The Communication at the Frontline conference brought together frontline settlement and service workers in Halifax to explore practical strategies for navigating high-pressure interactions, supporting client relationships, and caring for themselves while supporting others.
Across two days, participants engaged in keynote presentations, moderated panels, interactive breakout sessions, and reflection exercises focused on crisis communication, de-escalation, boundaries, nervous system care, and intersectional approaches to communication. Participants left with practical tools, strategies, and peer insights to strengthen their daily practice, support sustainable engagement in frontline work, and navigate complex cultural and interpersonal dynamics with confidence and care.
Below, you’ll find facilitators’ resources to learn more about the topics discussed during the conference.
Crisis Communication and Non-Violent De-escalation
Presenter: Cong Chen
This keynote explored how frontline staff navigate critical moments in crisis. Participants learned to recognize survival responses, understand the meaning behind behaviours, and intentionally use tone, posture, and language to redirect situations toward safe and constructive outcomes.
De-escalation in Practice: Small Actions, Real Impact
Presenter: Cong Chen
An interactive session applying crisis communication strategies in real settlement scenarios. Participants practiced verbal, paraverbal, and non-verbal techniques, experimented with scripts to pause and redirect escalating moments, and explored how small communication shifts can influence outcomes under pressure.
Nervous System Care and Sustainable Frontline Practice
Presenter: Kayla Breelove
This session focused on the nervous system realities of high-demand frontline roles. Participants explored how stress accumulates, recognized early signals of overload, and practiced grounding and recovery techniques to integrate self-care into daily work.
This session introduced intersectionality and explored how communication strategies must shift based on context, identity, power, and lived experience. Participants examined how intersecting identities influence trust, perception, and access.
Download Ayesha Naqvi’s presentation This resource offers practical guidance for frontline workers supporting youth with intersecting identities and challenges. It provides strategies to build trust, foster inclusion, and adapt communication approaches based on context, lived experience, and power dynamics.
Download Briana Miller’s presentation This resource provides guidance for frontline staff working with clients experiencing violence. It highlights trauma-informed communication, safety-focused strategies, and practical tools to respond with empathy, maintain boundaries, and support client autonomy.
Meet the presenters
Ayesha Naqvi
A self-identified immigrant woman of colour, Ayesha has years of settlement experience both in front-line work supporting newcomer youth as well as in delivering intercultural skills training sessions. Currently studying for a Master of Public Administration at Dalhousie, Ayesha is a passionate advocate for honouring intersectional perspectives in public service. In her spare time, Ayesha volunteers for national and local youth advisory committees and a theatre board.
Briana Miller
Briana Miller (she/her) is a queer woman, GBV survivor and passionate advocate about social justice, youth engagement and creating systemic and social change. In her professional life she is a consultant, facilitator, and trainer on participatory facilitation and design, youth engagement, systems change work, GBV, equity and leadership training. For over 17 years, Briana has done a variety of work and training for the government, private sector, and non-profit organizations. Briana’s roots are in youth engagement, having started a lot of her work in large provincial level youth engagement initiatives, training youth workers across Nova Scotia in youth program design, leading social justice programs for youth, and grassroots programs for youth with mental illness. She was also the Youth Engagement Coordinator for the Nova Scotia Sexual Violence Strategy during its development. For over 10 years Briana has worked specifically within the Settlement Sector at the YMCA Immigrant Services in Halifax. Starting in youth programming and shifting into Gender-Based Violence Prevention. Briana is the Coordinator of the GBVP Program focused on raising awareness on GBV with newcomer communities and building the capacity of service providers. She specializes in designing participatory programs for newcomer clients to engage in topics around human rights, gender equity, inclusion, anti-violence, GBV, empowerment, and social justice themes. She also coordinates the National GBV Strategy for Agencies Serving Immigrants National Table and National Champion Network and has led multiple National Forums, webinars, trainings and events to build capacity for the Settlement Sector across Canada. Briana continues to ensure all her work is rooted in trauma and violence-informed approaches, anti-oppressive lens and cultural humility. Find Briana on LinkedIn
Cong Chen
Cong Chen is an educator, lifelong learner, and community safety professional based in Nova Scotia. With over ten years of experience in the education field, he holds a Master of Education from Mount Saint Vincent University, is a Nonviolent Crisis Intervention instructor from Crisis Prevention Institute, as well as a certified trainer in Mental Health First Aid and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills training. Currently, Cong works at Halifax Regional Municipality, where he leads and delivers training related to public safety, crisis response, and trauma-informed practice. With extensive experience supporting frontline staff in high-stress environments, Cong’s work focuses on practical communication skills, nonviolent de-escalation, and building capacity in complex interactions.
Kayla Breelove
Kayla Breelove is a Clinical Traumatologist and founder of Breelove Wellness, with over 14 years of clinical experience and extensive systems-level training and facilitation work. Her practice supports people and teams working closest to crisis, cumulative stress, moral strain, and vicarious trauma. Centering nervous system regulation, dignity-protecting boundaries, and sustainable frontline care. With an academic and professional background spanning sociology, criminology, counselling, and nutritional psychology, Kayla brings a trauma-informed, culturally responsive, non-pathologizing approach grounded in practical application. She provides consultation and training for organizations and frontline systems, helping staff strengthen capacity, reduce escalation, and build realistic aftercare practices that fit real-world constraints. Kayla’s work is also shaped by Black feminist and collective care traditions, and by ancestral lineages connected to African, Belizean, and Acadian histories, informing her commitment to ethical, relational, and sustainability-focused approaches to care.
Any questions? Contact Nicole O’Connor, Learning Lead at noconnor@araisa.ca
