November is Family Violence Prevention Month in Alberta. This is a month where we work to bring awareness to the impacts of family violence and gender-based violence against women and girls. Family Violence can happen to people of all ages, abilities, cultural and spiritual backgrounds, gender identities and sexual orientations. Victims can be in romantic relationships, divorced, children (birth, step, adopted or foster), grandparents, or individuals with guardians or caregivers.
Our theme this year is, “Healthy Relationships, Healthy Lloyd” and we will be promoting how safe, healthy relationships in our lives can lead to a healthy community for us all. This November we are promoting positive, healthy, and equitable relationships.
Positive actions lead to healthy relationships.
Did you know:
- 1 in 3 Albertans have been affected by family violence
- Saskatchewan has the highest domestic violence rate in the provinces, with Alberta coming in third
- Every 6 days, a woman in Canada is murdered by her intimate partner
- Indigenous women are killed at 6 times the rate as non-Indigenous women
- Domestic violence has a profound effect on children – children who witness violence in the home have 2 times the rate of psychiatric disorders than children from non-violent homes
- Women are at a greater risk of experiencing elder abuse from a family member, accounting for 60% of senior survivors of family violence
- Canadians collectively spend 7.4 billion dollars annually to deal with the aftermath of spousal violence alone.
What happens locally?
- From April 2022 – March 2023, our Emergency Shelter took 1962 calls for support including crisis calls, requests for admission and information requests. Our shelter was able to support 162 women and 167 children/youth.
- Our Transitional Housing Program (Dol-Mar Manor) was able to support 12 women and 21 children/youth. Unfortunately many families, including 29 children, had to be turned away.
- The Lloydminster Interval Home Society has existed and served Lloydminster and area for almost 44 years. Due to the high demand of admissions, the emergency shelter increased beds from 21 to 33 in 2019. Even with the increase, we continue to struggle with lack of capacity and turn away an average of 7 women and children per day.
We asked a few leaders in our community to share how they lead, empower and navigate gender-based violence and here is how they responded
”Understanding consent. No means no.
”I can learn to recognize unhealthy relationships.
”I can be a strong positive role model to women and girls.
”I can reject and challenge social norms that support gender inequality.
”I can lead from where I stand by working together to support individuals impacted by gender-based violence.
”I can lead from where I stand by being a bucket filler and showing kindness to others.
”I can lead by volunteering my time to support the issue.
”I can lead by being a good example for my children.
”I can lead from where I stand by not participating in locker room talk.
”I can lead from where I stand by empowering others to believe in themselves, build their confidence.