COMMUNITY ACTION FOR WOMEN’S SAFETY GRANT RECIPIENTS

Province-wide

BC Association of Specialized Victim Assistance and Counseling Programs - $50,000

For the Dignity of Women: Preventing Violence Against Women Resource Kit - Phases 1-3

This project will provide anti-violence service providers with resources, including calendars, posters and educational materials. Resources will be diverse and culturally appropriate for a variety of communities and will help service providers raise awareness of violence against women. Phase 1 involves consultation and planning; Phase 2 involves development and pre-production; Phase 3 involves production, dissemination and evaluation.

Ending Relationship Abuse Society of BC - $10,000

Educational Resources and Information Bulletins on Treatment for Men Who Use Violence in Relationships

This project will create a series of information bulletins for community and professional educators on the appropriate and ethical services for offenders, with an emphasis on women’s safety. The bulletins will dispel misunderstandings about relationship violence.

Ending Relationship Abuse Society of BC - $50,000

Province-wide Analysis of Current Service Delivery Systems of Services for Assaultive Men and Community Models for Increasing Women’s Safety – Parts 1-3

This project will increase the safety of women and promote violence prevention through accessible, ethical and effective interventions for men who use violence in relationships. The project will identify gaps in services and inappropriate or inadequate services. Part 1 involves developing a needs analysis and coordinating stakeholders; Part 2 involves conducting the province-wide needs analysis; and Part 3 involves developing a provincial response to relationship violence.

Fraser Valley

Deltassist Family and Community Services - $19,196

Reducing and Preventing Risk of Violence to Women Through Teaching Men About Healthy Relationships

This project will establish two, 12-week Health Relationship groups for self-referred men, in both English and Punjabi, to address the perpetration of violence in a variety of relationships: spousal, parental, opposite sex or same sex. This project will also address the need to increase the safety of women in Delta, B.C.

Marguerite Dixon Transition Society, Lower Mainland - $10,000

Educational Video on Preventing Violence

This project will create an educational video primarily for the multicultural community. The video will define abuse and explain why it is not acceptable. It will also address the effects of domestic violence on children, provide information on what to do and where to go as well as how to report abuse to authorities.

Marguerite Dixon Transition Society - $20,000

Violence Prevention Workshops for the New Immigrant Population

This project will raise awareness of violence against women, its impact on families and society and introduce prevention resources. The joint initiative will deliver workshops throughout the Metro Burnaby area, targeting ESL classes, immigrant employment and support groups and ethno-cultural community serving organizations.

Women’s Resource Society of the Fraser Valley - $16,150

Silent Witness Project - Phase 1

This project will provide an exhibit of life-sized wooden silhouettes, each of which represents a woman who was murdered by a husband, common-law partner, boyfriend or intimate acquaintance. The goal will be to remember these women, share information about family violence and promote healing and action by profiling local resources that support women coping with violence.

SHARE Family and Community Services - $19,937

Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW) for New Canadians

This two-phased project will engage immigrant/refugee and new Canadian women through education and support. Phase 1 will aim to reduce barriers and isolation experienced by immigrant/refugee women in abusive relationships. Phase 2 will identify and train immigrant/refugee women to support and inform other women in their respective cultural/language groups who may be experiencing violence.

Sto:lo Nation Society - $30,000

Addressing Sto:lo Women’s Safety Issues in Their Communities

The Sto:lo Nation will conduct a public dialogue on traditional values and the roles of women in indigenous culture related to women’s safety. This will set the stage for educating the entire community, including Sto:lo summer camps, family child-in-care and warrior camps.

Kootenays

Boundary Women’s Coalition - $20,000

Volunteer Development: Training for Sustainable Awareness

This project will further train volunteers at the Boundary Women’s Coalition to create greater awareness about women’s issues. Better trained volunteers will sustain the Coalition’s ability to reach women throughout the Boundary region and provide awareness through the media about women and safety issues.

Tobacco Plains Indian Band - $10,000

Empowering Women

This project will educate and empower women so they are no longer victims of habitual abuse. Workshops will focus on self-esteem and non-violent assertiveness skills to teach women a better way to respond to negative and high-risk situations.

Lower Mainland

Inform’Elles Society - $20,000

Helping BC French Women at Risk and Survivors of Violence to Rebuild their Life

This project will expand services and build on best practices to help BC French minority women integrate into their new environment. Aimed at women who have survived violence, services will include a peer support group to help women regain their independence and self esteem so they can actively participate in their communities.

