November is Family Violence Prevention Month.
This issue is an urgent one in our community, as Alberta has the second highest rate of domestic violence in the country.
In Alberta, Family Violence Prevention Month started in 1986 as a local initiative in the town of Hinton, Alberta where concerned residents launched a family violence education and prevention campaign. This grassroots effort inspired the Alberta Legislature to support family violence prevention as an ongoing provincial initiative, resulting in the creation of Family Violence Prevention Month. Today, hundreds of Alberta communities and thousands of individuals are actively involved in preventing family violence by providing public education and services.
Today, many communities across Alberta, including right here in Edmonton, held launch events. This year’s theme is: “What is your role? Men and Boys Speaking Out”.
Here at CPLEA, we have a new co-publication to help mark the event.
Together with the Alberta SPCA, we are proud to announce the publication of: Get Out: and keep them safe too!, an information sheet about the how to include companion animals in protection orders in Alberta. For background information about the links between domestic violence and animal cruelty, see the ASPCA’s The Cruelty Connection: The Relationships between Animal Cruelty, Child Abuse and Domestic Violence and Inside the Cruelty Connection: The Role of Animals in Decision-Making by Domestic Violence Victims in Rural Alberta (Complete Report), a research report to the Alberta SPCA by Dr. Donna Crawford & Dr. Veronika Bohac Clarke.
For information about domestic-violence related programs in the City of Edmonton, see here.