Stratford CFUW and City of Stratford to host panel discussion on intimate partner violence at city hall

Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Stratford and area residents will have the opportunity to discuss how they can best help victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) in their own lives during a panel discussion hosted by the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) Stratford and the City of Stratford at the end of the month.

To be hosted inside the Stratford City Hall auditorium from 7-8:30 p.m. Jan. 29, the panel on intimate partner violence will focus on recognizing signs of IPV, understanding its impacts and learning how individual people and communities can respond to an issue the city and more than 100 other municipalities across the province have declared an epidemic.

“What (declaring IPV an epidemic) means is you’re recognizing how pervasive this is in society,” CFUW Stratford president Cambria Ravenhill said. “And it’s not just a Stratford or Ontario or Canadian issue, it’s a global issue and it has wide-ranging impacts across families in society. Traditionally, it has been thought of as a women’s issue; it is not a women’s issue. It is much broader.

“So, this recognition from the city is very important, but then it begs the next steps, and those steps are things like survivor supports and housing, and improved justice practices, and engagement, and building coordinated systems. That’s certainly not something we can do alone, and in Stratford we’re very lucky we do have places like Optimism Place and Emily Murphy Centre and even Shelterlink that can help survivors, and we at CFUW thought we could be part of the solution moving forward.”

After working last year with Stop Violence Against Women (StopVAW), a Perth County committee that works to develop prevention and awareness strategies for IPV, to spread awareness through a poster campaign, Ravenhill and other members of CFUW Stratford heard from numerous people in Stratford and beyond who were unsure how to help a friend, family member or neighbour who they suspected may be a victim of IPV.

Questions arose around how to determine if someone is a victim of IPV, how best to approach the situation and offer help, and when to involve police and other outside organizations. To help answer those questions and give area residents a public forum in which they can ask other questions they may have and share their own stories, CFUW Stratford partnered with the city to host this panel discussion.

Moderated by CFUW Stratford member Leanne Perreault, the panelists include Stratford Police Service Const. Darren Fischer, Emily Murphy Centre executive director Lisa Wilde, lawyer and Shelterlink board co-chair Alix Grice and author of The View from Coffin Ridge: A Childhood Exhumed Gwen Lamont. Each panelist brings a unique perspective on the IPV epidemic, whether it’s working with victims on the front lines and connecting them with supports and resources or, in Lamont’s case, drawing from her personal experience as a survivor and using that experience to fuel her research into IPV.

The panelists will each have an opportunity to share their experience with those gathered before taking questions. They will also be available for a short time after the panel discussion to speak with attendees who have questions or want to speak about their experiences in a more private setting.

“This is not just a panel; people in the audience will be able to follow up on something they heard or ask a pressing issue, and then they’ll have some availability afterwards if they want to talk with the panelists one on one,” Ravenhill said. “We want people to be able to take away information and take away tools so they’re not just feeling like a helpless bystander.”

Ravenhill said she hopes those who attend will leave feeling equipped to recognize when IPV may be an issue and address it in a way that is both safe and in the victim’s best interests. Beyond that, she said the panel discussion will encourage locals to speak out about IPV in the wider community, helping to remove the stigma that forces victims to suffer in silence.

To register for this free panel discussion, visit https://tinyurl.com/4vzh3ve3.