Heidi Hebditch

Prior to her work as a consultant/trainer with Elia, Heidi spent nearly 8 years on the front-line of social work initially as a child protection worker and later as a Supervisor with a fully delegated Aboriginal Child Protection agency in British Columbia, Canada. Heidi has a Bachelor of Social Work with Child Welfare Specialisation and a Masters of Social Work with Indigenous Specialisation. Today, she continues in her work as a consultant, training and coaching leadership and staff not only in the use and implementation of the Signs of Safety practice framework, but also in creating positive change for organisations as a whole.

Heidi has been a part of leading one of the largest jurisdictional implementations of Signs of Safety throughout Alberta, Canada, and remains committed to her work in other regions and jurisdictions across Canada. She firmly believes that implementing this practice within your organisation is not just about using the right tools, it's about changing the way we think! It's about shifting our practice from a deficit-based practice to a more positive, strength-based practice. Heidi has over 12 years' experience in helping organisations implement the Signs of Safety framework across all levels of their organisation and has worked to develop a supervision/staff evaluation model that ensures a parallel process throughout all departments of implementing organisations.

Heidi draws on her positive outlook to provide motivational workshops that will not only inspire workers to adopt the change but will also ensure a sense of respect and gratitude for both the practice and the people we work with on a day-to-day basis. She has provided these workshops to agencies and communities throughout Canada and participated in presentations at various other Gatherings including Oregon, Minnesota, Perth, and England.