Youth
Programs for the Prevention of
Violence Against Women
The
following are examples of many great
anti-violence programs for youth. As it was
derived from a 2002 conference in Toronto,
the programs are based in central and
eastern Canada. If your program is missing
from this list, and particularly if you
would like to see your part of the country
represented, please email us a summary of
the exciting work you’re doing and we’ll add
to this list on our website.
National and Web-Based Programs
Leave Out
ViolencE (LOVE)
was founded in 1993 in Montréal by Twinkle
Rudberg, whose husband was murdered by a
14-year-old boy. LOVE has since grown from a
single office in Quebec to Canada’s leading
non-profit youth-violence prevention
organization, with offices in Montreal,
Halifax, Toronto, and Vancouver. LOVE is a
unique and long-term violence-prevention
program for youth from 13 to 18. Victims,
witnesses, and perpetrators undertake
multimedia and leadership training to
develop the positive life skills, sense of
belonging, and critical thinking that enable
them to analyze causes and alternatives to
violence. Programs include photojournalism
and broadcast journalism, leadership
training, school and community-outreach
programs, and violence-prevention
committees. For contact information, visit
www.leaveoutviolence.com.
The
National Youth In Care Network
is a national charitable organization
founded and driven by youth (14 to 24 years)
across Canada with the goal of empowering
youth who are in, or have recently aged out
of, government care. In any year,
approximately 70,000 young people are in the
care of child-welfare authorities and 25,000
young people are in custody. Most of these
youth have been traumatized by abuse
(sexual, physical, neglect) and enter into
care feeling stigmatized, isolated, and
distrustful of adults. Individually, many of
these young people feel that none of the
adults in their lives have listened to what
they had to say or even asked for their
opinions when making important decisions
about their lives. The too-frequent result
is feelings of helplessness and dependency,
which clearly place these young people at
risk of experiencing further violence in
their lives, often in their most intimate
relationships. Since 1985, the National
Youth in Care Network has conducted
research, produced publications, worked on
policy issues, advised child-welfare
professionals, and supported the development
of over 70 provincial- and community-level
youth-in-care networks in Canada. Located in
Ottawa, the National Youth in Care Network
can be contacted at 613-230-8954, toll free
for youth in care at 1-800-790-7074, by
email at 1056info@youthincare.ca, or at
www.youthincare.ca.
Power Camp
National
facilitates a national network to provide
resources for people doing work with girls
and young women. Locally, in Montréal, they
provide after-school programs for girls in
schools and with community organizations. We
also collaborate with academics, policy
makers, youth organizations, and others
whose work supports girls. Learning through
action is POWER Camp National’s unique
educational approach, which combines popular
education and feminist analysis with
dialogue and creative expression. We
participate in a learning movement,
encouraging girls to learn about their world
in the process of changing it. PCN programs,
local girls’ initiatives, national outreach
strategies, educational retreats, and
electronic communications foster
self-advocacy, critical thinking,
skill-building, and collaboration among
girls and young women. PCN also works to
maintain a strong cluster of young women and
grassroots leadership to inform policy
development and impact societal change. PCN
is committed to building an anti-racist,
feminist, queer-positive, ability-inclusive
and youth-empowerment vision of social
justice. For more information, visit http://www.powercampnational.ca/html/who01.html
or
email to info@powercampnational.ca for
general information or sarah@powercampnational.ca
for their girls club.
Webgrrls.talk
is a project of the Toronto Rape Crisis
Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape.
With the goal of using the centre’s web site
as a public-education and prevention tool
geared toward young women, this project will
seek input from young women, teachers,
counsellors and instructors in 11 school
districts, colleges, and universities in the
City of Toronto into the design and
development of an educational and
interactive website. For information, call
416-597-1171 x223 or email trcc@web.net. For
more information on the Rape Crisis Centre,
visit www.trccmwar.ca.
Local Programs
The
Violence Intervention Program of Southeast
Saskatchewan Inc
in Estevan,
SK delivers a program called the
Pre-Adolescent Girls and Healthy
Relationship Group. They give talks in
schools and assertiveness training for girls
13 to 19 years of age, with the objective of
educating girls on issues of violence
prevention, self-respect, communication, and
healthy relationships. For more information,
call 306-637-4004, or email vip.estevan@sasktel.net.
Muskoka
Parry Sound Sexual Assault Services
created, designed the manual for, and
currently delivers an innovative Peer
Support Program. Program delivery began
in one high school in 1999, and peer support
workers are now active in six high schools,
with over 300 young men and women from
Grades 9 to 12 trained as Peer Support
Workers so far. The students are trained in
topics including dating violence, body
image, self-esteem, communication and
listening skills, substance abuse, suicide,
grief, and diversity. The initial training
is 25 hours followed by monthly support
meetings. Each year the Peer Support Workers
organize and deliver a lunchtime
dating-violence workshop. The support
offered by the Peer Support Workers in their
schools ranges from formal (one school has a
dedicated meeting space where students can
sign up to see a PSW) to informal. The
students at each school provide 10 to 30
hours of support per month. Dating, family,
and school are the issues most consistently
discussed. Over the past couple of years,
the PSWs have undertaken innovative projects
such as writing and performing a date-rape
radio commercial; writing and performing a
date-rape drug commercial for TV that was
aired for eight summer weeks with Oprah, Dr.
Phil, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer;
delivering training on the ‘language’ and
issues of teens to Ontario Provincial Police
crisis negotiators; and undertaking an
Anti-Bullying Campaign in one school in
partnership with the school’s Diversity
Group. For more information, call
705-646-2122 or 1-877-406-1268, email laurie@daphnewymn.com
or visit www.daphnewymn.com.
