The community coalition that oversees the Sturgeon Family Violence Prevention Program recently accepted a substantial donation from Edmonton’s United Victim's Assistance Foundation.
The sum of $6,000 sounds like a lot, Ruth-Ann Weeks said, but it’s almost a pittance considering the scope of the program and the problem itself.
“It costs roughly $15,000 per session,” the program co-ordinator with the Sunflower Community Resource Program explained. “We try to run two sessions a year. It’s less than half of the program. We haven’t been able to run both with our current level of funding.”
The 15-week sessions are normally offered for both men and women but the lack of funding means that only the men’s course is running. Because of this, it tries to offer assistance to other agencies like Stop Abuse in Families that do offer services for women.
“In a perfect world, if we had a bag of money, we’d have a men’s program running and we’d have a women’s program running on a different weeknight during the same week, so potentially you have the perpetrators and the victims in supporting programs so they’re both learning the same things.”
Provincial funding, she added, has been eliminated entirely. A federal grant application to the Status of Women Canada was also recently turned down.
“A lot of the funding is for new initiatives, not existing programs. We have a wonderful program that’s well facilitated and well delivered with competent professionals. We weren’t willing to make changes to the program just to try to make it something new to try just so we could obtain funding.”
The objectives of the program are to increase participants’ knowledge on the impact of family violence, to increase the recognition of the dynamics of family violence in their own relationships and to aid in the utilization supporting community resources, including in the development of safety planning.
“Our slogan is ‘It’s not about blame, it’s about change,’” she explained. “The problem is getting large and it’s getting larger. Family violence is huge right now. The program is growing. It’s unbelievable.”
She added that not only is the incidence of family violence increasing but it is also worsening in nature overall due to the prevalence of drugs and alcohol. Weeks continued that the program is run by people who have other full-time jobs. The human capital is still there to make the program effective but more funding is necessary.
“It really does come down to that. Nobody has the time to research grants and try to find sustainable funding. That can be a full-time job.”
There has been some funding from the business sector and she appreciates it but “it’s nicer maybe to put your name on a building.”
“Family violence isn’t very sexy as far as being appealing. That’s a barrier as well.”
