Safety of Women; Shedding Light in the Shadow of Risk Provincial Partnerships in Action Oromocto, May 26, 27 & 28 Workshop Notes Attendees:

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1 Safety of Women; Shedding Light in the Shadow of Risk Provincial Partnerships in Action Oromocto, May 26, 27 & 28 Workshop Notes Attendees: Martine Stewart Kafiy Nzeya-Weva Sara Mitchell Jennifer Kelly Lindsay Manuel Shelley Murray Sonja Perley Anne Soles Brenda Ingram Anna Marie Hayes Debrah Westerburg Linda O Brian Julie Desjardins Sheri Coburn Robyn Delong Elaine Stewart Marjolaine LeBlanc Eva LeBlanc Stéfanie Savoie Lynn Mathenson Vicky Cosgrove Liz Lautard Diane Power Judy Lukes Lorraine Whalley Jennifer Richard Magalie Berthiaume Krista Martin Patty Michaud Deborah Dempsey Martine D. Haché Patricia Owens Charline Morrison Julie McCabe Sonya Steeves Carmen Hivon Martine Thériault Charlotte Cote Mélanie Sainte-Onge Tina Rodgers Sue Pitman Dawn Marie Nicholls Day 1: Introduction Introduction of Silent Witness silhouettes Shaila Bari and Theresa Legacy. Future Direction of PPA Norma Dubé History: 1

2 o April st VP coordinator to deliver on Action Plan. o 2005-Success of 1 st action plan brought about 2 nd. o Mandate started to enlarge/expand beyond violence prevention, women s economic security as well as physical security. o Branch has grown to 19 funded positions. o All efforts are towards creating a better world for women, ie. Women s equality is the ultimate goal. Accomplishments: o PPA. o Regional networks. o Outreach workers (currently funding more that outlined in action plan). o 2 nd Stage funding (3 under action plan plus additional 4 th site). o Domestic Violence Court pilot project. o Moving Forward children s program. o Sexual violence strategy in partnership with FSACC. o Community Action Fund. o Framing strategy to address violence against aboriginal women. o Women and Girls at Risk strategy. o Building partnerships with municipal governments (ex. Quispamsis) Future: o Needs-many have been identified and some still need to be met. o Resources-will be a challenge with economic downturn; faced with restrained and budget cuts. o Timing-Action Plan ends March 31, o Priority will be to sustain what has been built. o No significant growth. o How do we move to the next phase? o Move from action plans (project to project basis) to long term strategic directions. o Need to be creative and get input from partners. Worker Safety Vicarious Trauma and Lateral Violence: o See Sheri s PowerPoint Presentations. Shelly distributed self audit tool. Exercise o The main objective of the exercise was to brainstorm and role-play ideas for managing risky situations in order to feel more competent when faced with real situations. o Participants completed the four scenarios (see attached). FSACC Sexual Assault Strategy Update See Powerpoint Community Updates: 2

3 o Sussex SACIT training given in partnership with Moncton. Planning SACIT training in Hampton area. Presentations in high schools on self-esteem and defense. o Moncton Attended SACIT training. Working on forming a bigger network. Sexual assault campaign (Bill board, radio, etc.) o Kent Received SACIT training Offered training to Centre d intervention Familiale Participated to the Sexual assault awareness campaign Plans to offer other trainings o Shediac Distributed flyers in the community A video Les relations saines c est mon affaire» is under development to be launched in November Plans to do presentations in schools Met with Dorchester prison officials to discuss sexual assaults issue o Campbelton Trained the interveners. 24 hr line to be in place. Forum in Edmundston. Contacted RCMP. o Saint John Branching out community. Have formed sexual assault response team.. SACIT training. o Charlotte county Awareness in schools. Mall displays. SACIT training to be offered in fall. o Miramichi Receive girls for training on sexual assault. Posters in communities, libraries, city halls. Presentations to community. o Woodstock SACIT training Awareness to local newspapers. Distribution of the let s talk about it campaign. o Bathurst Making contact with potential partners in the community. Need help on ideas. 3

4 Day 2: Addictions- Marg York Clinical & Community Social Work Prevention- Addictions Services if one of the few government agencies that does prevention work. Services at Addictions Services: In patient Out patient Methadone treatment Community Health Promotion Youth treatment One important process when some is admitted to in-patient at the center is that they disclose all the drugs they are using in order to help them recover from their addiction. Female patients are also a priority especially pregnant women. The most common drugs that patients are addicted to are alcohol and opiates. Alcohol is seen as a lethal withdrawl because seizures can occur with patients who are highly dependent on the substance, which can be life threatening. Opiates, such as pain killers, are a problem but the withdrawl is not life threatening. Reducing Risks for Women: Substance abuse is used as self injury, therefore, the response to this is injury prevention. Hepatitis A,B, &C is common with opiate use. The rational of methadone treatment is to prevent and reduce spread of hepatitis C. The methadone program is about 5 years old. The expectation is to taper off drug use over 2 or 3 years. There are clients who expect to be on long term treatment which involves coming in everyday at the same time for their treatment. Councilors are assigned to individuals when on program. The cycle of dependence is similar to the cycle of abuse. If you know what the triggers are (positive benefits they get from using) you can begin to help prevent these triggers from happening. Link Between Substance use and Violence: Not cause and effect Not everyone who s been abused uses drugs to cope Myths: People who use have no desire to stop and have themselves to blame. People usually have little warning they are becoming addicted. Hard liquor is more harmful than beer or wine. 4

