Lesley du Toit is internationally renowned for work on transforming and building systems that support children, youth and families. She led the transformation and development of the Child & Youth Care System in South Africa for the Mandela Government and was later recruited as Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Children & Family Development in BC, Canada, where she presently resides. Lesley du Toit is presently the Director of Dancing with Warriors Consulting through which she offers specialized consulting and training to NGO’s, Governments, and Indigenous Communities on social policy, services, and professional practice with regard to developmental and strengths-based work with children, youth and families.
Lesley has focused much of her work in South Africa and Canada on Indigenous children, youth and families, and more recently has worked extensively with survivors of Canadian Residential Schools and their families. She has authored multiples courses, among them The Developmental Assessment (TDA); Developmental Quality Assurance (DQA); Walking with the Wounded: In the Footsteps of Warriors; and Response Ability Pathways (RAP), which she co-authored with Dr. L. Brendtro.
She earned her Masters in Child and Youth Care from Nova University USA and her Bachelors Degrees in both Social Work and Psychology from the University of South Africa and has worked extensively in child protection in the non-government sector, specializing in work with vulnerable children and troubled youth.
