The Centre for Response-Based Practice provides socially just, effective responses to violence, oppression, and adversity. We are a for-dignity organization, standing for the equal dignity of people, communities, lands, and waters.
What Is the Centre for Response-Based Practice?
The Centre for Response-Based Practice is an international collective dedicated to improving how individuals, professionals, and institutions respond to violence. Decades of practice and research show that the quality of responses to violence, and particularly institutional responses, has lasting consequences for victims/survivors, perpetrators of violence, families, and communities. Our work focuses on:
- Strengthening social responses through accurate language, ethical practice, and attention to dignity.
- Collaborating with counsellors, social workers, educators, legal professionals, community organizations, and institutions who are seeking an approach that is both effective and socially just.
- RBP continues to be shaped by a collective of practitioners, educators, and researchers whose work is grounded in direct practice in contexts of violence and adversity. Our team brings diverse professional backgrounds and shared commitments to accuracy, accountability, and dignity.
Our Purpose
Our main purpose is to shift how violence and resistance are understood and responded to in practice, through language, and within institutions.
Improving Responses to Violence
For more than 30 years, we have worked alongside professionals and institutions responding to violence, seeking common ground, reducing isolation, and supporting ethical, effective practice grounded in real-world conditions. Our work includes training programs, workshops, supervision, institutional consultation, research, and public education. Rather than offering generic solutions, we work within specific contexts to strengthen accuracy, accountability, and dignity.
- In child protection, we have supported agencies locally and internationally to implement Response-Based Practices that improve safety and reduce harm, including the development of innovative family-focused programs and approaches to reunification.
- Our work with victim assistance, shelters, and law enforcement focuses on language, interviewing, and institutional responses, supporting more ethical practice and improved participation for victims/survivors.
- We bring more than three decades of experience to the treatment of people who have committed violence, always working in alignment with women-serving and survivor-led organizations to ensure accountability and safety remain central.
Real-World Practice Through the
Learning Centre
The Response-Based Practice Learning Centre offers flexible learning options for professionals working in diverse settings. Available in person and online, nationally and internationally.
Real-World Practice Through the Learning Centre
The Response-Based Practice Learning Centre offers flexible learning options for professionals working in diverse settings. Available in person and online, nationally and internationally.
Certificate Programs
A paced learning pathway that builds understanding of the response-based framework, its application in practice, and advanced interviewing and analytic skills.
Workshops & Conference Presentations
Focused, time-limited learning sessions designed for teams, agencies, and cross-disciplinary groups responding to violence in specific contexts.
Online Courses
Self-paced courses that allow individuals and organizations to engage with response-based ideas at their own pace.
Certificate Programs
A paced learning pathway that builds understanding of the response-based framework, its application in practice, and advanced interviewing and analytic skills.
Workshops & Conference Presentations
Focused, time-limited learning sessions designed for teams, agencies, and cross-disciplinary groups responding to violence in specific contexts.
Online Courses
Self-paced courses that allow individuals and organizations to engage with response-based ideas at their own pace.
“Speak” – Our Logo
Speak is an original design by Northwest Coast First Nations artist Maynard Johnny Jr. (Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw). The image shows four faces sharing one mouth, representing the importance of communication within families, communities, and society. Creating space to speak freely and to be heard with dignity is central to meaningful change. To learn more about Maynard and his artwork, visit his Facebook page.
Start the Conversation
Whether you are seeking training, supervision, consultation, or a deeper understanding of Response-Based Practice, we welcome the conversation.
