Evidence of meeting #121 for Status of Women in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was shelter.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Aboriginal Housing Society
Call the media and have open houses and get our MLA and MP to show up.
5:30 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
5:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Aboriginal Housing Society
Have good news pieces. I'm not kidding about the media. Just have good news pieces, because there's so much bad news that it's good to see.
5:30 p.m.
Simcoe—Grey, CPC
I think it's commendable.
I also have a question for you, Ms. Baker. You offer a program called PEACE, the prevention, education, advocacy, counselling and empowerment program for children and youth who are experiencing violence. I was wondering if you could give our committee a more fulsome and thorough understanding of what that is. What are the component parts of that program in preventing these ongoing cycles of violence?
It sounds like a unique program. I think it would be helpful for us to have a bit more detail with respect to it.
5:30 p.m.
Executive Director, BC Society of Transition Houses
Thank you. I'm very happy to provide more information about the PEACE program.
To give the committee a sense of where the program has come from, it was called the children who witness abuse program. Its roots are in the observations that were made in women's shelters decades ago, that not only were women obviously negatively impacted by violence but their children were, too, and that there was a need for specialized, focused, tailored programming for children and youth as well.
Twenty-six years ago in B.C., transition houses lobbied government for that program to come into existence. As you say, there are now 86 of those programs across the province. I don't believe that any other province or territory has a comparable program with such scope. We're very pleased and proud of that in B.C.
The work is psycho-educational in nature. PEACE program counsellors work with children and youth to help them understand and put words to their experience of living with violence and abuse and how to integrate that into their understanding of their lives and their choices about how they behave in the future. It does have a component that focuses on understanding what healthy, nurturing relationships look like and, of course, the impacts of violence in relationships that are not healthy.
I should say those programs do really challenging work, especially those in rural and remote locations, which can be providing service in areas of up to 500 kilometres in distance.
5:30 p.m.
Simcoe—Grey, CPC
This is for Linda Renaud.
You've talked about having short-term shelters. I wanted to find out how long that short term is. Also, how and where are these women then transitioning to? I ask just so that we will have some idea of the scope of what you're providing at the Horizon Women's Centre.
5:30 p.m.
Director, Horizon Women's Centre
In our shelter, the women usually stay for around two months. They can stay longer if they need to, but that is usually our quota. We usually are able to help them get into affordable housing by that time. If not, we usually do keep them at our shelter, but I know that a lot of shelters in the outlying areas are keeping women longer because there is not enough affordable housing for them.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you so much.
We're now moving to Emmanuella Lambropoulos.
You have the floor.
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
Good afternoon.
I would like to thank all the witnesses for being here with us today to answer our questions. My first question is for Madam Beaulieu.
As a former teacher, I know the importance of teaching our youth, especially young kids and teens, about healthy relationships, boundaries and healthy friendships, because that's how these things begin. I did that as an ethics teacher. That was one of the courses I taught. I was able to teach it, but it was really up to the teacher to decide what curriculum they would teach. It was very broad.
Obviously, education is a provincial jurisdiction. What do you think the federal government could do to help to promote these types of programs even though they are under provincial jurisdiction? Also, what other types of preventive programs would you suggest that the federal government develop to prevent violence against women?
5:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Halton Women's Place
Those are interesting questions.
Definitely, I know there isn't a lot of influence by the federal government over the curriculum. That it is a provincial duty. I believe there needs to be, all the way through government, whether it's federal or provincial, some basis of education that is mandated so that healthy relationships and common sense, and just those life skills that children need to learn, are taught from kindergarten through to university.
I'm sure you probably recognized when you were teaching that some parents do not always want us to speak. We have parents who don't want us to speak in school to the issue of healthy relationships, and particularly in grade schools. We don't talk about sex in grade schools. We talk about safety and friendships and good touches or bad touches.
Those kinds of things come later on in education. However, certainly I think that all levels of governments need to be involved.
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
Do you have any specific recommendation? I'd love this type of thing to be recommended so that we can actually move on something like this.
Would you be able to word some kind of recommendation? I know we can't tell provincial governments what to do, but how can we have some kind of an influence? Usually, it's funding related.
5:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Halton Women's Place
Yes.
I guess the only thing that I can think of is what I spoke about earlier when I read my notes to you. Perhaps it would be something coming out of the federal government that would encapsulate, on video or TV, something like TV ads....
I think back to the day when everybody smoked. My dad smoked and everybody in my house smoked. They just did. However, through government and televised ads, it became an issue that if you smoked, it wasn't so good, right?
I think that needs to happen, as well, with violence against women and healthy relationships for kids. I think there needs to be something that comes out of government that shows it's not acceptable.
Sorry, I know I'm not answering your question. I'm all over the place with it.
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
You did answer it in one way.
Does anyone else have any recommendations along those lines, or should I move to my next question?
5:35 p.m.
Director, Horizon Women's Centre
I think it's imperative to teach young school-aged children what healthy relationships are. A lot of young boys and young girls do not know what a healthy relationship is because they are not living in a healthy relationship.
I think it would be very important for the school boards to initiate programs on healthy relationships and what they are, and at a very young age.
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
Thank you very much. That's what I'm actually doing my master's on. Hopefully, in Quebec, I'll be able to help with implementation of that type of education soon enough.
We thank you very much for your testimony.
5:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Excellent.
Thank you very much.
Does anybody have a final question? We have some panellists here.
Eva?
I'm going to throw the floor open to you, Eva, Kellie, if you have questions.
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
Eva Nassif Liberal Vimy, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Lafantaisie Renaud, your shelter provides services… Do you understand French? Are you hearing the interpretation?
5:40 p.m.
Director, Horizon Women's Centre
I'm hearing the interpreter's voice, but I'm having a hard time. I see your lips going in French, but I'm not really hearing—
5:40 p.m.
Liberal
Eva Nassif Liberal Vimy, QC
You said your shelter has senior women.
Can you talk about what brings them to you for help? Also, do you have accessible, adapted places for seniors and the handicapped in your shelter?
5:40 p.m.
Director, Horizon Women's Centre
Are you asking me if we take senior women? We absolutely do. We take any woman who is 16 years of age or older.
We have had women in the past who have been abused by their children, and women abused by their elderly spouse.
We actually have what we call an accessible room on our main floor, and it's mostly for women who have disabilities. We have only one, so sometimes we cannot take women if they have physical disabilities, because we have only that one room available. Our shelter was built in 1985, and we have an upper floor and that's where our five bedrooms are. On the main floor we have only one accessible room.
We take women of any age and we would refer them to any agency that can help them.
