"Creating a Framework for the Wisdom of the Community:" Review of Victim Services in Nunavut, Northwest and Yukon Territories

3.0 Northwest Territories (cont'd)

3.0 Northwest Territories (cont'd)

3.2 Services Available in Northwest Territories Communities (cont'd)

3.2.2 Inventory Findings (cont'd)

Current Formal Services Available in Northwest Territories Communities

The formal services available to victims include:

The following discussion provides details for each of these types of services.

Women’s Shelters and Family Violence Counselling/Advocacy Programs

There are a total of eight family violence programs in the NWT. Five of these programs are residential shelters for abused women and their children. The remaining three are counselling/advocacy programs that focus on family violence prevention. These programs are located in Yellowknife, Fort Smith, Hay River, Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk, Aklavik, Fort Good Hope and Fort Providence. All shelters take referrals from anywhere in the territory and also from Nunavut. (Costs for Nunavut residents are billed back to that government by the regional health boards, which have administrative responsibility for these programs. Costs to send women to out of town shelters are born by the health board in the client’s region.) All shelters have between 5 and 12 beds. The shelter in Hay River has a second stage house where 2 families can reside for up to 6 months as they make plans for independent living. The shelter in Yellowknife, run by the YWCA, can access emergency apartments, also run by the YWCA, as potential second stage units for clients. (There is, however, a 60-person waiting list for these apartments due to the housing crisis in Yellowknife.)

All shelters offer group counselling, support groups, individual counselling, advocacy, referral, childcare programs, public education, training workshops, crisis lines, drop in support and some recreational programming. They have between 3 and 10 full-time staff members with on-call staff for emergencies, evenings and weekends. In 2000/2001, there were 257 women and 364 children admitted to NWT shelters for a total of 8,343 bed/nights.[88]

The three non-residential counselling/advocacy family violence programs offer healing circles, one-to-one counselling, advocacy, referral and public education. Some offer family focused recreational programs. Each of these three programs has one staff person each.

The Family Violence Prevention Program and women’s shelters were started in the late 1980s, and together with the women’s shelters in Nunavut, they form the advocacy group known as SEDNA: Family Violence Prevention Workers Association.

Victim Services Programs

Formalized victim-focused services came into being in the NWT in 1992. At this time, there are four community-based victim services programs located in Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Smith and Inuvik. These programs serve communities in their surrounding region, although there is no budget for travel. Victimized people, who are able, come to the nearest centre for service. The Yellowknife Victim Services program has two full-time staff members while the other programs have one full-time staff member each. Each program also trains and employs between two and eight volunteers who work some evenings and weekends. These programs offer lay counselling, court support, assistance with Victim Impact Statements, referral, crisis intervention and ongoing follow-up.

In 2001, these programs saw 200 victims in Yellowknife, 135 victims in Fort Smith and 159 in Hay River. The program in Inuvik started in January 2002 and has assisted 26 people to date (June 2002).[89]

Crown Victim Witness Assistant Offices

There is a Crown Victim Witness Assistant Program in Yellowknife and in Inuvik. Each program has one full-time staff member who assists victims of crime with Victim Impact Statements, the court process and the logistics of court appearances. They offer support to victims and refer them to existing services for follow up.

Advocacy/Information Services

There are several advocacy and information services available to territorial residents. Most are located in Yellowknife and all provide other services in addition to their advocacy and information roles. The NWT Status of Women Council, located in Yellowknife but with a territory-wide board, has four staff members and provides advocacy, referral and general human rights oriented support to all territorial women on a drop-in and phone-in basis. This includes, full-time research and program development staff person and a staff person, with a travel budget, who is responsible for developing community-based women’s groups and feminist-oriented educational opportunities in all NWT communities.

