The 4th Annual Wellness Within Conference kicks off online today.
The organization advocates for reproductive justice and prison abolition, and this year’s conference will focus on a future that includes more care and compassion.
The theme of this year’s conference is Breaking it Down, Building Something new, referring to the challenges of the past year, and what needs to change.
Speakers this year range from experts with lived experiences in criminalization, clinical scientists, plus community leaders and academics from across Canada.
Martha Paynter is the Chair of Wellness Within, and she tells The Sheldon MacLeod Show, issues will range from racial representation in the health profession to health care for the most vulnerable.
“All of the talks in one way or another talk about how we really need to shift the way we have produced criminalization as a social process,” she says.
She says our systems need to be more caring and compassionate, and points to the successful release of inmates during the first wave of COVID-19, and their Black Doula program as good examples.
The conference starts at 9am on Wednesday with the last speaker scheduled for 4:15pm.
Find out more about the conference and the speakers here: https://wellnesswithinns.org/annual-conference.