5 Addictions- Bill Morrison and Nancy Hicks Best practices: Early intervention, Outreach and Community linkages for Women with Substance use. Best practice Research Purpose: Facilitate getting knowledge and practices Got information from practitioners, clients and family Voice of clients Perspective of practitioners Fredericton Network- Liz and Jennifer Successes: Presentations Meetings once a month for about 2 hours Co-Chair Organize members and get training on basic legal information Speaker s Bureau: Communicate and work together better Promoting each other Coordinate presentations better To do facilitation better Developing pamphlet to distribute ( list of agencies and contacts) The positive outcomes are: strengthening own network Helping women know how/who to access services PLEIS & Miramichi- Patty and Deborah Miramichi helped PLEIS develop the material Project funders: Status of Women Canada, Women s Issues Branch, Justice Canada Examined nature and dimensions of family violence I rural communities since Held many meetings to discuss the best way to share the findings with the public Focused on 5 themes to develop the research: 1. Knowing the warning signs and risk factors 2. Community-friends, family, neighbours & co-workers- are all part of the solution 5

6 3. Know the link between the abuse of people and the abuse of animals 4. Most firearm deaths and injuries are preventable 5. People can know how the law helps victims of abuse Rural areas- 83% of women say firearms are in their homes Most threats are used with hunting firearms in victimizing their partners Workplace Toolkit- Marion and Rina Family violence in the work place in NB (See Power Point) A concerted approach to deal with the issue - Research comity composed of government departments, businesses and community was put in place. Solution: creation of a tool Context Types of Stereotypes (see Rena s piece) Different language accents Seniors Education Race Religion Sexual orientation Language Age Statistics of family violence in Canada Silent witness in NB The importance of family violence in the work place (See tool kit for info on violence in the work place) To help employers to provide help to employees Canada ranks 4 th out of 32 countries with a high level of violence in the work place Effects of FV on employees Economic Low productivity Health Actions Family violence in the work place Policy and procedures Family violence prevention action plan e.g.: tool kit Identify resources in your community 6

7 Furthering Coordinated Response At previous PPA sessions processes required in a coordinated response to violence against women were identified. A model was presented where overlapping spheres represented the different processes that converge at the center of the response (which is the woman/women who experience abuse). No matter where a woman goes in her community to seek help, this process can be there to assist her. The processes indentified are: 1. Risk Assessment and Safety Planning (listed separately on forms, but most likely occurring together) 2. Appropriate and Timely Referrals 3. Follow-up 4. Community Awareness-via tools such as resource lists 5. Advocacy Jennifer distributed forms to be used to further develop coordinated response into social agreement documents. Each region can select one of the five (or six) identified processes that they are either doing well, or in a position to develop further. Communities will identify actions needed to ensure the process is taking place and continues in a coordinated fashion. Agencies or people in each 7

8 community who will take responsibility for each step can be listed next to that action. As regional networks fill in the form for each process in the coordinated response model, they can be submitted to the Women s Issues Branch to be shared as examples for other regions as each region works towards further developing a coordinated response. Forms can be compiled for each region to become a written social agreement that documents or serves as a map for each community s response to violence against women. As communities work with forms additions of revisions to the forms can be submitted to the Women s Issues Branch to share with other regions in order to improve the details to be included in the social agreements that are developed. The Branch will further research coordinated response models as well as share any models submitted by regions. Networking Participants partnered up with other regions to discuss the following questions with regard to the processes involved in working as a regional violence prevention network as well as sharing some of the tasks accomplished by their respective committees: Process How does your network recruit and retain members? How does your network manage group dynamics, from attendance, followthrough to equal and fair discussion at meetings Task What has been your network s most successful accomplishment? How was this accomplishment achieved? Day 3: Branch Updates Transition sector- Pay Equity (Anne Soles) Members from the Wage Gap Reduction Initiatives visited all transition houses to present an information session on the Transition House Sector Pay Equity Program. The goal is to determine if employees in the Transition House Sector are undervalued and to determine if any pay inequity exists. Who is included in the Pay Equity Program for the Transition House Sector? o Crisis Intervener 8

9 o Child Support Worker o Support Worker (Second Stage Housing) o Community Outreach worker Aboriginal Women s Issues (Sonja Perley) Overview of NB First Nations/Aboriginals 15 First Nations Communities in New Brunswick; 6 Maliseet Wolastoq communities and 9 Mi kmaqa Population: 10,250 5, 215 live in First Nation s communities and 5, 035 live off/outside First Nation s communities. Introduced the Strategic framework the New Brunswick Advisory Committee on Violence against Aboriginal Women prepared. Described briefly the top ten priorities the framework is focusing on. Risk Assessment ASAP usage and challenges Collected stats feedback Not being used widely and training reasons Some important tool facts Risk assessment and planning Objectives of the tool Other tools used by practitioners to prevent rather than predict violence Descriptions of those other tools Case management tool (GPES) ASAP strength and area of improvement Good but not perfect tool Contains 150 questions but users not obligated to go over all of them It is too long, takes too much time and boring The tool should b adapted to the client and to the region s needs in order to remediate to the obstacles The tool should be Shortened WIB should make it mandatory 9

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