YMCA hosts virtual workshops on gender violence /

The YMCA of Greater Halifax/dartmouth is hosting virtual workshops to give newcomer boys and men an opportunity to engage in conversations about gender-based violence prevention.

The weekly virtual workshops kicked off with a session on Tuesday, but are a continuation of the in-person workshops put on by the Y as part of their Men's Action Project, through their larger Gender-based Violence Prevention Project (GBVP).

With funding from Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, the GBVP launched in September 2017 with a focus of working with newcomers to raise awareness about genderbased violence and inform them about where to go for support within their community.

“The point of it is to create this safe space where (boys and) men can be involved in anti-violence work,” said Ala Sabie, who hosts the workshops at the YMCA'S Centre for Immigrant Programs.

“Usually there isn't much of an opportunity for (them) to be engaged in such work or prevention work in general, so this is what the Men's Action Project actually provides.”

The workshop sessions vary in duration, but can last an hour or two, with about a dozen people participating on average. The virtual workshops are offered to newcomer boys aged 13 to 18 on Mondays and newcomer men aged 19 to 25 on Tuesdays at 4:30 p.m. on Facebook.

The virtual sessions were launched as an alternative to in-person workshops during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Sabie, the workshops give boys and men a chance to be involved and talk about gender-based violence prevention ideas and brainstorm ways to de-stigmatize genderbased violence. They also get to engage in discussions about healthy relationships, how to be a role model and contributing factors of gender-based violence, among other topics.

Sabie, who first started hosting the workshops in September 2019 at the YMCA'S Centre for Immigrant Programs and in schools throughout Nova Scotia, said what he's learned from hosting the sessions is that there is a clear need for them.

“(Boys and men) need the safe space where they can actually participate and be advocates, and they usually are not given this opportunity, so they keep everything inside,” he said.

“So I think it's essential for them, and you can see this and they want to be engaged and their excitement and they want to be alive and they want to be part of a community where antiviolence is a thing where (boys and) men can actually participate in.”

He added gender-based violence is a “serious issue” in Canada and around the world and that prevention efforts are crucial.

“We know from the statistics that this is an issue and we know that women and girls, 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, are at high risk of genderbased violence, and we also know that men are often the main perpetrators of (gender-based violence), but the least engaged in prevention,” he said.

“So the more sessions we do, the more opportunity we give the opportunity for them to speak about what actually is causing these things, what they think the community is behaving like, what are the factors that make men commit such things, the more we actually prevent it from happening and target the root causes for these issues.”

Briana Miler, co-ordinator of the YMCA'S GBVP, echoed these remarks. In an email statement, she said “it is important to highlight the many strengths immigrant men and boys bring into allyship and advocacy to the community" in anti-violence work.

“Engaging men and boys in our Men's Action Project can help create more awareness of men's desire to be involved in creating safer communities and opportunities to do so. Men can play a key role in the solution to Gender Based Violence Prevention,” Miller added.

For more information about the workshops, people can visit the YMCA Centre for Immigrant Programs' Facebook page or website.

Men can play a key role in the solution to Gender Based Violence Prevention. Briana Miler Co-ordinator, YMCA'S GBVP program