Native Council will sing, dance away violence

Supporting Island families -

Some things are too painful for words – they need to be shouted, danced, or drummed.

That’s what the Native Council of Prince Edward Island intends to do with the $38,000 grant it was awarded by the Interministerial Women’s Secretariat to help community-based efforts to prevent violence against women. Native Council consultant Lalana Paul says people are excited about using the grant money to put together a show, which will be performed next December at the Arts Guild.

“Sometimes you want to scream or dance, you’ve don’t have to say it, you can sing it,” Paul said. “I talked to a woman today who said ‘oh my gosh, I’ve been waiting for something like this for years.’

“We are really excited about this.”

The Violence Against Women Prevention Grant will provide a total of $50,000 to community organizations for innovative projects to enhance awareness, education and action towards preventing violence against women. The grants were administered through project funding to community groups through a request-for-proposal process.

Women constitute the majority of those seeking services for family violence-related issues in Prince Edward Island. For example, women consistently make up at least 94 percent of emergency protection order recipients under the Victims of Family Violence Act.

“Many of our members have experienced some form of family violence,” Paul said. “There are so many ways to raise awareness on this issue.”

“Violence against women affects everyone,” said Paula Biggar, minister responsible for the Status of Women. “Violence against women comes at a high social cost; and it impacts health and justice systems, as well. This is why there needs to be a focus on prevention.

“It is very important that we engage in measures that reduce the instances of violence from occurring in the first place.”

The mandate of the Premier's Action Committee on Family Violence Prevention is to:

• coordinate the implementation of the provincial Family Violence Prevention Strategy;
• ensure integrity of community participation is maintained;
• ensure an evaluation component is in place;
• develop a work plan; to promote the importance of resource allocations necessary for implementation of the strategy; and
• communicate initiatives to ensure a high public profile for family violence prevention is maintained across the province.

For more information visit www.stopfamilyviolence.pe.ca/