Colchester reps speak on gender-based violence summit

TRURO - Two representatives from Colchester County were granted the opportunity to attend the gender-based violence summit in Ottawa, which ran from March 27 to 30.

Stephanie Atwood, executive director of Elevateher mental health services, and Jamie Matthews, executive director of the Colchester Sexual Assault Centre, were invited as delegates to the Shockproofing Communities Summit, which was put on by the Canadian Women's Foundation.

"As a recipient of some of their (Canadian Women's Foundation) funding, we were able to meet with other recipients of their funding doing similar work, which is working towards the prevention of gender-based violence, advocacy, raising survivor voices and systemic changes," said Atwood.

"The way the summit was laid out was very interesting. They had guest speakers speaking about the National Action Plan for Gender-based Violence, but they also had little break-out educational rooms that were hosted by different organizations."

The plan seeks to provide support for victims and their families, enact prevention methods, strengthen the way the Canadian justice system reacts to cases of genderbased violence, implement Indigenous-led approaches and create a social infrastructure that dissuades gender-based violence.

While some who attended believe the plan doesn't go far enough, the summit was a great place to have their voices heard, said Atwood.

"In this summit, there were so many individuals from Atlantic Canada who were invited, and we were encouraged to speak up," said Atwood. "It made me realize that maybe we are being heard, we are being listened to."

Matthews agreed with Atwood's assessment. During the summit, he had the opportunity to speak with MP Andy Fillmore about the need for the National Action Plan.

"It was a great opportunity to get together with government officials, and let them know that we need their support to properly address prevention, education initiatives, as well as support options that we provide locally," said Matthews.

"Mr. Fillmore recognized that sexual violence is not just a women's issue, it's a societal issue. The only way we are going to properly address gender-based violence is if we have the support from all levels of government."

Matthews also stressed the need for gathering male allies.

"We need male allies involved. If we consider it just to be a women's issue and put that responsibility on women, then nothing's going to change. It's us men who have to step up, be allies and hold other men accountable if we want to make a significant impact."

Atwood noted that current struggles in the realm of countering gender-based violence (increased violence amongst youth, low funding for nonprofits) are not only in the Atlantic provinces but across Canada as a whole.

Matthews found the conference was a great way to address the commonalities of gender-based violence across the nation.

"There are a lot of consistencies that we all face," said Matthews. "Especially here in Nova Scotia, during COVID, call volumes tripled into organizations like ours. We saw this huge surge, and it was interesting to see those kinds of parallels with other organizations.

"We were all pretty busy during the last two and a half years, for sure."

What Atwood appreciated the most about the conference were the educational workshops.

"I attended a workshop on social media and gender-based violence, and another one on art and gender-based violence.

"We go to museums for school trips and such, and we're always looking at the art, but how it can reflect genderbased violence, our perception of gender ... it was really cool."

Matthews mentioned two workshops that he attended - one on the Nova Scotian BIPOC communities, and another on the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

"Having attended a couple of those sessions ... I came home motivated, inspired, and I made some connections there that we can tap into. It was a great opportunity for us to share resources with one another."