Issue 39.3
Guest Editor: Nancy Everson-Berrigan, 7th Step Society of Nova Scotia
Face of the “Offender”
By NANCY EVERSON-BERRIGAN
Framed within a context of Guest Editor Nancy Everson-Berrigan’s own journey through trauma and recovery, this Special Issue on 7th Step Peer Support brings together insightful contributions by a variety of justice stakeholders—such as 7th Step Peer Support workers and “non offender” volunteers including a criminal lawyer, crown attorney, students, current 7th Step clients, a Correctional Officer, a professor at Saint Mary’s University, among others—to offer a holistic understanding of how unresolved trauma in the criminal justice sphere is undermining public safety. The 7th Step Society of Canada, since 1967, and its provincial chapters are here to help! Author’s Note: The use of quotation marks around certain terms, such as ‘’offender’’, in this SI is to call attention to criminal labelling, a topic mentioned in relation to recidivism by several of my contributing authors. Labeling is dehumanizing and impacts self-identity, also affecting how one is treated by others by pushing unrealistic public fears. Terms like ‘’offender’’ create negative stereotypes carrying misleading connotations that lead to public stigma. Although many now replace “offender” with a term like “incarcerated person”, “offender” remains entrenched as a legal term in the Canadian Criminal Code.
Her version of the 7 Steps to Freedom
By DR. EL JONES
Dr. El Jones (Acadia University) explores the 7 Steps to Freedom in a verse. This “Poem by El Jones: Her version of the 7 Steps to Freedom” offers contextual detail and imagery that will give readers a nuanced understanding of the concept, logic, and dynamic process of 7th Step’s peer support for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals. Reprinted with the permission of 7th Step Nova Scotia: www.7thstepns.com/the-7-steps
Volunteer & Academic Perspective on 7th Step Peer Support
By ALEXA DODGE
Alexa Dodge, an Assistant Professor in Criminology at Saint Mary’s University and a volunteer at 7th Step Nova Scotia, describes the 7 Steps’ impact on both those with lived experience of criminalization and volunteers. She explains that those with lived experience of criminalization and recovery are able to act as powerful peer mentors due to their deep intuitive insight and compassion. Those with lived experience are able to be a positive force for their peers and volunteers alike. Where a (social) disconnect from community can become the path to recidivism, 7th Step peer support initiates the most important part of healing by implicitly fostering the building of connections within the group, a diverse and supportive ‘micro’ community. Finally, she describes how 7th Step also supports systems change through initiatives aimed at students, criminal-legal stakeholders and policy makers.
Through the Eyes of a Correctional Officer: Peer Support and Women Involved in the Criminal Justice System
By TAMMY MACDERMAID
As a 24-year veteran Correctional Officer, the author can attest to the need for and benefits of peer support for incarcerated women. Noting that peer support, first implemented in Canada’s mental health sphere some 50 years ago, was slow to catch on in criminal justice, MacDermaid heartily applauds its application at New Brunswick Women’s Correctional Centre through 7th Step Peer Support and Taking Responsibility Program. Aiming to prevent recidivism by establishing positive peer connections and making additional effective and much-needed supports accessible, including post-release, this program opens the door to enduring individual and social change – the hallmarks of prevention.
7th Step Society of Canada: History and Programs
By 7th STEP SOCIETY OF NOVA SCOTIA
Reprinting selections from various texts about the origins and history of 7th Step Society of Canada, this article offers an overview of 7th Step’s innovative and longstanding triad model of peer support as well as its institutional programs including an historical perspective. The inside back cover of this Special Issue of the Justice Report offers a current list of 7th Step locations in Canada.
COVID and Peer Support
By AILEEN MCGINTY
Pre-COVID, informal peer support at Dartmouth Wellness Court was fostered through a requirement that participants in the substance-use disorder program have to sit through each other’s check-ins, they can’t leave after sharing. Essentially, everyone meets in the courtroom – and they encourage each other. This cohesion was lost when the courts went virtual during COVID. Today, the question for DWC remains, how to establish a formal in-court approach.
7TH STEP PARTICIPANT LETTERS
Letters by four participants in the 7th Step Taking Responsibility Program at Nova Institution
Happy Endings
By DARLENE M. LUND
Lund, a Social Worker (MSW), works to create a safe place for people to ask for help. Yet, for decades, Darlene felt unsafe to share her emotional wounds; she hid her authentic self behind an invisible shield she deemed the Code of Silence. This Code—”Tell no one… especially not the police”, introduced at the age of three while in foster care—continued into adolescence and throughout her formative years. With tumultuous criminal and acute traumatic experiences upon her and witnessing the police demonstrating domination over others when called in multiple times by the neighbours, the young Lund began to feel unprotected and unsafe; not only by her caregivers, but the police too. A core belief was deeply embedded, “The police were the enemy”! The Code quickly developed into an Us against Them mindset. In the end, Darlene’s loyalty to the Code almost cost her life. Eventually, the secrets became too heavy; daily thoughts of suicide bombarded her. She pondered …Who could she trust enough to listen, and was she worth listening to? The decision to break the Code and slowly ask for help creates a happy ending. One place Darlene found help was 7th Step Society. In this self-help group Darlene witnessed and practiced accountability, leadership, integrity and humility. Finally, she felt safe enough to simply be her authentic self.
