|
 |
The purpose of the Healing Journey Toolkit is to provide culturally appropriate resources for Aboriginal communities to assist in their on-going efforts to address family violence and its impact on individuals, families and entire communities. The Toolkit is intended to offer a comprehensive and holistic approach to violence prevention. It includes resources that promote an understanding of the root causes of family violence in Aboriginal communities (public education). It uses a medicine wheel approach to foster discussion on behaviours, feelings and attitudes about family violence that need to be addressed across all age groups and stages of life (public awareness). It offers resources to help individuals in crisis, or the service providers to whom they turn, to find ways to take the first steps on their journey to well-being (crisis intervention). Finally, the Toolkit is intended to foster family and community healing through community dialogue, the creation of positive messages about respectful behaviour and attitudes, and the development of supportive initiatives to address the multiple root causes of family violence and meet the needs of all the people affected by it (prevention).
Specifically, the objectives of the Toolkit are:
|
A |
To promote awareness of the unique issues and barriers that confront Aboriginal communities generally, and Aboriginal women in particular, in their effort to deal with violence and abuse;
|
|
B |
To provide culturally appropriate resources in a variety of formats that will assist service providers working with Aboriginal people to better recognize and deal with abuse and violence in their interpersonal relationships and in their lives;
|
|
C |
To demonstrate how the various forms of abuse and violence are interconnected and their relationship to other issues such as gender equality, racism, residential schooling, and so on; |
|
D |
To profile the resources and services that are available to help Aboriginal women and their families deal with violence; |
|
E |
To highlight the range of legal remedies for family law and criminal law matters that can help Aboriginal people, including those on-reserve, to address the violence they are experiencing; and, |
|
F |
To explore the traditional and mainstream social and health services that can support victims and families on their road to creating healthy personal relationships. |
|