BYTE mentoring girls on coping with violence
A new report has found that Yukon girls face some of the highest rates of family violence.
A new report has found that Yukon girls face some of the highest rates of family violence.
Statistics Canada’s report, called The Girl Child, was released last Wednesday.
It found that in 2014, girls under 17 faced the highest rates of police-reported family violence across all three territories.
Yukon girls faced the second-highest rates in Canada, at 1,269.8 cases per 100,000 population.
These rates were 2.4 times higher for girls than boys in the territory. The national average is 289.1.
Family violence refers to violent criminal offences, ranging from uttering threats to homicide, where the perpetrator is related to the victim.
Yukon youth organization Bringing Youth Towards Equality (BYTE) offers a number of workshops that address violence.
“We work with young people to try and give them the skills to navigate some of those issues,” Shelby Maunder, BYTE’s executive director, told the Star last Thursday.
She said one of their most popular workshops is Healthy Relationships, which helps youth develop problem-solving skills, non-negotiable values and compromise.
“When young people have a good understanding of boundaries, they’re more likely to express them in the relationships in their lives,” she said.
They also have the MOVE! Youth Ending Violence series of workshops, which address issues like gender stereotyping, bullying, bystander intervention and oppression.
“All the workshops that we offer have been designed around conversations with young people in the community,” explained Maunder.
“Just giving young people the space to talk about these issues is important.”
The territorial victim’s services branch also provides services for children and youth affected by violence and crime.
Project Lynx is based on the child and youth advocacy model and aims to improve the territory’s co-ordinated response for young victims.
“Really, the focus and intention is to reduce any kind of systemic trauma for young people,” Lareina Twardochleb, the director of victim’s services, told the Star.
Victim’s services workers support children, youth and their caregivers through the justice system, including reporting to RCMP, safety planning and referrals to community supports.
Twardochleb noted that victimization surveys often show there are much higher rates of violence than those reported to police.
“I think reports do consistently put the North and Yukon at higher rates,” she said of the Statistics Canada report.
“This is one of the first ones I’ve seen that’s targeted towards young people.”
The territorial Women’s Directorate issued a statement in response to the report, stating that it, “demonstrates that there is more work to be done to ensure that young women and girls access their right to lives free of violence.”
The directorate is responsible for making sure the Yukon government includes gender considerations in policies, legislation and programming.
According to The Girl Child, the rates of family violence against girls were highest nationally in Nunavut at 1,849.4 per 100,000 population.
The Northwest Territories had the third-highest rates, at 1,224. These rates were nearly twice as high for girls than boys.
Nationally, physical assaults and sexual offences were the most commonly reported types of family violence against children.
While the rate of physical assault against boys and girls was similar, the rates for sexual assault were four times higher among girls than boys.
Comments (5)
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s on Mar 2, 2017 at 5:36 pm
I came across a reference to a site called Mighty Girl, which might have some good references for this program.
Examples:
"Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men" at http://www.amightygirl.com/why-does-he-do-that
To help your Mighty Girl learn how to build supportive, mutually respectful relationships, there is an excellent guide that provides foundation advice on approaching relationships in a healthy manner, "A Smart Girl's Guide to Boys," for girls 9 to 13 at http://www.amightygirl.com/a-smart-girl-s-guide-to-boys "
Etc.
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Ben better on Mar 2, 2017 at 3:19 pm
Chala, how about teaching young people not to be violent, period? I'm so fed up with the "violence against women" rant. Women are typically smaller. Therefore, they are more likely to be the victim. But until we start saying "don't hit" instead of "don't hit girls" we will never begin to stop violence
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numbers are not what they seem on Mar 2, 2017 at 12:45 pm
The skewed numbers on "police-reported family violence" are a perfect example of reporting bias. Females are more likely to interpret interactions as violent, more likely to see themselves as the victim, and more likely to report those events to police. Shamefully, Statistics Canada is using gender-differences of "police-reported family violence" to accomplish a political agenda, rather than pointing out the obvious short-comings of such statistics as a prudent researcher would do.
Despite overwhelming evidence that men and boys are more likely to be directly affected by violence, we continue to see these kind of "statistics" and "studies" used to justify ever more resources to "protect" women and give them ever-greater legal and political power, while simultaneously criminalizing male behaviour.
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Chala on Mar 2, 2017 at 7:10 am
Worst headline ever....how about teaching boys and men not to be violent towards women and girls.
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yukon56 on Mar 2, 2017 at 12:52 am
The elephant in the room, Nuff said