Women’s
Habitat
introduces
Reducing Violence in Personal Relationships
through Community Support and Education,
a five-year expansion of their highly
successful student education/awareness
program on family violence and dating
violence. The objective will be to reduce
violence for students who have been exposed
to VAW at home, or who are experiencing
violence in their personal relationships, by
expanding their support networks to include
peer-helper volunteers, school personnel,
parents, and community agencies. This
project will train school faculty and
student volunteers on dating violence and
woman abuse using the manual Peers
Helping Peers on Issues of Dating Violence.
For more information, call 416-252-1785
ext.223, TTY 416-252-038, or email habitat@womens-habitat.ca
or rroffey@womens-habitat.ca.
Education
Wife Assault
offers Young Accents against Woman Abuse
training. This program supports young
women from diverse communities to become
peer educators and to find their community
connections, create space, and facilitate
peer workshops and public advocacy to
promote healthy, equal, and safe
relationships, as well as preventing and
better responding to violence against young
women. The focus is on violence in intimate
relationships faced by young women in
ethno-racially marginalized, Deaf, women
with disabilities, LesBiTrans, and
low-income communities, and newcomer young
women with language barriers. For more
information,
call 416-968-3422 x24, TTY 416-968-7335, or
email volunteer@womanabuseprevention.com.
The
Violence Intervention Project is a
youth-led initiative that seeks to provide
youth with alternatives to violence through
a web site, video, workshops, and volunteer
training. Project participants also tell
experts in the field of youth services how
they can reach out to youth without being
too ‘official,’ deal with the media
(including interviews on CBC, CityTV,
and MuchMusic), and have fun! For
information, phone 416-438-3697, email info@violenceinterventionproject.com,
or visit www.violenceinterventionproject.com.
METRAC’s
Young Women’s Anti-Violence Speakers Bureau
is a unique program launched in 2001 to
disseminate information about violence
against young women. The speakers are
dynamic, diverse young women and men who are
trained as peer facilitators rather than as
‘experts.’ They lead workshops in schools,
community centres, and for community-based
organizations to raise awareness, foster
discussion, introduce existing community
resources, and inspire positive social
change. For information or to book a
workshop, visit www.metrac.org/programs/info/speakers.htm#workshops.
For information on the Metropolitan Action
Committee on Violence Against Women and
Children, visit www.metrac.org.
Making
Waves/Vague par vague, Inc.
is a Frederiction, NB-based, province-wide,
youth-driven (ages 22 to 30), highly
successful project that educates and
involves teens in dating-violence
prevention. Since its 1995 inception, all NB
English-language high schools have had the
opportunity to participate. In 1998, Vague
par vague was developed to give Francophone
students and teachers an opportunity to
attend similar workshops with a uniquely
Francophone flavour. Making Waves begins
with an annual weekend during which students
and teachers come together to learn about
the dynamics of abusive relationships, the
impacts of gender and media stereotyping,
and the challenges of healthy relationships.
After the weekend, delegates return to their
schools with action plans to raise awareness
about dating violence and healthy
relationships. Manuals for students,
teachers, and guidance counsellors are
available in French and English. Making
Waves/Vague par vague has recently expanded
to provide workshops in Nova Scotia and
Newfoundland/Labrador, and tailor the
program for Deaf/hard of hearing and
blind/visually impaired students. Requests
for publications come from across Canada and
the US, and as far away as England and
Australia. Project funding includes $1000
from the Access Fund to support
accessibility. For more information, call
506-325-9452, email mwaves@nb.aibn.com, or
visit www.mwaves.org.
Muriel
McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence
in Frederiction, New Brunswick presents the
Preventing Dating Violence Project.
Designed to increase students, parents,
teachers, and administrators’ understanding
of dating violence, this project will
present the results of two studies on dating
violence in two-hour workshops across the
province. The workshops will facilitate and
support implementation of
violence-prevention strategies. For more
information, phone 506-453-3595 or email
byers@unb.ca.
An annual
Young Women’s Conference in Labrador
City, Newfoundland will involve girls 13 to
15 years old in a weekend forum aimed at
educating participants on dating violence,
conflict resolution, self-esteem building,
harassment, bullying, and family violence.
Depending on the groups’ needs after the
weekend forum, a Young Girls Discussion
Group may be developed. For more
information, call 709-944-7124, or email
hopehaven@crrstv.net.
Online Resources
from the US
The
Feminist Majority Foundation believes
that feminists—women and men, girls and
boys—are the majority, but this majority
must be empowered. www.feminist.org
Break the
Cycle
is a non-profit organization whose mission
is to engage, educate, and empower youth to
build lives and communities free from dating
and domestic violence.
www.breakthecycle.org
The
Empower Program works with youth to end
the culture of violence. www.empowered.org
Girls
Incorporated National Resource Center
is a youth organization dedicated to
inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and
bold. www.girlsinc.org
Liz
Claiborne Inc.
produces “A Teen’s Handbook” and web pages
to help teens learn about dating violence.
www.lizclaiborne.com/lizinc/lizworks/women/handbook.asp#teen
Los
Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women
offers an In Touch With Teens Program to
provide education, training, and technical
assistance on preventing dating violence.
www.lacaaw.org
SafeNetwork
maintains materials and information for
teens living with violence including a
safety plan, directory of shelters,
technical help, and training information.
www.safenetwork.net/teens/teens.html
Compiled
by EWA’s Young Women’s Program with the help
of Canadian Women’s Foundation, Tonya Henry,
and Jemma Elisabeth Peckham. Muskoka Parry
Sound Sexual Assault Services write-up
contributed by Heather McFadyen.
