According to Stats Canada - Family Violence in Canada - a statistical profile in 2019, there were 107,810 victims of police-reported intimate partner violence in 2019, up from 99,000 in 2018. Alberta has the 4th highest rate of police-reported intimate partner violence amongst the provinces. The overall rate of police-reported family violence increased for the third consecutive year, rising 13% over this period.
Those alarming numbers do not take into account unreported cases, which often happens for various reasons. Reasons may include, but are certainly not limited to: fear, shame and embarrassment of being judged, blamed or not believed. In many of those cases, individuals may also not be accessing any sort of supports.
While shelters are, and will always be, a critical service, most times when a person gets to a shelter, the abuse has increased significantly not just in number of incidents, but also in severity/risk. In order to turn this around, we need to shift our thinking and perspectives to expand opportunities around prevention and early intervention, through a holistic approach.
“Safe at Home” is designed to be an alternative approach to serving families experiencing domestic abuse and violence, with a focus on healing the whole family. The abusive partner is the one to move to an off-site facility or independent living; while their partner and children stay in their home and work with our outreach team to ensure their safety and help them begin to heal as well.
In this program, individuals are able to access psychoeducation (including the range of coercive or abusive behaviors, common abusive tactics and the effects that abuse has on partners and families) and ongoing supports to address the unhealthy patterns and behaviors of abuse. This men’s only facility is a place to live and to obtain supports in the hopes of making meaningful change to eliminate violence and abuse in relationships, families and communities.
The vision of “Safe at Home” is that this innovative approach will help us break the cycle of domestic abuse in our communities.
Speaker: Nara Fedozzi
Nara is a registered Social Worker an extensive background in community services and program development. She is very passionate about social justice, advocacy, and challenging stereotypes.
Nara is originally from Brazil, where she started her career. She has over 15 years of progressive experience in various areas such as government, heal and non-profit settings, with the last several years focusing on housing and social services supports. In Canada, Nara was able to expand her experience in the Domestic Violence sector, having worked for many years, with individuals experiencing domestic abuse and violence.
Nara was thrilled to assume the role of Program Director with the Safe at Home Program in June 2021. Nara believes that this innovative program will advance the work around supporting individuals, families and communities in making positive changes that will help break the cycle of Domestic Abuse and Violence.