Women's shelters reach out to new Canadians with multilingual message

English, Arabic, Punjabi, Tagalog and Urdu — the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters (ACWS) is using these five languages as it launches its You Are Not Alone campaign, helping more women in Alberta exit domestic violence situations.

The aim is to better connect with newcomers and refugee women who may be reluctant to seek help. Campaign messaging in all five languages is running in transit spaces, social media, and advertising on radio and television.

“Imagine a woman who can read the language she can understand and she's going through that situation and she will immediately be able to connect,” said Zainab Khan, project manager with the Canadian Pakistani Support Group operating out of Maskan in Calgary. “Imagine she is listening to the radio and the radio is telling her in that same language that there is help out there.”

Khan believes a woman in distress is more likely to reach out for help if she knows she can connect with someone who understands her language and culture.

Three provinces have come together for the campaign, with ACWS collaborating with the Provincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan and the British Columbia Society of Transition houses. In 2018, B.C. had its own iteration of the campaign, which received the British Columbia Association of Broadcasters Humanitarian Award.

ACWS executive director Jan Reimer said the success of the B.C. program gives her confidence the program can succeed in Alberta.

“Shelters are really united across the country in terms of trying to make things better for women and children, and this is another way to try and reach them,” Reimer said. “We also know how important it is to have culturally competent services to meet the needs of newcomers and the refugee population.”

Reimer said there has been concern during the pandemic for women across the country about the potential for violence and abuse, and for increased severity of both. Now that the province has reopened, she says, she wants people to know shelters are here to help.

Reimer said the campaign's five languages were chosen based on Alberta's demographics, but ACWS is eager to add more languages.

“This is an effort to reach out to newcomer women, refugee women, because we know they're often facing violence and abuse and they've got other challenges to go with that,” Reimer said.