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Family Violence Prevention and Awareness In Focus: Gagetown MFRC

Tackling a sensitive issue like family violence prevention proves challenging for many communities. Though raising awareness and sharing information about family violence prevention is important, it’s certainly not a cheery topic, and getting members of the community to participate in events can be difficult.

For the Gagetown Military Family Resource Centre (MFRC), holding family violence prevention and awareness events has gotten a little easier thanks to the support of two strong, creative community partners. The MFRC has partnered with local family violence prevention organizations Liberty Lane and the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Foundation to host unique events tailored to Canadian Forces (CF) family members.

Muriel McQueen Fergusson Foundation
Each March, the Gagetown MFRC holds a wine and cheese night for women in their CF community in honour of International Women’s Week. In 2010, the MFRC chose Family Violence Prevention as their theme, and partnered with the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Foundation to host the Silent Witness Project, a display of silhouettes designed by New Brunswick community members to honour local women who have been killed as a result of domestic violence.

“The silhouettes were displayed to bring an awareness on the tragic end that family violence can take,” said Melissa Lohnes, MFRC Prevention, Support and Intervention Coordinator. “In addition to the silhouettes, there were stories and pictures of women who paid the ultimate price - their lives. It was a very humbling experience; you could hear people finding similarities like ‘oh, she was the same age as me’ or ‘look, she was from my hometown.’”

The wine and cheese also featured a speech from Therese Murray, the Foundation’s Executive Director, and presentations by women from the Fredericton Multi-Cultural Association.

Liberty Lane
The Gagetown MFRC is currently working with Liberty Lane, a charitable organization dedicated to family violence prevention and support, to develop a unique outreach program for their CF community.

“Liberty Lane is not a new partner, however the Freedom to Be group is a new program being developed to address the needs of our military spouses,” said Melissa. “We recognized that many of the women in our community needed a program that was held here in Oromocto and that had a child care option. They needed a program that looked at abusive relationships, and at the options available if they found themselves in an abusive relationship.”

The Freedom to Be program is slated to begin in January 2011. It will consist of six sessions, covering a range of topics such as recognizing an abusive relationship, gaining tools and information to move forward, and sharing experiences with others who have experienced abuse.

For more information about either of these programs, connect with the Gagetown MFRC on www.familyforce.ca.