The Yellowknife Women’s Centre also plays an advocacy and educational role throughout the territories (along with other programming described below.) With 19 full-time staff they work with up to 75 women per day and 400 families per year. The majority of their advocacy work is with marginalized (poor, addicted, abused, unskilled) women and children. Many of these families have recently migrated to Yellowknife at what the director estimates to be three to four new families per week. At this time, the estimate is that 60% of these families are from Nunavut, specifically the Kitikmeot region, which is air linked directly to Yellowknife. The perception of the Women’s Centre is that women and children (and some men) are coming to access services unavailable in Nunavut. The remaining 40% of migrating families are from smaller towns within the NWT and some from Alberta. All of these families require a wide range of basic services and many need specialized services as well. The Women’s Centre advocates for them in finding housing, jobs, income support, health care, legal resources, transportation, childcare and other services.

The Yellowknife YWCA also plays a major territorial role in terms of advocacy. Many abused women prefer to come to the shelter in Yellowknife as it is more anonymous and has links to a wider range of services than regional shelters. The Yellowknife YWCA, with a transitional housing program for low-income families, a trauma recovery program and programs for people with disabilities (described below), plays a major advocacy role for victimized people across the territory.

Neither the Yellowknife Women’s Centre nor the Yellowknife YWCA have regional offices, and people have to come to Yellowknife to access their services.

The NWT Legal Services Board offers legal aid services, a free territory-wide legal information law line, public legal information and a courtworker program to all territorial residents. There are courtworkers based in eight NWT communities besides Inuvik and Yellowknife.

The NWT Fair Practices Office offers information and will advocate for individuals in the areas of human rights, labour relations and related areas. A Yellowknife law office is contracted by the government to deliver this service. A territorial Human Rights Act was recently enacted by the territorial Legislative Assembly but is not yet staffed or operational.

Territorial Friendship Centres also play an advocacy/educational role. They are located in Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Hay River, Yellowknife, Inuvik, Rae Edzo and Fort Providence. Those offering advocacy or other services to victims are listed in Appendix B (a full description is provided in the companion document to this report, the Victim Services in the Territories: A Compilation of Contacts and Resources) under the town where they are located. The Friendship Centre in Fort Smith sponsors the Victim Services Program in that town. The Friendship Centre in Hay River offers specific advocacy services to marginalized people. The Friendship Centre in Fort Providence sponsors the "Family Life Program," a family violence prevention program.

The Canadian Mental Health Association, NWT Branch operates a nightly territory-wide help line with advocacy information, referral and HIV/Aids information.

Treatment Programs

There are several territorial residential, and non-residential, treatment programs available to all territorial residents. At this time, there is one adult addictions treatment facility, Nats’ejee k’eh Treatment Centre, located on the Hay River Reserve (Katlo Deedhe First Nation). With 20 staff and 42 beds, it offers a 28-day program based on both Aboriginal spiritual traditions and western therapeutic interventions. It also runs treatment follow-up programs and a 24-hour crisis line. It serves approximately 30 people per month and 300 people per year. It is funded by the Deh Cho Health and Social Services Board.

Somba Ke’ Healing Lodge, outside Yellowknife, is also a residential treatment facility specializing in the rehabilitation of federal inmates referred by Corrections Canada. It has 12 staff and 28 beds. It has the capacity to deliver other specialized programs such as addictions treatment and trauma recovery to the general public, and is now moving into that area.

The Grollier Hall Residential School Healing Circle, a non-residential program also based in Yellowknife, offers advocacy, legal and emotional support to people abused as children at Grollier Hall Residential School. They have approximately 76 ongoing clients throughout the territory pursuing lawsuits against the Catholic Church and participating in various trauma recovery programming. One staff member is designated as a victim advocate and oversees the recovery process of the residential school survivors. This position is funded by Victim Services, NWT Justice. Other aspects of the program are funded by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

Bosco Homes, with headquarters in Alberta, operates 2 territorial treatment facilities on contract with the territorial government. One is for children and the other for teenagers. They are located in Yellowknife and Fort Smith respectively. These programs are intended for traumatized children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Each can take up to 10 children at a time and most stay in the programs for three to 10 months. They accept referrals from throughout the territory. These programs are delivered on contract from regional health boards.

