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Local program gains R.E.S.P.E.C.T

A locl project has gained national recognition and government funding.
A locl project has gained national recognition and government funding.

Further information is included in the following news release issued today by the Ontario Provincial Police:
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(North Bay, ON)
At a news conference earlier today, the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Project partners provided details about the innovative events and activities that have taken place since the project’s inception in January 2003, earning the program recent national recognition and Phase Two government funding.

Project Recognition and Future Plans
In May of 2004, the RESPECT Project received a national award from Women and Cities International, presented by the Honourable Anne McLellan at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Conference in Edmonton.

As well, The R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Project was recently named as this year's winner in the Foundation for Rural Living’s - Awards of Rural Excellence in the category of Excellence in Community Leadership. The formal award presentation will be made on October 18, 2004 in London, Ont.

Phase Two involves a consultative process with women and girls, mothers and sons, and fathers and sons in preparation for a women’s wellness conference in North Bay in March of 2005. Women’s wellness is being defined as including physical safety, emotional strength, developing leadership skills, and understanding economic development.

Project partners stress that if the challenges related to violence against women and children are not addressed, there are consequences for the stability, safety and prosperity of whole communities, as well as families and individuals.

“Women’s wellness is crucial to ensuring wellness for the whole community," explained Ms. Roberta Oshkawbewisens Martin, R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Project Coordinator.

"When that happens, everyone benefits.”

Background
The R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Project was initiated by Amelia Rising Sexual Assault Centre of Nipissing in partnership with the OPP.

The project has many facets and a network of project supporters, including the regional Abuse Issues Coordinator for the Ontario Provincial Police (Northeast Region), the Anishinabek Police, three women’s shelters (two rural, one urban) an Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Centre (remote), three local Associations for Community Living, as well as various Aboriginal Elders, Grandmothers, NAADAP Workers, Community Mental Health Workers and Community Healing Outreach Workers (some rural, some remote).

The acronym stands for Resources, Education, Safety, Prevention, Empowerment, Community-Building and Training. These are the elements that help to achieve the project goal: to improve the personal security of women and children in rural, northeastern Ontario.

Roberta Oshkawbewisens Martin, who has coordinated the project, is an Ojibway woman fluent in Ojibway and Odawa. The focus of Ms. Martin’s activities in the past year has been to develop and deliver a series of mother and daughter retreats, in a range of rural and remote locations, to strengthen women’s self esteem, and family and community relations. The retreats include traditional teachings on women’s strength and women’s leadership. Project partners provided legal and safety measures to the retreat participants.

The education and empowerment aspects of the project have included sessions for young Aboriginal males (13-16), Aboriginal children (seven-12), Aboriginal and Francophone girls (12-14) and women with developmental disabilities.

The sessions explored topics relating to relationship and family violence under the auspices of the Seven Grandfather Teachings. Workshops on addictions, sexual abuse awareness, safety and prevention have also been delivered to primary school students for Bear Island Education Authority (Temagami First Nation), to clients and associates of the Métis Woodland Centre, to senior women of Temagami First Nation, and to secondary school students, teachers and educational assistants of Kashechewan First Nation on the James Bay coast. In that remote community, direct service to survivors was also provided as well as a workshop on vicarious traumatization for front-line health care workers, over the course of one week in February, 2003.

Training has involved abuse awareness and response workshops for Healing Lodge staff and camp counsellors. Legal information workshops for women experiencing violence were provided for 20 front-line, anti-violence and anti-poverty agencies from across the northeast last November, in partnership with the Ontario Women’s Justice Network and the Law Society of Ontario.

Phase One of the project, which began in the spring of 2003, with funding with a Community Mobilization Grant from the National Crime Prevention Strategy, Justice Canada. Phase Two, which began in late spring of 2004, received additional federal funding as well as provincial funding in the form of a domestic violence grant from the Ministry of the Attorney General.