We've tried to raise as much awareness of the initiative as possible in a number of ways. We are using social media and working with the education department. We hope to have as many schools as possible participate in the It's Not Violent program. The feedback from educators has been very positive.
We would often get calls from people asking us to give violence prevention workshops at schools or youth centres, through youth protection services. We can't cover all of Quebec, but we know that our shelter partners do similar work. They, too, have very limited resources, so they can't deliver hundreds of workshops a year or visit every school in the area.
That is why we decided to build a program that people could use on their own. Anyone can go to itsnotviolent.com, where they'll find a strategy guide, as well as different animation modes, from large groups and subgroups to kiosks. The program features vignettes based on five themes: pressure to consent, isolation, sexual exploitation, geolocation and harassment. The exercise fosters conversations in which young people are asked to answer questions from the victim's standpoint. This makes it easier for them to participate, since they aren't speaking for themselves, but by putting them in the victim's shoes, we help them understand the feeling of powerlessness a victim has in dealing with her abuser, no matter what she tries.
The response to the program has been very positive. In fact, we've had a lot of interest from young boys, and that really surprised us at first. Many wrote to us to say that they had exhibited similar behaviours in the past but didn't think they constituted violence.
We think we got through [Technical difficulty—Editor] because that's what a lot of young people think. They are able to recognize physical violence and clear insults, but they have trouble identifying pressure, insistence and veiled threats as violence. We hear from a lot of educators who really appreciate the platform. Even though they aren't experts in the field, with this tool, they can facilitate workshops all over the province. The tool has the potential to be extremely effective.