• Based
on current trends, one in three
BC women will be a victim of spousal
assault in her lifetime.
• Results from victimization surveys suggest that as many as 90% of all
sexual offences in Canada are not reported to the police.
• Aboriginal women between the ages of 25 and 44 are five times more likely
to experience a violent death than other Canadian women in the same age category.
• In Canada, 39% of women are worried about being home alone at night; 60%
are worried about walking alone in their neighbourhoods after dark; 76% are worried
about using public transportation after dark; and 83% are worried about walking
alone to their cars in a parking garage.
• While women fear assault from a stranger, almost half of the women who
experience violence by men, know their attacker.
• An initial estimate of the cost of violence towards women in British Columbia
is $385 million annually. This includes direct policing costs, the costs of transition
houses, counselling and other services.
Program
Objectives
A feeling of safety is basic to our emotional and physical well-being.
Many women and children do not live and work in safe environments and this
severely limits their productivity and self- sufficiency. The Minerva Foundation
will support programs that deal with the systemic problems around safety:
• Provide education, outreach and support to women and others on violence
prevention and how to create safe environments for themselves and their children.
• Encourage development of life skills programs to encourage personal safety.
(e.g. conflict resolution, self esteem building)
Programs
Offered
Walking the Prevention Circle:
The Minerva Foundation is pleased to be the catalyst that enabled five
Aboriginal women from communities around British Columbia to participate
in the five day Walking the Prevention Circle train-the-trainer workshop
in Victoria in late March 2001. The workshop was a Canadian Red Cross Abuse
Prevention Education Program designed to empower women and communities
to take the first step in developing safe environments.
Weyerhaeuser generously sponsored
this program.
Potential
Programs
• Education program and corporate policy placement on workplace harassment.
• Dating safety programs for teenage girls.
