{"id":35358,"date":"2024-11-07T17:13:01","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T22:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=35358"},"modified":"2024-11-14T14:51:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T19:51:43","slug":"hundreds-walk-to-highlight-epidemic-of-domestic-and-gender-based-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/hundreds-walk-to-highlight-epidemic-of-domestic-and-gender-based-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds walk to highlight \u201cepidemic\u201d of domestic and gender-based violence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hundreds of residents gathered at St. Andrew\u2019s College on Sunday to raise awareness of \u2013 and call for a stop to \u2013 domestic and gender-based violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellow Brick House\u2019s annual Break the Silence: Step into my Shoes event took place at the campus on Sunday, November 3, drawing residents and representatives from all levels of government alike to send a poignant message that it\u2019s \u201ctime to walk towards change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am so happy to see everyone here for our eighth-annual Walk,\u201d said Yellow Brick House Executive Director Lorris Herenda, addressing the crowds and emcees from SAC and St. Anne\u2019s School. \u201cOn behalf of the women and children we serve, our incredible staff, our committed volunteers and our passionate Board of Directors, welcome. Thank you to St. Andrew\u2019s and St. Anne\u2019s students and administration for once again supporting our campaign to raise awareness around Gender-based violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLast year alone, we worked with over 5,300 abused women and children and offered them a variety of our programs and services, including emergency shelter beds, our 24-7 crisis support line, our community counselling and support services, which include individual counselling for women and children, group support for women and children, family court support, transitional housing support, mental health counselling and integration coordination. We try to address all the needs that families face. Now we also reached over 2,300 students for our public education prevention program [and] today, we\u2019re not here as individuals, we are here as a powerful collective to raise awareness and break the silence about gender-based violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gender-based violence, she said, impacts \u201cmillions of women and children in Canada\u201d and, in underscoring the importance of shining a light on the situation, she noted these situations \u201cthrive in silence, behind closed doors, dismissed as a private matter,\u201d and as though it is something to be ashamed of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here to break the silence,\u201d she said. \u201cDomestic violence, intimate partner violence, gender-based violence has reached epidemic proportions in Canada with one in three women living in a violent home with their children. Today, we\u2019re going to take strides to walk to support the survivors because your courage and your resilience is incredible and they need our support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking part in Sunday\u2019s event representing Aurora were Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MP Leah Taylor Roy, Mayor Tom Mrakas, and Ward 2 Councillor Rachel Gilliland. Also on hand to show their support were the MPs Paul Chaing and Anna Roberts, MPP Laura Smith, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Newmarket and Richmond Hill Mayor David West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elected representatives were invited up to the microphone to share their commitment to raising awareness and drawing a line under the domestic violence epidemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have witnessed and heard stories of gender-based violence and we all know that victims of gender-based violence should not feel shame,\u201d said MP Taylor Roy, noting previous participation in Take Back the Night events. \u201cWe all have to do more. For places like Yellow Brick House that provide shelter, solace and counselling to women and children, we need to give them support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing participants at the start of the meeting, Mayor Mrakas hailed Yellow Brick House as a \u201ccornerstone of support in our community\u201d helping women and children across York Region escape violent situations and access the supports they need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am grateful to see so many community members and local businesses participating in today\u2019s walk, to help ensure Yellow Brick House can continue its essential work,\u201d he said. \u201cThis walk is about more than just raising funds for a cause, it\u2019s about honouring the women and children lost to domestic violence, showing our support for survivors and sending a powerful message that, as a community, we are committed to ending domestic and intimate partner violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile government action is critical, each of us here today can make a difference. By coming together, we\u2019re showing we are part of the solution. We must continue working together to ensure that young people understand this issue and recognize what healthy relationships look like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Hundreds of residents gathered at St. Andrew\u2019s College on Sunday to raise awareness of \u2013 and call for a stop to \u2013 domestic and gender-based violence. Yellow Brick House\u2019s annual Break the Silence: Step into my Shoes event took place at the campus on Sunday, November 3, drawing residents and representatives from all levels of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35358","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\/2024\/11\/2024-11-07-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9ci","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 14:29:22","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\/35358","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=35358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35360,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35358\/revisions\/35360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}