Reach Centre Association - $20,000

African Women: Rebuilding Our Lives

This project will help African immigrant and refugee women and their children who have experienced violence to rebuild their lives. This project will: help women identify family violence and understand Canadian law; provide women with skills and knowledge to build safe, healthy family relationships; increase women’s self-esteem and positive cultural identity; promote awareness of community services; and provide a safe place for women who have experienced war-related violence.

Women Against Violence Against Women Rape Crisis Centre (WAVAW) - $20,000

A Community Response to Violence Prevention: Outreach to Immigrant and Visible Minority Women

This project will increase accessibility for immigrant and visible minority women to sexual assault support services. WAVAW and multicultural service providers will provide culturally sensitive services to immigrant and visible minority women, conduct multilingual outreach, collaborate on violence prevention for immigrant women through learning exchanges, and formally train multicultural service providers.

North Shore/Coast Garibaldi

Bella Coola Community Support Society - $10,673.86

Engaging Our Youth in Promoting Their Own Health and Safety

Through Project Respect, this project will train high school youth to identify and communicate healthy physical/sexual boundaries in relationships. Training will be combined with anti-violence workshops on self-defense, boundary setting and de-escalation.

Howe Sound Women’s Centre Society - $9,653.82

Developing Community Coordination for Women’s Safety

This project links the Howe Sound Women’s Centre Society with the Squamish, Mount Currie, D’Arcy and Southern Stl’atl’imx communities for training and awareness about violence against women from a cultural and woman’s perspective. A Women’s Safety Network will also be developed.

North Shore Multicultural Society - $19,700

North Shore Immigrant Women’s Safety Task Group

This project will build community partnerships to create an effective response to immigrant women’s safety needs. The task group of North Shore service providers will identify existing services and assess if they are culturally competent, as well as develop a coordinated response to address service gaps.

Sunshine Coast Community Service Society - $10,000

Addressing the Needs of Older Women on the Sunshine Coast

This project will address the needs and safety of older women, including women of the Sechelt Nation who are experiencing or have experienced abuse. Information will be gathered through a needs assessment, which will then be distributed to the public. The project will conclude with a workshop for service providers to develop guidelines for working with older women in rural and First Nations communities.

Northeast

Dawson Creek Aboriginal Family Resources Society - $20,000

Connections

This project will establish a committee to support ongoing and new initiatives relating to domestic violence, especially in the Aboriginal community. The committee will establish kiosks with information on emergency and long-term supports in the community.

South Peace Community Resources Society - $20,000

Women’s Safety First Community Audit

In partnership with the City of Dawson Creek, this project will conduct a community-wide safety audit to identify ways in which women’s safety is jeopardized and to make recommendations for increasing women’s safety. The purpose of the project is both to make the changes needed to increase safety (more pay phones, improved lighting, etc.) and to raise awareness about violence against women.

Tansi Friendship Centre Society - $20,000

Life Skills for Women

This project recognizes that for women to leave a violent relationship they must be able to support themselves. The project will use workshops to raise women’s self-confidence and help them develop marketable skills so they can find and retain work.

Northern Interior

Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society, Prince George - $20,000

Bridging the Gap Between Existing Programs and Orientation: An Educational Program for Immigrant and Visible Minority Women About Abuse and Violence Against Women

This project supports immigrant and visible minority women who have experienced abuse from their partners, but may be hesitant to report the abuse to the police or seek support services.

Lheidli T’enneh Land management Department - $50,000

Spousal/Real Property Law: Options to Reduce Domestic Violence on Reserve

This project will examine a root cause of violence on reserve: matrimonial real property law. Women’s workshops will also examine interspousal contracts, safety planning, dispute resolution, restraining orders and resources, such as shelters. The project will create a dispute resolution panel to address marital breakdown, property division, child welfare and protocols between local governments and other agencies.

North Cariboo Metis Association (NCMA) - $20,000

Reclaiming Aboriginal Women (RAW)

This project will address healing from residential school abuse. The NCMA will use facilitators from the Aboriginal Healing Foundation for workshops to help women deal with their experiences of violence, and build esteem and resilience through traditional cultural methods.

Prince George Sexual Assault Centre - $20,000

Take Back the Highway 2006 & Take Back the Night 2006

This project will host a Take Back the Highway event during Take Back the Night activities in Prince George and outlying areas to raise awareness of violence against women and children. The goal is to end violence and increase public knowledge and understanding of gender-based violence. The project will also challenge stereotypes of girls and women who hitchhike.

