{"id":25122,"date":"2019-10-31T14:45:18","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T18:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25122"},"modified":"2019-11-08T11:58:26","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T16:58:26","slug":"breaking-the-silence-on-domestic-violence-every-step-of-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/breaking-the-silence-on-domestic-violence-every-step-of-the-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking the silence on domestic violence \u2013 every step of the way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The stats are sobering and they might shock people into\nsilence, but as much as they shocked students at St. Andrew\u2019s College last\nyear, it has inspired them to double down on their efforts to break that\nsilence and be a part of the change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, the local independent school is teaming up\nwith Yellow Brick House to break the silence on domestic violence by hosting\nStep in My Shoes, a fundraiser for the women\u2019s shelter which will see hundreds\nlace up the shoes of their choice \u2013 including laceless stilettoes \u2013 to help end\nviolence against women and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third annual Step in My Shoes walk will take place at\nSt. Andrews\u2019 expansive campus next Sunday, November 3, with a goal of raising\n$60,000 to provide women and children escaping violence with 365 nights of\nsafety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExperiencing the event last year, I think, was quite\nshocking for our boys,\u201d says Joe Commisso, Head of Community Service at SAC.\n\u201cWe took about 10 boys to the event last year and it brought attention to an\nissue that needs attention. As an all-boys school, it is our duty to ensure our\nboys are educated in issues such as domestic violence and making sure they are\nable to be a part of the change. As young men, they are going to be the\ngeneration that can really push forward and ensure we\u2019re doing our part in\nmaking a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellow Brick House is committed to providing life-saving\nservices and prevention programs to individuals, families and communities\nimpacted by violence. According to Lorris Herenda, Executive Director of Yellow\nBrick House, domestic violence impacts one in four women in Canada and their\nchildren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe issue of domestic violence has reached epidemic\nproportions and that often results in disastrous outcomes where a woman is\nkilled every six days,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you count the number of women and\nchildren and family members that are killed, a person is killed every two and a\nhalf days in Canada as a result of domestic violence. We\u2019re hoping with our\ninvolvement with St. Andrew\u2019s College, we\u2019re going to break that silence that\nsurrounds domestic violence because in order to work towards prevention and\nelimination eventually of domestic violence, we need to have the courage to\nspeak, we need to have the courage to inform each other, to get young men\ninvolved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Men, women and children are all invited to take part in\nthis event, raising money in the process, because it is essential that everyone\nunderstand that even if they don\u2019t feel domestic violence has impacted them\ndirectly, that is a misconception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt impacts them as a community when somebody is killed\nand somebody is suffering,\u201d she adds. \u201cWe know there are over 360,000 children\ncurrently attending schools who are living in violent homes, so even though you\nmay not be personally impacted by it, you\u2019re sitting beside a child in a\nclassroom who is impacted by that. The young men at St. Andrew\u2019s College, not\nonly are they getting exceptional education, they\u2019re also developing their\nsocial accountability and responsibility because these are our future leaders\nand they will lead with their voices towards gender equality, gender equity,\npay equity, whatever we need to remove the oppression that is affecting women\nand children in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year\u2019s walk, which took place at Upper Canada Mall,\nwas the first time SAC students had the chance to take part. It was something\nof a challenge for the school, adds Mr. Commisso with a laugh, as he had to hit\nevery area thrift store to find high heels big enough for the young men\nattending the school, but it was all worthwhile. This year, rules surrounding\nfootwear have been relaxed \u2013 come as you are, even if you want to wear flip\nflips \u2013 and the campus is ready to make an impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe boys realised it takes a little bit of effort to\nmake a world of difference and I think that\u2019s what they are really interested\nin doing with this event,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have a beautiful campus we like to\nshare with everyone we can, so this was just a match made in heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the perspective of Yellow Brick House, the\nobjectives are twofold: as a charity that works with over 5,300 women and\nchildren every single year, they have wait lists for their 51 shelter beds and\ncribs, along with their counselling programs, family court support program, and\ngroup support programs. Every dollar raised \u2013 and every step taken \u2013 will take\nthem closer to reducing their waitlists for people hoping to recover from\ntrauma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn addition to the fundraising, we\u2019re also counting on\nraising awareness,\u201d says Ms. Herenda. \u201cThis is a topic people don\u2019t like to\ntalk about. It\u2019s wrapped in shame. Women feel ashamed. There is a misconception\nin the community that domestic violence only happens to a select group of\npeople and one thing the boys learned last year is that it can happen to\nanybody. It crosses all cultural and socio-economic barriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to change the language around domestic violence.\nWe often hear, \u2018Why doesn\u2019t she just leave?\u2019; the accountability is not with\nher leaving, the accountability should be with the perpetrator that is\ncommitting the crimes against his partner, his children and family members. I\nbelieve that the young generation is really taking a look at this issue and\nconsciously they will be changing the language; how they speak to each other,\nhow they address the girls they associate with, how they position themselves\neven in social media. It is that breaking the silence, changing the language\nand changing the attitudes a step at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on Break The Silence: Step in My Shoes, including how to register and\/or donate to a participant, visit yellowbrickhouse.akaraisin.com\/ui\/BreakTheSilenceStepinMyShoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yellow Brick House, St. Andrew\u2019s College team up on Step in My Shoes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/2019-10-31-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6xc","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 14:35:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}