Today’s #TuesdayTrainee, Dr. Amanda Butler just received an SFU FASS Kickstarter Seed Grant!
This is the first in our #TuesdayTrainee series where we spotlight the work of one of our many fabulous undergraduates, graduate students, psychiatry residents, the next generation of leaders, academics, clinicians, and policy makers!
Dr. Butler recently graduated from Simon Fraser University with a PhD in Health Sciences, with funding from a doctoral fellowship from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR). As one of SFU’s most outstanding graduate students from the Faculty of Health Sciences, Dr. Amanda Butler was recognized with the Dean of Graduate Studies Convocation Medal. She completed a Health Research BC Postdoctoral Fellowship with our team and in fall of 2023 started as an Assistant Professor at the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University.
In collaboration with Dr. Tonia Nicholls as Co-Investigator, the ~$10,000 grant will allow Drs. Nicholls and Butler to fund pilot research examining the Guthrie Therapeutic Community at the Nanaimo Correctional Center. The highly competitive, one-time grant is exclusive to members of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at SFU, intending to support research and increase their reach.
While traditional approaches to incarceration focus on punishment, therapeutic communities (TCs) emphasize the responsibility of the institution, community, and self in one’s recovery. TCs are small, cohesive groups where residents are invested in their recovery, the success of other residents and have responsibilities in the unit’s operation and decision-making, building essential life skills (social, leadership, autonomy, work ethic). TCs provide an environment for belonging, relationship-building, agency, self-development, and personal responsibility. They work from the philosophy that recovery is achieved by changing one’s lifestyle, identity, and self-defeating behaviours through community. TCs are strengths-based and aim to identify and harness individual assets, intending to arm individuals with tools to allow pro-active action.
Our team is very excited to be working with BC Corrections and Connective, in particular Lauren Krowicki, Leigh Greiner, Teri Du Temple, and Margaret Erickson on this important project.
Congratulations, Amanda!