A newly released provincial strategy aimed at reducing family violence includes a call for specific plans for rural communities.
The “Family Violence Hurts Everyone: A Framework to End Family Violence in Alberta” document was released last week following public consultation under a multi-stakeholder taskforce headed by Sandra Jansen, the associate minister of family and community safety.
The framework sets out government plans for addressing family violence over the next decade. It includes five strategic priorities to strengthen prevention and increase community input.
One strategic priority specifically outlines plans for rural communities where “special attention should be paid to rural and remote areas as these are traditionally underserved in terms of available resources.”
Those plans include the following:
• Support local leadership and networks in rural and remote communities to prevent and respond to family violence by investing in local family violence prevention plans.
• Design a provincial workplace strategy to prevent family violence by working with a cross-section of Alberta employers, government and family violence experts.
• Work with community networks and post-secondary schools and researchers to host conferences, think-tanks and knowledge mobilization events to support the role of academics, practitioners, policy-makers and community to advance family violence prevention throughout Alberta.
• Implement ongoing family violence prevention training and cultural competencies for government workers, first responders, agencies working with children and youth and community agencies working in family violence prevention.
Another strategic priority calls for the promotion of family and community safety through “policy, legislation and public engagement.”
Plans under that strategy include the following:
• Provide resources to community-based organizations to support complementary social media campaigns at the local level.
• Develop a multi-layered, integrated social engagement framework designed to create an environment that promotes healthy and respectful relationships.
In releasing the framework, Minister Jansen said, “family violence affects us all – and there are no simple solutions to this complex and pervasive issue. It is costly; the human costs attributed to family violence are immeasurable, as the impacts last a lifetime. It strains our public systems – health, policy, justice and social services all carry the burden. However, family violence is preventable.”
