Keeping faith and building trust
Long term projects establish relationships with women
Kassina Ryder
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 9, 2013
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
In order to talk about the violence they face in their communities, women in the Northwest Territories must first trust the people hearing their stories, according to a new report.
The Increasing Safety Options for Women in NWT Communities report, published by YWCA Yellowknife, is an evaluation of a multi-year project focusing on women in small communities without RCMP detachments.
Rates of violence against women in the NWT are nine times higher than the rest of Canada, according to data from Statistics Canada.
For three years, facilitators with YWCA Yellowknife travelled to nine communities to work on domestic violence safety plans for women living in communities without RCMP.
Lyda Fuller, executive director for YWCA Yellowknife, said early on, workers realized the project's scope had to change. Women in many communities were too afraid to speak about the violence, which made working on safety plans impossible.
"I think one of the challenges for us was just the level of fear that the women had around this topic," Fuller said.
Data from Statistics Canada states that in the territories, half of the female victims of spousal abuse feared for their lives.
"In the territories, fearing for one's life is a reality for female victims of spousal violence, as approximately half of these women believed that their lives were in danger," the report stated.
Fuller said the project's approach changed to focus on strengthening women and establishing trust with other women in the community.
"In a lot of cases, in a lot of communities, violence is so endemic that it's just part of life," she said. "The thought that people can increase their safety is a new thought, a scary idea."
In communities where government workers and researchers come and go, facilitators knew spending time with the women in each community - and the community as a whole - was critical to establishing relationships, Fuller said.
"That is what we came to realize, that there had been a lot of people going in one or two times, and then they disappear," she said. "There is no trust when outsiders come in and say they want to help with something, because people are in and out all the time. We needed to make a longer term commitment."
Activities included camping trips, a moose hide tanning workshop and budgeting and financial management courses, all of which were designed to empower women, according to the report.
Fuller said events, such as community feasts, included the whole community in order to allow residents to learn about the project and ways everyone could contribute.
The report concluded that the project helped set the groundwork for future initiatives and made facilitators aware of the level of fear that prevents women from talking about violence in their communities. It also highlighted the need for better relationships between frontline workers and women in communities without RCMP and the need to support local safe houses.
Fuller said now that the project has wrapped up, she is anxious the headway facilitators made during the past three years is being lost.
"I guess my worry is our three-year funding is over, it was over the end of March, and so our work there has come to an end," she said. "But really, in a lot of ways, we're just at the point where you could make some real progress because people realized we were there over the longer term."
Fuller said the YWCA is now applying for funding for two additional projects. One project aims to produce a booklet with legal information to advise women about their legal rights. Another project would establish sexual assault centres in each of the territory's five family violence shelters.
According to Statistics Canada, the rate of sexual violence in the NWT is nine times higher than the rest of Canada.
"What we think we might do is see whether the five family violence shelters in the NWT could expand their services to help women who have been sexually assaulted, but who otherwise may not fit their criteria for shelter services," she said.
There are currently no sexual assault centres in the territory, Fuller said.
"At the shelters, we see women who experience sexual violence within their intimate relationships. We've got experience dealing with that," she said. "There is no place for a woman who has been sexually assaulted to really go and get specific help to that issue."
Fuller said if funding is approved, training could be provided to shelter staff to prepare them to deal with sexual assaults.
