Whitehorse-area children who witness domestic violence will soon have a new crisis counselling program available to them.

The Department of Justice has announced a $216,700, five-year funding program that will establish counselling for the children of parents in the Domestic Violence Treatment Option Court.

'I think there's a lot of people who think, well, if the kid wasn't right there or wasn't involved or wasn't injured themselves, then it didn't have an effect on them. That is an absolute myth,' Sandra Bryce, manager of the Department of Justice's Victim Services and Family Violence Prevention Unit, said Monday afternoon.

The actual structure of the child intervention program has yet to be determined.

The department is hosting a three-day information session for front line workers who deal with children who witness violence.

The session has more than 75 participants who include social workers, teachers, probation officers, RCMP officers and nurses.

It is focusing on education and training regarding the effects of domestic violence on children and what can be done as a community to cope with it.

Representatives from the Child Witness Project in London, Ont., and the Zebra Child Protection Centre in Edmonton are also present to speak about the programs and their effectiveness in their provinces.

Following the conference, an advisory committee will be established in April to determine what type of program will be most beneficial to Yukon children.

'The North always has its unique mark,' said Bryce. 'We probably have a very high rate of children who have cognitive delay problems and also the fact that we live in a very tight community so people know each other. There may not be strangers around the room.'

The program will need to address how to interact with children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and intervention directed at a variety of age groups, she said.

The program will likely be available to approximately 30 to 40 children per year. It will focus on assessment, group dynamics, peer support and relationship-building through fun and interactive activities based on counseling techniques, said Bryce.

Recent national research has shown witnessing violence affects the development of a child and it is important to provide crisis intervention as soon as possible, added Bryce.

The federal Department of Justice reports approximately seven per cent of people married or in common-law relationships in Canada have been victims of, or witnessed, domestic violence over the last five years.

As well, 135,573 Canadian children have witnessed or been involved in domestic violence investigations.

The department further estimated domestic violence costs Canadian society approximately $4.2 billion per year in social services, education, criminal justice, labour, health and medical costs. Disposal of these cases in the criminal justice system alone costs an estimated $8.7 million per year.

Yukon Justice Minister John Edzerza said domestic violence 'has always been an issue' in the territory and this program will look at the 'whole picture' rather than solely focusing on the adults.

'Children are affected as much as anyone else,' Edzerza told the Star.

Bryce agreed, adding children witnessing domestic violence often suffer post-traumatic stress disorder and can sometimes go on to become victims or offenders in domestic violence themselves.

The new program should help break that cycle, she said, because it will work as an intervention program.

Children witnessing domestic violence can often feel unsafe in their homes, she added. The new program will give the children a safe place where they can talk with a trusted adult, she said.

'When children are able to tell their story in a safe environment, it reduces that anxiety for them,' said Bryce. 'We will basically be looking at children and how they make sense of the world that's around them when there's violence in the home.'

Edzerza said the program's introduction is partially related to the impression the Domestic Violence Treatment Option Court left on Canadian justice ministers during last year's ministers' conference in Whitehorse.

The treatment option court was praised as an example for other jurisdictions in Canada. The intervention program for children will only help expand on that, said Edzerza.

Though the program is currently only receiving funding for five years, Edzerza said if it's successful, funding will likely be increased and the intervention techniques further strengthened.