The Yellowknife YWCA "Women and Children’s Healing and Recovery Program" is available to all territorial women and their children. With a variety of components for both women and children they can offer non-residential trauma recovery and life skills programming on an individualized and group basis for up to 12 months. (Women from outside Yellowknife have some difficulty in attending due to the housing shortage in Yellowknife.) With 7.5 staff this program is able to offer individual therapy, group counselling, life skills and parenting programs, case management, advocacy and crisis intervention for both women and their children. This program is funded by the territorial government through the Yellowknife Regional Health and Social Services Board.

Counselling and Mentoring Programs

In the NWT, each of the six Health and Social Services Boards fund a variety of counselling and mentoring programs. They are all listed and described in "Victim Services in the Territories: A Compilation of Contacts and Resources" under the community in which they are located. They are:

Non Victim-Focused Community-Based Services

Non victim-focused, community-based services made up the largest proportion of the NWT inventory of services. In each town outside Yellowknife, schools, health centres, counselling programs, wellness programs, social services offices and mental health programs were contacted, if they were present in the community. For 26 of the 30 NWT communities, these services are the only locally available sources of safety, stability, recovery, support, advocacy and information.

Approximately a third of all schools have at least a part-time school counsellor who works with parents and children. Otherwise, schools attempt to address victimization issues in the student population through a variety of methods, namely, structured and individualized programming, breakfast and lunch programs, recreation programs, student trips, culture and language programs, elder/youth programs, and talking/sharing circles.

Nursing stations, or health centres, also do not have the ability to deliver specialized services to victims outside of basic health care and some supportive lay counselling. They do refer people to social services but cannot arrange for removal of a victim to a shelter. (Only the regional Health and Social Services Boards have that authority.) They report suspected child abuse cases to the Health and Social Services Boards through community-based or "fly-in" social services workers.

Some communities also have counselling programs, wellness programs, addictions and mental health programs, some on a "fly-in" basis only. Wellness programs, such as Health Canada’s Prenatal Nutrition Program and Aboriginal Headstart, and counselling programs, administered and funded by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, are sponsored on a year-to-year basis by a variety of local agencies. First Nation band offices and self governments, Metis Nation offices, and Friendship Centres are the main sponsors, although in some communities municipal governments and other organizations have started to sponsor these programs. Addictions and mental health programs (noted in the previous section) are administered, delivered and funded by regional Health and Social Services Boards. Some communities have resident addictions and mental health workers but for many communities these services are on a "fly in" basis only. These are largely one-to-one counselling, referral and advocacy programs. Where the addictions and mental health workers reside in the community, there is the possibility to do more regular group work and offer more consistent programming and follow up.

All NWT communities receive social services on a residential or "fly-in" basis. Social services workers are primarily concerned with child welfare and services to the aged and handicapped. They offer some counselling services to victimized people and can refer them to territorial treatment programs and/or women’s shelters.

Successes in Victim Service Delivery

Respondents noted a number of successes in victim services delivery. Specifically noted were increases in the number of victim assistance programs, an increase in victim recovery, improvements in public awareness, stronger service providers and caregivers, more trauma treatment programs, and more appropriate sentencing. Each of these advancements in victim service delivery is discussed in more detail below.

More Victim Assistance Programs

Within the last decade, four community-based Victim Services programs were developed by the government of the Northwest Territories through the Community Justice Division of the Department of Justice. These programs have facilitated victim involvement with the criminal justice system and with the Crown Attorney’s office, the RCMP and other community services as needed by the victim. They have trained coordinators and each program has a group of trained volunteers for the provision of 24-hour service. They work in coordination with local community justice committees, where they exist, and with family violence prevention workers, women’s shelters and other community-based services. As a result, victims in the four communities where Victim Services programs exist have increased access to assistance from the time of the offence, throughout court, and beyond if necessary.

