Breaking Down Barriers & Building Relationships: Two Unique Learning Opportunities at DC

Education, at its core, is intended to break down walls and build relationships. Durham College offers many opportunities that do just that. Two such experiential learning opportunities are the Campus Conflict Resolution Services (CCRS) and Walls to Bridges (W2B). CCRS, through its various offerings, provides an avenue for students to engage in mediation and develop an understanding about conflict resolution, skills that will break down walls of miscommunication and support the building of more effective working relationships. Similarly, W2B allows students the opportunity to build relationships and break down barriers by learning with inmates.

Dale Burt, CCRS supervisor and W2B professor, has been working at DC since 2013, first as a contract faculty with the school of Interdisciplinary Studies, and then as full-time faculty in school of Justice in the Mediation-Alternative Dispute Resolution graduate certificate program (of which she is the current coordinator), Victim Justice & Interventions graduate certificate program, and the Youth Justice & Interventions graduate certificate program. She supports and encourages the creation of connections through the breaking down of walls because she has seen how transformative these experiences can be for all participants.

CCRS is a fully experiential learning course with the Mediation—ADR graduate certificate program as well as a conflict resolution service run by students who are part of this program. This opportunity provides free and confidential resolution support for DC and ON Tech students. The vision for the CCRS is to provide Mediation-ADR students with a practical and relevant way for them to apply what they are learning in the program to actual real-world cases of conflict while also offering these extremely important mediation services—bridge building services—to students who may need them.

“Most rewarding for me is I get to share my own conflict resolution practitioner experience, and pass on my professional knowledge, to help students boost their own confidence and competency.”

As a qualified mediator and conflict resolution practitioner, Dale Burt supervises the CCRS in the various services it has to offer the DC community. In addition, to offering clients an impartial and structured setting for conflict resolution, CCRS also works with student groups to create group work agreements and contracts to mitigate the risk of group work conflict, provides custom-designed classroom workshops on various conflict resolution and conflict prevention topics, offers students tips and strategies for effective listening and conflict de-escalation to improve student relationships, and provides one-on-one conflict coaching to support students in resolving their own conflicts.

The skills being honed and encouraged through the services offered by the CCRS are essential skills necessary for many careers. Students need to develop an understanding of conflict and conflict resolution to ensure that they can tackle any challenges in their future.

As Dale states, “most rewarding for me is I get to share my conflict resolution practitioner experience, and pass on professional knowledge, to help students boost their own confidence and competency. I hope that my contribution, in some small way, helps students not only to master the skills but also to know they are ready to do this meaningful work in the real world.” CCRS provides students with the opportunity to break down walls and build a solid foundation for functional relationships.

DC is the first college in Canada to offer a W2B course at the College-credit level. Thus, W2B is an innovative way for DC to lead the way and also fulfil the mandate of our strategic plan to be civically responsible and community-engaged citizens.

Another program which seeks to break down walls and build relationships is Walls to Bridges (W2B). In the W2B classroom DC students and incarcerated students break down walls (ie mental barriers, assumptions about the “other,” uncover unconscious biases, etc) and build bridges (make connections, building meaningful learning relationships, dismantle preconceptions and prejudices, challenge their own thinking, to [un] learn and broaden their minds).

The W2B program is a unique and innovative education program that offers for-credit post-secondary courses that are taught within correctional settings. DC is the first college in Canada to offer a W2B course at the College-credit level. Thus, W2B is an innovative way for DC to lead the way and also fulfil the mandate of our strategic plan to be civically responsible and community-engaged citizens. Each W2B classroom sees equal numbers of incarcerated and non-incarcerated students learning together as peers. “I came to know about W2B when I guest attended my daughter’s W2B course at University of Toronto. I was blown away and I thought ‘I have to find a way to bring this incredible experience to DC students!’”, states Dale Burt. She brought the idea forward to DC to implement the W2B program, and, recognizing the valuable experiential learning opportunity this would be, they said yes. Dale then applied to become a W2B instructor. After being selected, she trained over 5 days in a prison, negotiated a partnership with a federal correctional facility, and built the course called “Resiliency in Society: The Barriers and Bridges”.

The wisdom, knowledge, and lived experience of students is just as valuable as the lessons we pull out of academic readings.

In January 2020 the first cohort of students were part of the “Resiliency in Society: The Barriers and Bridges” course. This course brought eight DC students (outside students) and eight incarcerated students (inside students) together in a federal prison classroom, using circle pedagogy to learn as peers. The program is not about DC students being ‘helpers’ or ‘mentors’ to inside students, but rather it is collaborative with all students as peers and equal contributors.

This truly is a transformative opportunity for all participants. Typically, inside and outside students would not have the opportunity to learn, with and from each other. The learning in the W2B classroom is deep; it sticks. The learning is enriched by the diversity of participants. The wisdom, knowledge, and lived experience of students is just as valuable as the lessons we pull out of academic readings. In fact, many of the concepts (power, privilege, oppression, access, and agency) that are taught in the “Resilience in Society” course are brought to life by both the lived experience of being incarcerated and by the experience of entering a prison. In addition, the social location makes it a thoroughly unique experience; there is no WI-FI, no technology, no access to a massive online library. In fact, the class is conducted within an environment that has a lot of noise, distractions, unexpected interruptions, lockdowns, counts, etc. Yet when the door closes, all that is blocked out and participants are simply students learning together. They quickly develop a psychological sense of community, display humour, curiosity, and open-mindedness. Participants all have a common purpose, wanting to learn and understand each other’s diverse lived experiences. Through this program walls are broken down and meaningful connections are made.

What is the future of W2B at DC? The current MOU for DC and the federal prison (to run the W2B course) runs until 2024. Due to the pandemic, the W2B course could not be delivered in 2021. The prison has indicated interest in having Dale design and deliver a second W2B course in the future. Stay tuned!

Listen below to Dale Burt’s Interview on Global News Radio Regarding the Walls to Bridges Project. A transcript of this interview is also available.