Re‑Centering Accountability, Emotional Regulation and Culture in Primary Prevention
Tracks
Ballroom 3: In-Person Only
| Tuesday, November 24, 2026 |
| 11:10 AM - 11:30 AM |
| Ballroom 3 |
Overview
Tequeah Iglesias, Black Butterfly Collective
Three Key Learnings
1. An understanding of how self‑accountability, peer accountability and emotional regulation operate as core drivers of primary prevention for young people.
2. Clear insight into what makes the Black Butterfly Project different from traditional programs — including its lived‑experience design, cultural grounding, and scalable, evidence‑aligned framework that delivers more effective outcomes.
3. Practical tools and language for embedding emotional regulation and accountability into everyday youth work, education and community practice to strengthen safety and long‑term behavioural change.
Speaker
Ms Tequeah Iglesias
Director/ceo
Black Butterfly Collective
Re‑centering Accountability, Emotional Regulation and Culture in Primary Prevention
Presentation Overview
This presentation reframes primary prevention through a lived‑experience, youth‑centred lens — one that moves beyond awareness campaigns and into the everyday skills, relationships and cultural foundations that actually keep young people safe. Drawing on her work across youth justice, disability, and domestic, family and sexual violence reform, Tequeah (Tee) Iglesias explores how harm is prevented long before crisis when communities invest in emotional regulation, accountability and culturally responsive practice.
Grounded in the Black Butterfly Project, Tee shares a prevention model shaped by lived experience, frontline practice, and systems‑change advocacy. The session examines three core drivers of safety: self‑accountability, which supports young people to recognise their impact and regulate behaviour; peer accountability, which strengthens community norms and protective relationships; and emotional regulation, which reduces escalation, supports healing, and interrupts cycles of harm.
Tee highlights how these skills can be embedded into youth work, education, family support, and community programs in practical, accessible ways. She also explores the cultural dimensions of identity, belonging and intergenerational healing — demonstrating how culturally grounded approaches create stronger, more sustainable pathways to safety.
Participants will leave with practical tools, language and frameworks they can apply immediately in their work with young people and families. This presentation invites practitioners, leaders and policymakers to rethink what “early intervention” truly requires and to consider how prevention becomes possible when we centre lived experience, cultural knowledge, and the everyday emotional skills that shape safe relationships.
Grounded in the Black Butterfly Project, Tee shares a prevention model shaped by lived experience, frontline practice, and systems‑change advocacy. The session examines three core drivers of safety: self‑accountability, which supports young people to recognise their impact and regulate behaviour; peer accountability, which strengthens community norms and protective relationships; and emotional regulation, which reduces escalation, supports healing, and interrupts cycles of harm.
Tee highlights how these skills can be embedded into youth work, education, family support, and community programs in practical, accessible ways. She also explores the cultural dimensions of identity, belonging and intergenerational healing — demonstrating how culturally grounded approaches create stronger, more sustainable pathways to safety.
Participants will leave with practical tools, language and frameworks they can apply immediately in their work with young people and families. This presentation invites practitioners, leaders and policymakers to rethink what “early intervention” truly requires and to consider how prevention becomes possible when we centre lived experience, cultural knowledge, and the everyday emotional skills that shape safe relationships.
Biography
Tequeah (Tee) Iglesias is an advocate, lived‑experience advisor, and sector leader working across youth justice, disability, and domestic, family and sexual violence reform. She brings a decade of frontline insight, community connection, and systems‑change experience, with a focus on prevention, accountability, and strengthening responses for young people. Tee contributed to national campaigns, advisory councils, and government reform processes, including the Second Action Plan. She is the founder of the Black Butterfly Project, a youth‑centred prevention initiative transforming lived wounds into tools for emotional regulation, safety, and generational change.