Northwest

Gitwangak Health Authority - $30,000

Strengthening Ties

This two-tiered project will invite village elders to be mentors for youth on the topics of dating and domestic violence, raising awareness in the village as a group. Next, the group will apply what they have learned. The project will culminate in a community conference in Gitwangak.

Haida Tribal Society (Haida Gwaii Restorative Justice) - $10,000

Daman hi kaa (Walk Gently)

This project will fund a 10-week Respectful Relationships seminar to help youth make healthy choices in their relationships. The project connects Haida elders with youth to provide alternative methods of dealing with conflict.

Laxgalts’ap Village Government - $20,000

Youth Violence Education

Through eight community workshops on interpersonal violence this project will produce educational materials on date violence, its prevention and early detection, as well as referral information for victims of physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

North Coast Transition Society - $20,000

Building Relations

This project will provide workshops on violence against women on remote reserves (Metlakatla, Kitkatla, Port Simpson and Hartley Bay), including the dynamics of violence and the services available for women in those communities. Women’s supportive relationships and individual safety plans will also be addressed.

Queen Charlotte Islands Women Society - $9,986.56

A Woman’s Talking Circle: The Impact of Trauma

This project will develop and conduct Talking Circles in two, eight-week sessions, on violence-induced trauma. The objective is to break the silence and increase awareness that domestic violence is unacceptable.

Okanagan

Intercultural Society of the Central Okanagan, Kelowna Area - $19, 456.00

Cultural Isolation: Immigrant and Visible Minority Women at Risk of Violence

This project will identify health care workers, educators, social workers, law enforcement personnel and others who can provide culturally sensitive services to immigrant and visible minority women in their own language. The project will produce a resource guide to be distributed at the Women’s Shelter during Prevention of Violence Against Women Week.

Kindale Development Association, Vernon and Armstrong - $10,000

Beekeepers

The project will establish a response system for calls or Internet messages from or on behalf of disabled women victims. It will dispatch an able-bodied woman to the victim to act as the victim’s advocate or interlocutor. Sending a trained companion to assist a disabled victim will help provide safety and comfort following an event of abuse or crime.

South Okanagan Victim Assistance Society (SOVAS) - $15,557

Punjabi Victim Services Liaison Project

This project will improve access to victim services for Indo-Canadian women and their children by: developing SOVAS pamphlets in Punjabi; organizing a committee of Indo-Canadian women and key stakeholders; introducing a cultural evaluation tool to SOVAS programs; initiating dialogue about the barriers immigrant women face in ending violence; and increasing collaboration between service providers.

Tsinstikeptum Community Services - $10,000

Warrior Womyn: Ending the Violence

This project will provide a 12-week workshop to empower women to stop violence in their own lives and build community awareness to increase understanding of the effects of family violence. It will also aim to provide a support network for women.

Vernon and District Women’s Centre Society - $9,450

Women’s Community Safety

This project will provide self-defense and safety awareness training as well as a bad-date registry for sex-trade workers. The project will aim to gather information on intimate violence experienced by sex-trade workers to assist the larger community understand and address the safety needs of these women.

Thompson/Cariboo/Shuswap

100 Mile House & District Women’s Centre Society - $19,753

Creating the Legacy: A Cross-Cultural Partnership

100 Mile House and Canim Lake will collaborate to bridge the chasm of racial discrimination. The project includes life skills training to address the effect of barriers in the lives of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women. Additionally, women will receive video and PowerPoint training and produce a video on violence prevention.

Lillooet Friendship Centre Society - $12,600

A Woman’s View

This project will bring women together to challenge perceptions, share stories and spark change within their community about violence against women. Elders will join young people to produce a dinner and theatre event, followed by community workshops to address barriers to women’s safety.

Little Shuswap Indian Band - $10,000

Rebuilding Respectful Relationships: Addressing Family Violence in the Community

This project will raise awareness and skills in the area of family violence within the band, offer community education on the dynamics of violence, encourage community leaders to speak out against violence and offer support to victims of violence.

Nlaka’pamux Health and Healing Society - $30,000

Nlaka’pamux Family Violence Awareness Program

This project will produce four workshops on the unacceptability of domestic violence. Two will be for women only; one will be an open community forum and one will be for frontline community workers. The project will also address safety for victims of violence.

Simpcw First Nation - $9,997

Empowerment through Awareness

This project will deliver three, one-day workshops to introduce the topic of community safety through prevention and intervention of abuse and violence.

Vancouver

Knowledgeable Aboriginal Youth Association (KAYA) - $20,000

End the Silence of Violence

This project complements KAYA’s services and programs through culturally sensitive workshops that address the needs of young women facing violence. New workshop materials will also educate peers and the public about the “silence of violence.”

