It’s Family Violence Prevention Month in Alberta, and Linda Shore, pre-natal to pre-school outreach worker at Community Outreach Services (COS), said it’s important the community is mindful of violence 365 days a year. 

COS does not have any special events planned to commemorate the month, because the team is constantly working with families experiencing abuse in all forms. 

“We do quite a few things around prevention,” said Kathleen Waxer, director of community and family services. 

Recently, Shore has been working on a program to educate parents how to discipline their children. 

“Discipline is teaching, not punishment,” Shore said. 

Another program being put on by COS is the Roots of Empathy, which helps build an empathetic response in children from kindergarten to Grade 7. The program teaches children how to verbalize feelings and develop the building blocks towards empathetic feelings. A program for younger children, called Seeds of Empathy, is also being used in Jasper. More information on the program can be found at www.rootsofempathy.org

Besides specialized programs, COS offers services to people experiencing all kinds of abuse. The COS team acts as a first step in accessing resources. 

“We are a resource to people who are experiencing family violence,” Waxer said. 

Shore stresses that abuse goes way past what people typically think it is. Women and their children are at the forefront of abuse stereotypes, but she stresses there are other demographics that are being abused as well. Elder abuse, same-sex partnerships and roommates are also common, Shore said. Abuse can come in many forms, from physical, to financial to emotional. 

Shore said a great place to start is at COS, where an outreach worker will address the problems and build up trust before informing an individual of what they can access from the Patricia Street location. They provide comfort and education in a time of need. 

“We work very closely with the shelter, victim services and the police,” Shore said, adding that COS also provides a safe visitation space if supervised visits are required. 

Shore said one of the challenges is that some people don’t recognize their relationships as abusive. By speaking with an outreach worker, many times people in abusive situations discover aspects of their relationships are unhealthy or abusive. 

“You find out things are much deeper,” she said. 

Shore likens the knowledge of abuse to sex education in schools. 

“They learn it, they get the actual information, everybody knows what violence is, people know what emotional abuse is, they know if they’re hit it’s not okay, but I think it’s a leap to then realize it could be you.” 

One challenge outreach workers face is getting abuse victims to understand what has happened to them. 

“Until they say it...that’s the hardest step I think,” Shore said. 

Abuse victims often worry that their loved one will get in trouble or even be arrested if they admit what’s going on at home, but Shore said they work on a case by case basis. 

“You don’t want your partner to be arrested or your children to be taken away. Chances are they love that person, they don’t want to get them in trouble,” she said, adding that COS will only call the RCMP in severe situations, and the victim would be informed ahead of time. “There’s certain times when you have a duty to report. We’d let that person know, and it’s very seldom that it comes to that point.”

Another problem is that discipline has changed, and what was acceptable to adults when they were children has changed. 

“A lot of people believe, ‘well I was spanked and I turned out fine,’” Shore said. 

COS advertises itself all over Jasper, from ads and stories in The Fitzhugh, to cards at various locations around town. Word of mouth has been a powerful tool in promoting the services. 

“We get so many people saying, ‘go there,’” Shore said. 

Other resources that can be used if you think you are in an abusive situation include the mental health section of the Alberta Health Services website. RCMP and staff at the Seton General Hospital can also be accessed in emergency situations, but Shore said COS is a completely non-judgemental and welcoming atmosphere. 

“The door is always open,” she said. 

Shore said it’s important to not just think about family violence when October ends, but to remember it is important and talk about it every day. 

“I think we have to see family violence as something that’s not once a month to celebrate or mourn, or to think about, that we [need to] think about it 365 days a year because it impacts all of our lives.”

More information on Community Outreach Services can be found at the Municipality of Jasper’s website.