I am so honoured to be a member of the Child Welfare Truth Telling Collective. After speaking at a conference back in 2020 about my experiences in child protection, a member of the collective reached out to me and introduced me to their work. I was immediately enthralled. The group so beautifully brought together the central tenants of feminist care ethics that drive my thinking while creating a space to begin a process of healing and making change. The CWTTC is truly what it is says it is: a collective. A non-hierarchical (as best as any group can!) group of humans coming together to reckon with the painful truths and harms of child protection system. Most group members are former child protection workers –social workers who could not continue to stay complicit in the system. Others, like me, are researchers or academics. And a few of us are also mothers who have been in the system and can speak to the first-hand experience of being investigated.  

All of us are there to heal ourselves, with others, and do what we can to minimize the harm and suffering of existing child protection systems. We imagine what a caring system might look, and feel, like for children, mothers, families, and workers. We name the ideas and/or beliefs that undermine the current system (for example, the idea that separation equals safety) and break them apart. We try to understand, and even honour, where they came from while making space for new, more relational ways of thinking and being. We tell our truths and we witness each other’s truths. We know we have much work to do in witnessing so many more people’s truths. It’s painful, uncomfortable work – especially for those who have carried out the hegemonic mission of the system. But it is powerful work. We remain hopeful that, as a society, we can create a society that care about, for and with children, families and the (predominantly) women doing care work (both paid and unpaid).  

President, AECEO 2018-2022

Brooke was honoured to serve in the role of President of the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Ontario between 2018 and 2022. The AECEO went through many changes during her tenure, gaining strength through building the collective voice of ECEs in Ontario. Building on an ongoing Decent Work project (supported by the Atkinson Foundation since 2015) the AECEO secured funding through an anonymous foundation in 2020 to expand our work. A key component of the AECEO's work over the past several years has been establishing and supporting grassroots Communities of Practices (CoPs): spaces for ECEs to come together, connect, reflect and talk about issues relevant to them as ECEs at the program, community and policy level. In addition to this, Brooke was honoured to co-lead the Ontario Government's Provincial Centre of Excellent project (2019-2020), help organize and facilitate several professional learning experiences (i.e., an anti-racist learning series, the Kindergarten Summit), plant the seeds of a pro bono legal program for ECEs experiencing disciplinary action with the CECE, and most recently, support ECEs navigating the confusing, overwhelming waters of the COVID-19 pandemic. While Brooke is no longer in the President role, the work of and people at the AECEO remain very dear to her heart. She continues to stay actively involved with the organization in different capacities. 

Launched in 2017, this section of the AECEO's longstanding AECEO eceLINK publication aims to highlight the work of emerging ECE scholars. Brooke was a part of the original publication committee that launched the journal and took over the role of Editor in 2019. As Editor, Brooke oversees the editorial process, reviewing all manuscripts, sending selected manuscripts out for blind peer-review and working with authors to support them in meeting the rigorous demands of academic scholarship.