The 7 Steps—Lessons for Life
By SOPHIA TRINACTY
First volunteering with 7th Step as a law student to gain an understanding of the criminal justice system’s impact on people, Sophia Trinacty was surprised to find she could employ the 7 Steps in her own daily life. Being a volunteer, a lawyer, and also a member of the diverse provincial board of 7th Step Society NS has broadened Sophia’s empathy and educated her as to the practical barriers facing people leaving prison. Noting how talking in school about systemic factors that influence people’s behaviour is far less effective than listening to someone describe their own experience, Sophia feels the best thing she can do is help others use the tools of compassionate, communication and accountability and to spread the word about 7th Step so it can help other people. The small acts of positive peer support are cumulative and gradually imbue everyone participating in the group with a sense of self-worth and purpose.
A Volunteer on Peer Support
By NICOLE LUIS
A volunteer with 7th Step whose experience includes exposure to mental illness, addiction, and conflict with the law, Nicole Luis (JD Candidate) discusses the adage that ‘people change people’ and how this is reflected in 7th Step’s unique approach to peer support.
Across the (Not So) Great Divide: Reflections on Building Community with the 7th Step Society of Canada
By MAUDE MALSON
Involvement with 7th Step, such as facilitating the Taking Responsibility Program at New Brunswick Women’s Correctional Centre last year, has made criminal lawyer Maude Malson understand social isolation as a major factor in recidivism. After all, changing one’s life circumstances is hard to do alone and building a lasting support network is not easy, especially while in prison. The 7th Step program creates a ‘client-centred’ space where people are given the support they need to connect and be in community with their peers.
Tribute to 7th Step Peer Support and Program
By SUSAN HORNBY
Susan Hornby honours 7th Step peer support as a welcoming place of belonging, building agency, strength, growth and giving.
50 Vibrant Years with 7th Step Society
By GWEN GLEASON-GRAHAM
Fifty years ago, Gwen Gleason-Graham became a “non offender” volunteer at 7th Step’s Calgary chapter. She was a young university student wanting to help a childhood friend gone down the wrong path and participating in 7th Step at Drumheller. Today a clinical therapist and representing Saskatchewan on the 7th Step National Board of Directors, Gleason-Graham finds she has received more than she has given along the way. She has learned that listening is the greatest gift of all, that valuable insight can be gained from lived experience, that people have to want to change, that solutions come with letting resentment go and taking responsibility, and that goals can and should always be pursued.
Lived Experience: Bridging the Gap Between Academia and Policy
By ERIN MILLER
During a four-year university program in criminology, the author had an epiphany about what could make university, research, and policy more effective in that field. She learned it by listening to a speaker share his lived experience of involvement with the criminal justice system. When it comes to understanding and supporting those at risk of recidivism or to guide policy and research, Miller points out that lived experience—7th Step’s modus operandi—not only works but is key.
PARDON ME: A Project of 7th Step Canada
By CINDY BRIAN
7th Step is a program operating out of several provincial 7th Step Society chapters in Canada. The program (7th Step) helps people navigate—or perhaps avoid—the criminal justice system, such as obtaining a pardon, in Canada and come out the other side with self-empowerment in the community. 7th Step case managers are ex-offenders whose lived experience and subsequent training uniquely positions them to successfully provide positive peer support. Lamenting the impact of stigma and the fact that Canadian law has no provisions for automatic pardons (expiry), Brian points out that the need for help that works is great.
The Vital Role of Peer Support in 7th Step Society Canada
By SARA TESSIER
Alongside insight hard-won from shared lived experience including recovery, the peer supporter workers within 7th Step stand as tangible proof that positive change is possible. Shared experience fosters an immediate connection and rapport with individuals seeking support, creating a safe and non-judgmental space for dialogue and healing. Peer support workers have a keen ability to identify the specific needs of each individual, to personalize the program, and also to help identity and bridge the persistent
barriers to appropriate care.
Thunderbird Swooping Down Woman
By DARLENE GILBERT
This article transcribes the author’s lived experience expressed through the oral tradition. Trauma survivor, treaty fighter, activist for future generations, giver of survivor testimony, mother, Mi’kmaw Grandmother, and 7th Step Core Group Member, Darlene Gilbert Thunderbird Swooping Down Woman speaks of flying full circle. Her story illustrates the need for specialized courts and other alternative legal processes such as Gladue and associated house parole, parole agents, introduction to elders/cultural understanding, as well as integral supports including Elizabeth Fry and effective long-term follow-up and 7th Step. Speaking from recovery, and thankful for ceremony, prayer, and 7th Step’s successful peer support system, Darlene Gilbert Thunderbird Swooping Down Woman finds healing in helping others.
7th Step Peer Support Nova Scotia: Why It Works
By 7TH STEP SOCIETY OF NOVA SCOTIA
This article offers an overview of Peer Support by 7th Step Nova Scotia.
Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the Association’s views, but are included to encourage reflection and action on the criminal justice system throughout Canada.