Motivation, Power & Achievement (MPA) - $20,000

Women: How to Keep Yourself Street Safe

This project will help Vancouver women (and their partners) with mental illnesses develop communication skills to keep themselves safe. Workshops will focus three topics: non-violent crisis intervention, respectful communication and anger management.

Philippine Women Centre of British Columbia - $20,000

Filipino Women Changing Situations of Violence and Abuse

This project will expand on the recommendations made in an earlier study of Filipino women. The results will be used to develop an education program that will inform Filipino women about different forms of violence as well as implement solutions that respond to their specific cultural, economic and social needs.

WISH Drop-in Centre Society- $19,778

Aboriginal Health and Safety Project

This project will engage aboriginal sex trade workers in the Downtown Eastside. Culturally appropriate workshops and healing groups will cover self-esteem, self-care, life skills, trauma, the cycle of abuse and the residential school experience. Groups will then form an outreach to other aboriginal women in the sex trade.

Vancouver Island

Campbell River and Area Women’s Resource Society, Campbell River and Area - $9,647.00

Stopping the Violence: Safety Initiative for Women and Girls with Disabilities

This project will raise awareness of violence against women and girls with disabilities. It will provide information and educational material on prevention and intervention and offer an opportunity for women living with disability to provide direction for all project activities.

District 69 Family Resource Association, Parksville Area - 10,000

Talking About Violence Against Women

This project will create a violence against women awareness package for the public in District 69. The package will include a history of violence against women in Canada; local statistics; the effects of violence against women, their families and communities; and local services available. It will also include a PowerPoint presentation, brochures, videos, and links to applicable websites.

Lalum’utul’Smun’eem Child and Family Services (Cowichan Tribes) - $10,000

Honouring our Connections

This project will support and guide youth to design a family violence forum with a special emphasis on honouring women as defined in Cowichan traditional teachings, with the objective of raising community awareness about family violence.

Metis Nation BC – Health Department - $20,000

Metis Healthy Families Initiative

Partnering with the BC/Yukon Society of Transition Houses and the BC Association of Specialized Victim Assistance and Counselling Programs, the Metis Nation will host 20 workshops in 15 communities, incorporating traditional Metis teachings with those of professionals on the topic of violence against women.

Our Place Society - $10,000

Threads of Change: Challenging Our Perceptions of Street Women and Violence – Part 1

This project will help the Victoria community re-examine its perceptions of homeless women by sharing their stories and experiences through a multimedia format, including written narratives and various art mediums as educational tools. This project will be presented at a public forum during Prevention of Violence Against Women Week.

Salt Spring Island Community Services Society - $10,110

Seniors Wellness Programme

This project has three activities related to violence and abuse towards seniors living on Salt Spring Island:

1) training Senior Peer Counselors to identify and respond to domestic violence;

2) building capacity to help seniors find appropriate resources; and

3) developing training and resource materials for community service providers.

Tillicum Lelum Aboriginal Friendship Centre - $20,000

Rediscovering Your Spirit

This project will provide a five-day Rediscovering Spirit Workshop for women experiencing violence or faced with the effects of entrenched community violence. The workshops will focus on understanding the issues and accepting personal responsibility for change.

Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society - $20,000

Making Domestic Violence Services Culturally Sensitive: A Train the Trainer Model with Immigrant, Refugee, and Aboriginal Women.

This project will build relationships among Aboriginal, immigrant, and refugee women in Victoria to provide a collaborative response to women experiencing domestic violence. A series of workshops will educate and inform stakeholders on the importance of developing cultural responses to support and empower women.

Victoria Women’s Transition House Society - $9,200

Sidney Older Women’s Project

This project will work with community partners in Sidney to establish support groups for older women who have experienced or are experiencing domestic violence. The project also includes a public education campaign to increase awareness and inform the public about support services and resources available to older women in Sidney and the Saanich Peninsula.

Victoria Women’s Transition House Society - $5,930

Helping Children Heal: Parenting Group for Young Mothers

This project will offer a parenting group to young mothers who have experienced an abusive relationship, with an aim to help mothers support their children affected by violence in the home.

Wachiay Friendship Centre - $27, 553.30

Acting Out Against Violence Drama Project

This project is aimed at both youth and women. Both groups will research, create, produce, direct and perform a drama on violence to increase awareness in the community as well as increase participants’ confidence, self-esteem and self-care.

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Media contact:	Dave Crebo Ministry of Community Services 250 356-6334

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