Institute for Youth and Popular Education (INJEP) from 2013 to 2015.

Anta Niang
anta.niang.ciussse-chus@ssss.gouv.qc.ca

Researcher at the University Institute for Primary Health and Social Services (IUPLSSS) of the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS (Sherbrooke), and Associate Professor at the School of Social Work, Université de Sherbrooke.

Her research focuses primarily on the analysis of socio-judicial intervention trajectories of young people and families within constraining institutional and social contexts. Specifically, her work revolves around three main axes:

1. Professional practices in decision-making and socio-judicial intervention within youth justice and protection systems;

2. The experiences of access to rights and institutional relations among youth and families in minority contexts;

3. Youth and family participation in socio-judicial intervention processes, including participatory research methods.

Victoria Gagnon
Placed in youth protection for several years, Victoria has used her resilience and strengths to orient her studies toward helping relationships.

Now a specialized educator and social work student, she works within the youth protection system and has long been involved in various projects, causes, and research initiatives surrounding the realities of placed youth.

Her mission: to defend young people’s rights and bring hope to those with difficult experiences — a commitment she carries forward through her involvement with the Collectif Ex-Placé DPJ.

Also a mother of two young children and an entrepreneur, she thrives on action and compassion.

Ursy Ledrich
Arriving in Canada at age 9, Ursy was placed under youth protection at 10 until reaching adulthood. He was the spokesperson for the By and For Youth project during the 2013 Youth Summit organized by the Bureau de consultation jeunesse — an initiative that aimed to influence Quebec’s 2030 Youth Policy.

Ursy holds a certificate in Social Sciences and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, and is currently pursuing a master’s in the same field. Passionate about youth-related issues, he collaborates as a co-researcher with several university scholars on projects addressing the challenges faced by youth in care.

He is a member of the Canadian Consortium on Adolescent and Youth Trauma and a co-founder of the Collectif Ex-Placé DPJ.