Violence and abuse topic of seminar

Last week, Yorkton was the site of the first in a series of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Workshops planned by the Ministry of Justice & Attorney General around the province this winter.

Interpersonal violence specialist Rod McKendrick spoke to an audience of RCMP officers, front-line abuse workers, and community members on November 15 about navigating the legal options available in cases of domestic abuse and violence.

"[These workshops] are to inform them about the various tools that are available to address some of the issues around interpersonal violence, abuse of the elderly, children exposed to violence, and criminal harassment," explained McKendrick, "and to make sure that those who work in this area, be it frontline staff such as shelters, social services, crisis centres, social agencies, and police, are all on the same page so there's some consistency from everybody involved."

A broad approach involving many different specialists is essential to ensuring that all ground is covered in these situations, McKendrick said.

"A social worker might work with a police officer long enough to realize that when they're in a situation, something's a crime. And a police officer might work with the social worker long enough to realize that maybe that's a protection issue. As we work together long enough, we develop more skills."

This interdependency makes the personal networking aspect of events such as Tuesday's workshop highly valuable.

"There was a lot of different agencies represented here today," said Cpl. Wes Heuchert, who helped organize the workshop on behalf of the Yorkton RCMP. "Some of them we meet within different groups like the Partnership Against Violence and the Yorkton [Alliance of Asset Champions]. So you can see how everybody's getting more and more familiar with each agency here just by looking at the way people sat, even, at the tables."

Through discussion and education, said McKendrick, the cross-organizational work already being done in Yorkton in the fight against violence and abuse can be advanced further.

"They're addressing it, but maybe they've got some extra tools now to help them take that drive they have with the partnership to the next step."