New toolkit to help Inuit women cope with family violence

In a project called Sannginivut, the Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre has developed a toolkit to help Inuit women cope with family violence. (FILE PHOTO)

Special to Nunatsiaq News

For Rebecca Jones, the violence prevention co-ordinator at the Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre, strong voices make stronger communities.

She’s the brains behind a new prevention toolkit for Inuit women in Ottawa and Nunavut, which aims to help women and girls gain access to social services more easily when they’re affected by domestic violence.

The project is called Sannginivut, which in English means “our strength,” and it’s a three-year project with funding from Status of Women Canada.

The prevention toolkit, now in its last stage of development, is being translated from English to Inuktitut before its launch in a few weeks.

“What we will do is provide a copy to many different service providers in Ottawa,” Jones said in a telephone interview.

Even Ottawa police officers have agreed to carry the resource cards included in the toolkit with them while on duty, to give to any Inuit women who require social services when they are at risk or have already been victims of violence.

In fact, one of Ottawa’s police service members was part of the advisory committee Jones collaborated with for this project.

“Right from the beginning we wanted to make sure we had in-roads with the police,” said Trudy Metcalfe, a co-worker of Jones at OICC who also worked on the toolkit.

“They are the ones who are first on the scene.”

Front-line workers, RCMP, shelters and schools will receive these prevention toolkits as well.

Besides including a resource card that lists Inuit-specific organizations, addictions services, support services for women and girls, and crisis lines, the toolkit also has a calendar to be used to keep track of important details and dates.

Being immersed in violence regularly can make it hard to keep track of time.

“I got the idea from an app that exists for women who have been affected by domestic violence,” Jones said. “When women are experiencing domestic violence, they don’t have time to reflect on their situation.”

Jones said she hopes this toolkit will help women gain access to services more easily in Ottawa and spread awareness throughout Nunavut communities so that when women do go to Ottawa, there are Inuit-specific services that are available to help them when they are most vulnerable.

“It is a very different world down here than up north,” Jones said.

And Jones knows firsthand about these specific needs because she is also a survivor of domestic violence.

Nine years ago, Jones could have used a toolkit just like this when she left an abusive situation.

“My personal experience has helped me have a different lens to see these needs,” Jones said. “There is a lot of healing that needs to happen in the Inuit community.”

For Metcalfe, the toolkit is all about giving connections and resources to assist women and girls through the traumatic experience of violence.

She also knows there’s a great need for it in both Ottawa and Nunavut.

“Unfortunately, it is necessary,” Metcalfe said. “We know that violence and abuse against Inuit women and girls is out there.”

As Nunatsiaq News reported this past January, although domestic violence in Iqaluit has declined between 2008 and 2015, it is still higher in Iqaluit in than any other single community in Canada, with rates more than eight times higher than the national average in 2015.

When women leave Nunavut for their safety and go to Ottawa for health or social services, Metcalfe said she knows how easy it is for them to get lost in new and unknown systems if they lack information on resources, or if they don’t have an organized list of Inuit-specific services.

Sometimes simply not knowing what resources are out there can leave Inuit women and girls staying in not-so-great living conditions, Metcalfe said.

Even if these prevention toolkits can help one person, Metcalfe knows it will have been worthwhile.

“There are some barriers some Inuit women face and these will open doors,” Metcalfe said.