General News » Headline News » News

Break the Silence walk to mark 10th anniversary with expanded outreach

October 16, 2026   ·   0 Comments

For the last decade, hundreds of community members have laced up to take part in the Break the Silence Step in My Shoes walk, a key fundraiser for the Aurora-based Yellow Brick House, which provides shelter services for women and children escaping domestic violence.

As Yellow Brick House prepares to mark the 10^th anniversary of the walk on Sunday, November 1, beginning at St. Andrew’s College, they are expanding their event beyond the campus to shine an even brighter light on the issue of domestic violence, a dark trend that is not slowing down.

For the first time in its decade-long history, the Break the Silence, Step In My Shoes Walk will expand to Yonge Street, raising awareness and funds for programs and initiatives designed to prevent future instances of domestic violence through school-based violence prevention workshops, online learning modules on abuse and healthy relationships, community workshops for newcomers and immigrants, elder abuse prevention education, and training programs for organizations and community partners.

“The 10^th anniversary really speaks to the significance of persistency and the fact that we understand that the horrible statistics surrounding intimate partner violence or gender-based violence are not going to change overnight, but it’s an investment in the future of our youth and our younger generation who are looking forward to living a future free of violence,” says Lorris Herenda, Executive Director of Yellow Brick House. “Intimate partner violence has not, unfortunately, decreased in Canada. It’s still a huge societal problem with one in three women living in violent, dangerous homes with their children. During the pandemic and recent years, we’ve also seen an incredible increase in femicides; over 60 women and children being killed a year. We are grateful to see a decrease in that number last year and, furthermore, decreased this year. Up to the end of August, we lost 30 women and children in Ontario, so we’re averaging about three a month, unfortunately. It’s still very tragic, but definitely the numbers are improving.

“We are actually thrilled to be having our 10th anniversary and expanding our walk, which will be now St Andrew’s campus and also Yonge Street, increasing our number of participants, increasing our visibility, because it is all about Breaking the Silence, which means that we need to be able to speak up about intimate partner violence. We need to be able to assist women and children who are suffering in those situations. As a community, we can change the future.”

By going beyond the SAC campus, Herenda says she hopes community members will be able to take in the signs and placards held by participants to underscore the fact “we all play a part in preventing domestic violence and assisting survivors of domestic violence.”

“We all know somebody who’s living in a violent home. It might be our neighbor, it might be our colleague, it could be our family member, a friend. Just because it may not be happening to you doesn’t mean that it doesn’t pertain to you,” she says. “It’s not a private issue. It is one that we need to talk about. We need to understand why it’s happening. We need to be able to intervene and assist those that need our help and not just walk away. Walking is about taking a stand. It is about taking a position that domestic violence impacts all of us and we need to break the silence around it because that’s the only way we’re going to be able to reverse the statistics that are currently happening.”

It’s important for participants to understand that this show of support literally helps save lives, she says. Education, she adds, is the “only way we can turn the tides” on both domestic violence and gender-based violence.

“Every participant that joins us, even though it’s been 10 years, they know this is a long ride and this is a fight worth fighting for because we’re all walking to protect our community members; we’re walking to protect our children, our family members, our colleagues,” she says. “We’re all playing a part in ensuring there’s actual societal change down the road.”

“Every year we celebrate the thousands of women and children that are able to get services at Yellow Brick House. They’re able to break free from violence and rebuild their lives. That’s our essence, that’s our core, that we are helping women and children break free, rebuild their lives and become positive contributing members of our community,” she adds. “A lot of our participants are actually survivors and they are paying it forward. They’re giving back to the community that supported them, and they recognize that there’s other women and children who may be impacted by that, and they want to be able to help us support them. For us, that is a success story that we see every single day at Yellow Brick House.”

For more information on this year’s Walk, visit break-the-silence-step-in-my-shoes-walk-2026.raiselysite.com.

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Readers Comments (0)