Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 28/00) - Jenifer Rigby describes an 18-year-old female limping up to the front door, two kids in tow. The mother is beaten, bruised, confused and upset.

Rigby is the Allison McAteer House director and she says the situation described is all too common in Yellowknife. Rigby is also a member of the Coalition Against Family Violence, which consists of government representatives, legal services agencies and advocacy organizations. Together, they are trying to make Yellowknife safer for women and children.

"I believe the incidents of family violence are increasing and that's unacceptable. We have to improve services to victims of violence, who are primarily women and children, and we have to help those children who witness violence by finding more programs and services," said Rigby.

Formed almost a year ago, the coalition involves more than 13 different organizations. They met Tuesday to focus and strengthen their ties to each other.

"We're at this forum today to share what we all do and to find ways all the agencies can work together better," said Rigby.

The 1999 NWT Health Status Report paints a grim picture of what family violence agencies in the NWT are dealing with.

The report used numbers from women's shelters like the Allison McAteer House as a way to compare the NWT to the rest of Canada.

Of every 1,000 women in the NWT, the report stated that 20 checked themselves into a women's shelter in 1997/98 -- compared to four women per 1,000 nationally. That's five times the national average.

For children 18 and under, 26 children per 1,000 were in a women's shelter at least once in 1997/98, compared to a national rate of six children per 1,000. Between 1992-97, the report documents a 12 per cent increase of reported sexual abuse incidents in the NWT.

NWT Status of Women executive director Rosemary Cairns helped form the coalition, in part, to improve networking and to build connections between the agencies. She is hoping the effort will mean those who need help can find it and that the coalition will help rebuild healthy family life in the North.

"This is an experiment because it's the first time we brought everyone together," said Cairns.

"We have many different agencies working on family violence in Yellowknife, but we need to create links and connections between everybody to become more efficient."

Cairns added that much of the money that is spent by the GNWT is spent on dealing with family violence in some form or other, whether it's through social programs, housing, or the court system.

"What we need to do is focus our efforts on addressing the causes of family violence. One of the ways to do that is to bring together all the people who are working in the area, both inside and outside the government, and start the process of sharing our resources, knowledge and information."