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Researchers aiming to identify eliminate intimate partner violence in NWT Tuesday September 29 2015 11 JUSTICE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Where Fort Smith Recreation Centre parking lot When Saturday October 3 10 am to 4 pm Items accepted old fuel paints aerosols engine oil fluorescent bulbs pesticides cleaning products electronic waste thermostats. Residential composters will also be sold at a subsidized rate. This is intended for residents only no commercial waste. For more information call Gerald Enns at 867 920-3326 or Fort Smith town office at 872-8400. Household Hazardous Waste collection 128-377 Northern Journal By DALI CARMICHAEL A research project created to identify and address challenges of intimate partner vio- lence in the Northwest Territories is headed into its fth and nal year and the results arent pretty. Entitled Rural and Northern Community Response to Intimate Partner Violence re- searchers from the University of Regina are partnering up with localized academics to collect data on violence rates in the prairie provinces and the NWT. So far territorial contributors have uncov- ered that domestic violence impacts house- holds in every community of the NWT and that a similar string of obstacles in each place only help to facilitate that violence. Were asking what are the needs of vic- tims - of women - who have experienced in- timate partner violence What are the gaps in services for women and how can we cre- ate non-violent communities said Aurora Research Institute lead researcher Pertice Moftt. Since 2011 researchers have gathered a plethora of data ranging from environmental scans and RCMP statistics to interviews with frontline workers and community proles. We were left feeling very overwhelmed by the barriers that the frontline service providers were telling us in the third year Moftt said. But we were really encouraged to move their stories forward and to create tangible ways to reduce and eliminate vio- lence in the territory. The NWTs current system for dealing with intimate partner or family violence focuses on crisis intervention however a set of chal- lenges identied in the research make that approach difcult. Remote communities limited access to the territorys ve shelters a culture of violence stemming from the impacts of residential school high rates of alcohol use depleted resources fast burnout on the part of front- line workers all of these elements help to uphold the territorys infamous reputation as a hotspot for domestic violence. The services themselves are non-collab- orative. Service providers are doing the best they can and they themselves are coming up saying were not working together were kind of silos and were patching work together said Heather Fikowski co-academic investigator. We need to start providing seamless col- laborative service delivery for women. Geographers on the team have started to use the data to map out rates of violence in each community compared to available ser- vices - including shelters and RCMP detach- ments - using geographic information system GIS technology. The main message of the map is that vio- lence is everywhere in the NWT we can see that its in every community Fikowski said. That tells us we have a problem. It kind of validates it and it also of course highlights communities that have more violence than other communities which means you could pinpoint and target strategies and help to a particular community. What do the numbers say First of all some communities - even the most remote - have more than 100 reports of domestic vio- lence annually. We have 11 communities without RCMP we have almost 80 per cent of communities without victims services in the community Fikowski said. We have only ve shelters to service everybody when they cant even get there. Its very difcult when youre eeing violence to actually make it to the shelter. Putting the data to work The next step for the researchers is using the data to make a difference. Now were analyzing all of our data and we want to come up with an action model Moftt said. Were developing a plan on how we can disseminate what weve learned and what we can do with that. Lorraine Phaneuf executive director for the Status of Women NWT has a few ideas. Its all there in a territorial map and that is the rst time weve seen that in the terri- tories. We see statistics but we never see it in such a visual way and it helps you kind of interpret and analyze whats actually hap- pening Phaneuf said. Some of the strategies identied as worth pursuing so far include education and aware- ness campaigns about violence and healthy relationships increased efforts to encourage frontline service providers to work collabor- atively and developing programs with long- term funding and getting funding for local programs in the communities themselves or in the territory. Were going to look at ways that the Co- alition Against Family Violence can work to- gether to ll in those gaps in our lobby work and set some priorities on where the services are needed Phaneuf said. We are meeting as a coalition with the shelter directors on Oct. 6 and 7 to come up with a journey wall of what weve done and a journey wall of where were going. I think that those GIS maps will be cru- cial in things that we select as our priorities. Phaneuf noted however that its important to bear in mind that the maps are just a snap- shot of a moment in time and folks shouldnt get too caught up in the numbers but rather pay attention to the general patterns. Sometimes rates can change drastically she said. Perpetrators can be perpetrating ve or six times it could be the same person. Fikowski agreed People have to handle it carefully she said. Every single commu- nity is unique and complex. To talk about one or two communities specically is not really going to move this research forward. I think that what we need to do is focus on what those challenges are that have come out and also what are some of the strategies that frontline service providers see as being helpful in try- ing to overcome those barriers. As the ve-year project heads into its nal stage the Aurora researchers are looking for ways to extend its impact. An advantage might be that if we had maps for every year over time say if we had 10 years of mapping we would be able to plot out differences and what happens over the long run Moftt said. Are we improving What does that look like Thats kind of a nice ambitious thing to think about doing. I just feel that its such a good opportunity for us to use these maps to do lobby work to apply for funding were just very excited that this is coming to fruition Phaneuf said. PhotocourtesyofPerticeMoftt Pertice Moftt left and Heather Fikowski are leading efforts to research rural and community responses to intimate partner violence.