Alberta Government Commitment to Ending Sexual Violence
When the provincial government proclaimed May Sexual Violence Awareness Month #SVAM, they also announced their commitment to end sexual violence. This commitment is based on three key areas:
- Shift the culture by championing a culture of consent and gender equality
- Improve the response by ensuring that the social, health, justice and education systems respond effectively to sexual violence and harassment
- Support survivors by funding community agencies that help survivors and run education and prevention program.
Also mentioned at the media event was the plan for consent to become part of the school curriculum from K-12 in our province.
Learn more by visiting the government website.
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Best Practices Guide for Police Investigations of Sexual Violence
A best practices guide for police in Alberta for investigating sexual assault was released in May. This guide saw input from a range of stakeholders, including the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services, through the collaboration of the Sexual Violence Police Advisory Committee.
We know that multi-disciplinary and collaborative responses is a best practice for improving and enhancing the criminal justice response to survivors of sexual assault, as are trauma informed policies, procedures and training initiatives.
AASAS looks forward to continuing to collaborate with police and other criminal justice stakeholders as a member of the Sexual Violence Police Advisory Committee - to provide our input and expertise as community based sexual assault service providers on a variety of initiatives, including updates to this guide as necessary.
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AASAS Celebrates 25 Years!
Sexual Violence Awareness Month ended with a celebration. For 25 years AASAS has provided a unified voice on sexual violence in Alberta.
This milestone was commemorated with an evening reception, attended by AASAS members, special guests and two ministers from the Alberta Government: the Honourable Stephanie MacLean, Minister of Status of Women, and the Honourable Irfan Sabir, Minister of Community and Social Services.
The event began with a beautiful prayer by Elder Elsie Paul and words were spoken by Muriel Stanley Venn of the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women.
The evening event was followed by an all-day workshop on vicarious trauma, presented by Françoise Mathieu of Tend Academy.
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Françoise is one of the leaders of Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma education in North America. Since 2001, she has given hundreds of seminars on compassion fatigue and self care across the country to tens of thousands of helping professionals in the fields of health care, child welfare, the criminal justice sector, social and human services, emergency response, armed forces, education, addiction treatment and the Immigration and Refugee Board.
All attendees agree, they left the workshop with effective strategies that will help them as they work to support survivors of sexual violence.
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Member #SVAM Events Get Local Coverage
Increasing awareness and understanding of sexual violence is an important goal of AASAS and all member agencies. The more people know and understand, the less victim blaming there will be and more individuals will feel safe to come forward and seek help. So it's great that a variety of events got mentioned by local media.
The Central Alberta Sexual Assault Support Centre's Respect Day was featured in the Lacombe Express, and Alberta Health Services covered the donning of respect t-shirts by Red Deer Regional Hospital Staff in support of Sexual Violence Awareness Month.
Read about Dragonfly Centre's IBelieveYou and Reconciliation Event in the Bonnyville Nouvelle.
Not only did Saffron Centre get to promote their Consent Event Walk and Fun Run, they also talked about the value of the just-released police best practices guide with Global News.
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First Responder to Sexual Assault and Abuse Training
What will Participants Learn?
This training is intended to build the capacity of professionals, paraprofessionals and community members to assess and respond effectively to disclosures of sexual assault and sexual abuse. Survivors who receive safe and supportive responses to disclosures of sexual violence are more likely to reach out for help from medical and counselling services and/ or report to police. First Responder to Sexual Assault and Abuse Training™ is a comprehensive two day training, inclusive of the full continuum of sexual violence and across the lifespan.
Upcoming training dates:
June 19-20 Lethbridge (Registration Open)
June 26-27 Calgary (Registration Open)
June 27-28 Edmonton (Registration Open)
July 11-12 Bonnyville (Private Training)
Please visit the AASAS website regularly for new training dates.
If you would like to coordinate a First Responder Training in your community, organization, or institution – please email AASAS.
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Member Agency Events & Updates
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#SVAM Events!
Member agencies held successful events for Sexual Violence Awareness Month across the province. Here are some images of their amazing efforts:
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Bonnyville
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Edmonton
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Fort McMurray
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Grande Prairie
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Lloydminster
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Red Deer
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Sherwood Park
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Stettler
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