By Kayla Bruch

New men’s program aims to end domestic violence

Jan 6, 2015 | 6:00 AM

According to the Canadian Women’s Foundation, each year around 40,000 arrests are made because of incidents involving domestic violence.

“This accounts for 12 per cent of all violent crime in Canada, and since only 22 per cent of all incidents are reported to the police, the real number is much higher.”

Based on numbers like these, as well as statistics from the Prince Albert Police and the RCMP, community groups see the creation of men’s support programs in the city as the best way to help lower the number of incidents.

And on Jan. 15, Catholic Family Services will launch the Stepping Up program. It is geared towards ending domestic violence and its focus is on helping men develop healthy relationships.

“It’s different than most anger management programs currently offered to violent offenders, the focus is around domestic violence and healthy relationships, education and skill development,” said Keri Okanik, the community plan co-ordinator with the Setting the Stage project.

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The problem, said Okanik, is there are several programs in Prince Albert available to women who face violence but not for men who are violent.

“In terms of women’s programming, there’s lots of women’s programming available in the city and what Prince Albert tends to do really at this point is we’re constantly fixing the victim,” she said.

“Men who are violent towards the women in their lives often … stay in those relationships and continue to abuse women or they move onto another relationship where they [are], you know, victimizing someone else.”

During the program, 10 men will learn how to move away from using physical, emotional or mental abuse to deal with conflict, by learning how to “take charge of their masculinity.”

Okanik said Stepping Up will be the only men’s program with a domestic violence focus that will be operating. In the past, there was a program called New Choices for Men which was shut down five years ago.

“Most of the programs right now that men have available to them don’t actually deal specifically with issues of domestic violence in that group,” she said.

Each week, the program facilitators, Nicole Rancourt and Jon Hopper, will cover a different module, giving men effective techniques for creating positive and healthy relationships.

“It’s a 13-week design and it’s based on the belief that violence is learned, violence is chosen that violence is about power and control rather than anger and that ending violence is possible, we take the perspective that if violence is learned, then non-violence is also can be learned,” said Okanik.

The curriculum for the new program was developed by staff at the province’s ministry of justice – Prince Albert Community Corrections and Setting the Stage.

The program is free and it will run once a week on Thursdays at Catholic Family Services.

For more information, contact Catholic Family Services at 306-922-3202.

kbruch@panow.com

On Twitter: @KaylaBruch1