Each year, thousands of Ottawa women are abused by husbands, boyfriends and family members. This year, a women’s group leading a campaign to raise awareness is taking the effort to new places.
The Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women is working with Ottawa Police and local businesses on its month-long Shine the Light campaign.
Abused women often struggle with speaking about domestic abuse, and OCTEVAW sees the project as a way to help women feel comfortable sharing their experiences of violence with a wider community.
“A lot of the times when we do violence-against-women work, we are talking to people who already understand the issues and we don’t really talk to the mainstream,” said Dillon Black, prevention program coordinator for OCTEVAW.
The campaign aims to target new audiences by entering local community spaces, such as businesses and parks.
This year, Centretown will be more involved than in past years, with Elgin Street businesses participating in the campaign for the first time.
The Ottawa Police get about 5,000 calls reporting domestic abuse each year.
But many women are afraid to call the police, and even those who flee abusive partners may have trouble finding a shelter.
While Black said most people are aware that there is widespread domestic abuse, not everybody knows about the additional problems abused women face.
“We turn away women everyday,” said Kia Rainbow, executive director for the Interval House of Ottawa, an emergency shelter for abused women.
“We operate at what we call full capacity — we’re always full.”
Shelters around the city are echoing the problem.
Harmony House, a second-stage shelter designed for a maximum one-year stay, often houses women for years before they are able to find affordable housing, said Leighann Burns, the executive director.
“There are massive problems with waiting lists everywhere,” said Burns.
“Everything is absolutely backlogged.”
Read the full story at centretownnews.ca
Domestic abuse equally affects all Ottawa neighbourhoods, but the downtown core is home to many of the resources available for women seeking help, including women’s shelters, emergency help centres and the OCTEVAW headquarters.
Despite waitlists for shelters and affordable housing, police services are simultaneously struggling with low rates of reporting violence.
At Interval House, most women who come to the shelter have not reported their abusers to the police, said Rainbow.
Nationally, Ottawa has one of the lowest rates of reporting domestic violence, and women often find reporting domestic abuse much more difficult than reporting violence involving a stranger, said Insp. Jamie Dunlop of the Ottawa Police.
“When a woman is trapped in an abusive relationship, there are other factors and pressures that come down and bear on her,” said Dunlop. “You are involved emotionally with the person who is being abusive towards you.”
He said that by working with advocacy groups and violence-against-women front-line workers, police hope progress will be made to help women feel more comfortable coming forward and reporting abuse.
“We want to get the message out there that we do want women to report,” said Dunlop. “By coming forward, even if we can’t lay criminal charges, we can help you start the process of finding support.”
With continuing education and public outreach such as the Shine the Light campaign, experts see domestic abuse as a problem that can eventually be alleviated in Ottawa.
“Violence against women is a well-documented and well-understood problem,” said Burns. “It’s time to think about it as something that we can end within our lifetime.”