Fort Macleod Royal Purple are hosting A Night to Lead Change on gender-based violence on Tuesday, Oct. 24.
The Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters and former Calgary Stampeder Anthony Parker will lead the session beginning at 7 p.m. at the Fort Macleod and District Community Hall.
The evening will open with information about the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters and its violence prevention program, Leading Change.
The facilitators will share how they came to work with men and boys in helping to end violence and the role men have to play in this regard.
Then the facilitators will share some key information about domestic violence including statistics in Canada and Alberta.
They will discuss different forms of violence and the roots causes of domestic and gender-based violence.
This will lead into an exercise exploring how these root causes can be damaging for everyone and a road map on how people can all be a part of positive change in our communities.
The presentation will include opportunities for people to engage in meaningful conversations with one another and make their own personal commitments to end violence.
People will leave with a better understanding of how and why domestic and gender-based violence can happen, resources on how they can continue their own learning, and a self-developed action plan they can take to lead change.
Sixty-four per cent of people in Canada know a woman who has been physically, sexually, or emotionally abused, according to statistics from the Canadian Women’s Foundation.
Women are about four times more likely than men to be victims of intimate partner homicide.
Approximately every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.
In 2021-’22, more than 7,600 women, children and seniors stayed in Alberta’s domestic abuse shelters.
Another 7,300 accessed outreach services.
That same year, Alberta’s domestic abuse shelters received over 65,000 calls for help.
Young women between the ages of 15-19 experience 10 times more violence in relationships than young men.
Over the next four weeks, the Royal Purple are working with Fort Macleod Library to collect donations for the Pincher Creek women’s shelter.
For information, contact Jill Burrows at 403-382-7531.
