Danish Social Pedagogy and Children's Mental Health

Anne Buckvold, MSW, LICSW is a licensed independent clinical social worker with Greater Minnesota Family Services, where she has served children and families since 2018. Anne brings a global perspective to her work, shaped by her early experience as an exchange student in Greenland and her fluency in Danish. She completed her undergraduate education in Denmark at Skovtofte Social Pedagogical College and earned her Master of Social Work from the University of Maine in 2006.

Anne has shared her expertise in social pedagogy through workshops with undergraduate students and continues to integrate these principles into her clinical practice. She is currently based at Kennedy Community School in St. Cloud, where she provides mental health services to youth and families.

In addition to her clinical work, Anne is an active community leader and advocate. She has served on the Metro Bus Advisory Committee and the Stearns County Human Services Committee, is currently co-chair of the Stearns County History Museum, and has held elected office as a St. Joseph City Council member. Her commitment to public service also includes running for mayor and state legislature.

Anne offers presentations on:

• Danish Social Pedagogy
• The Common Third, the use of creative subjects and activities to develop the individual and develop social cohesion.
• Silent Knowledge, the concept of what those working in the life space of clients know and how this informs our work in developing the individual and social cohesion. This knowledge is both incredibly important and useful, however very overlooked as key aspects of our work. This training is about better understanding our own "silent knowledge" and being able to articulate it to further our own understanding of the importance of our work for ourselves and others.
• The Competent Child and/or the Competent Family, (inspired by Danish pedagogue and psychologist Jesper Juul) the idea that a focus on strengths and competences in the child and family are the ways forward in children’s mental health. This workshop identifies core competences within child and/or family systems and how to work with them toward better mental health and whole health outcomes.
• Concepts for Professional Development in the Human Support Services field for the US, inspired by Denmark and other Nordic countries. Identifying how human services fields are different, as well as similarities. Identifying partners across the human services field and core similarities/universalities of our work and what that means for professionalism.
• Language and Social Pedagogy... Looking at concepts within Danish Social pedagogy and the language that supports that work as being decidedly different than the American (as well as British) language. Participants will be taught at least ten different Danish words that support a different view of the person/people and how these concepts alone being to contribute to a different view of the child and expands opportunities for healthy development.