#1 bestsellING
BOOK
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“A brave, raw, and honest narrative written with the hope and intention to spark change.
Yes, it is a book about family violence AND it is also a pivotal dialogue point with law-enforcement and the courts – should they choose accountability.”
Dr. Sheila French, Researcher & Practitioner of Offender Rehabilitation and Corrections
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I Shouldn’t Have to Play the Victim is Chelsey De Groot’s deeply personal account of domestic violence told by someone who has also spent her career working within the justice system.
Chelsey brings those two realities together—her professional understanding of how systems are designed to protect people and her lived experience of what happens when those same systems fail to create safety for the people they are meant to protect.
At its core, the book examines the disconnect between policy and lived reality: domestic violence, coercive control, institutional response, survivor experience, and the ways systems can unintentionally require someone to perform or prove victimhood in order to be believed or protected. But it also reaches beyond memoir as her personal story becomes a lens for asking what justice systems, professionals, and communities need to understand and do differently to create actual safety.
I spend so much of my life reading and writing for work that, somewhere along the way, I stopped reading books… But as I started reading ‘I Shouldn’t Have to Play the Victim,’ I had this realization: maybe I stopped because so little of what I read feels this real.
Within the first few pages, I was crying.
I could imagine this book in the hands of a teenager, a mother, a justice professional, and each of them feeling it all so clearly.
It’s not like we’re observing Chelsey’s experience from a distance. You feel the little girl she was. You feel the woman she became, the systems change she’s achieving. You feel her spirit completely present.
There is a fluidity and truthfulness to this book that cannot be manufactured. You can’t bottle that, and you can’t fake it.
anonymous
About THE AUTHOR
Award-winning Founder and Director of Roots & Rise, Chelsey De Groot has spent more than two decades building leadership, justice, and organizational capacity across corrections, public safety, human services, Indigenous partnerships, education, and community systems. From frontline practice to executive leadership, she has worked alongside governments, justice agencies, educational institutions, and community organizations to translate evidence-informed approaches into sustainable, high-impact systems change.
Chelsey’s new book, I Shouldn't Have to Play the Victim, published by Landon Hail Press, extends that work through her own journey, offering a deeply personal perspective on the very structures she has spent her career helping to evolve.
Today, through Roots & Rise, Chelsey’s work centers on the policies, programs, complexities, and leadership that shape how safety is cultivated, protected, and experienced. At the heart of this work is the understanding that every responsive leader, effective institution, and coherent system holds both the capacity and the responsibility for creating a world in which individuals, families, and communities can thrive.
Chelsey is an instructor at Lethbridge Polytechnic and she teaches Family Violence to inmates at the Lethbridge Correctional Centre. She holds a Master of Arts in Leadership from Royal Roads University, a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Justice Studies, and a Diploma in Child and Youth Care from Lethbridge College. She is a 2018 Community Leader Award recipient and former President of Lethbridge and Area Search and Rescue. Her work is grounded in the belief that a new world of justice begins with the leaders, organizations, and systems willing to transform from within.Chelsey holds a Master of Arts in Leadership from Royal Roads University, a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Justice Studies, a Child and Youth Care Diploma, and a General Studies Diploma from Lethbridge College. Her education is complemented by advanced training in Risk-Need-Responsivity (LS/CMI), Core Correctional Practice, Negotiation Mastery (Harvard Business School), Leadership Academy (OrgCode Consulting), Trauma-Informed Care, The Working Mind First Responder, A New Direction (Hazelton Betty Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies), Indigenous Awareness, SafeTalk Suicide Intervention, MANDT, and First Aid. Together, this foundation informs an approach that integrates leadership, behavioural science, organizational development, and evidence-informed practice.
Throughout her career, Chelsey has partnered with judges, police services, corrections, probation, Indigenous governments, educational institutions, and community organizations to build programs, develop leaders, and improve collaboration across justice and human services. Whether designing organizational frameworks, facilitating leadership development, implementing evidence-informed practice, or advancing cross-sector initiatives, her focus remains the same: supporting leaders, teams and organizations capable of protecting safety, advancing wellbeing, and shaping stronger outcomes across generations.
Curious to learn more?
Whether you’re interested in bringing Chelsey’s story to your community or want to learn more about Roots & Rise, schedule a call today and let’s see what we can build together!