Increased Victim Recovery

Respondents who work with victimized individuals say they have seen a significant number of people who have used their services ‘get their lives together.’ Many have had to leave their families and communities, but those who have done so, and sought services in larger centres, and even some who have not left, do recover over time, according to respondents. In addition, service providers say they see more women permanently leaving abusive relationships and becoming more assertive with relatives and friends.

According to respondents, this victim recovery is the result of increased public awareness about victimization and family violence, the growing prevalence of treatment programs that employ both Aboriginal spirituality and western therapeutic interventions, the wider availability of Victim Services programs, the victim’s relocation to a larger centre, the impact of the women’s shelter and feminist movements, the advent of trauma treatment programs, and the efforts of advocacy groups such as the Yellowknife Women’s Centre and the YWCA.

Improved Public Awareness

Respondents note that the public is now much more aware of the widespread child sexual, physical and emotional abuse that occurred over several generations in residential schools throughout the territories. They report that they see the public waking up to the issues of spousal assault and sexual assault. And they are sensing a change in the attitudes of women about their own rights, and the rights and needs of their children.

The 16-year presence of territorial family violence programs and women’s shelters, and the presence over the last decade of community-based Victim Services programs has encouraged the public to take a more supportive stand towards victims. A relatively new initiative, Family Violence Awareness Week, sponsored by the recently formed NWT Family Violence Coalition[90] has done a great deal to put abuse issues front and centre. The Victims’ Assistance Conference of March 2001 went a long way towards raising awareness of victim issues. In addition, the recent Social Agenda Conference of June 2001, attended and supported by both the territorial government and First Nation governments, made a statement that governments, and the political leadership, is recognizing the social problems of the NWT. As well, and according to respondents, territorial judges are taking the issue of interpersonal violence more seriously.

Stronger Service Providers and Caregivers

Respondents providing direct services to victimized individuals, and support to caregivers in smaller communities, say that community-based caregivers are getting stronger and more determined to advocate for victimized community members. A few respondents noted that unlike 15 years ago, caregivers and service providers coming into larger centres for training courses or meetings are no longer arriving with bruises and other signs of a recent beating.[91] In addition, some women’s shelters now have more stable staff and a lower rate of staff turnover.

Some respondents also state that working relationships with other service providers is improving. They see more collaboration around service delivery and the coordination of services for individual clients. They believe the RCMP have become more responsive around the issues of spousal and sexual assault. And in some communities interagency committees have formed and are making spousal assault and child abuse a priority.

This increasing stability amongst service providers and caregivers has lead to, and been strengthened by, the formation of several advocacy, lobbying and coordinating groups: the NWT Family Violence Coalition (described above), namely, the Sedna, Association of Family Violence Prevention Workers,[92] the NWT Association of Social Workers, the Social Agenda Working Group,[93] the NWT Social Planning Coalition,[94] and the NWT Association of Psychologists. Virtually all these groups were formed in the last five to seven years.

More Trauma Treatment Programs

Respondents feel the development of several trauma treatment programs, during the last ten years, has been a major success. Each program reports that they’ve seen many participants turn their lives around dramatically. These programs include the Women and Children’s Healing and Recovery Program sponsored by the Yellowknife YWCA and the Yellowknife Women’s Centre,[95] funded by the territorial government, and open to all territorial women and children; the Somba K’e Healing Lodge, located near Yellowknife, funded by Corrections Canada and others, and open to both federal inmates on parole and territorial residents; the Grollier Hall Healing Circle, funded by the territorial government and the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and open to survivors of residential school abuse at Grollier Hall; the mobile addictions treatment program funded by Health and Social Services, GNWT; and various short-term healing programs held throughout the territory and sponsored by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

More Appropriate Sentencing

Respondents remarked that sentences for violent offenses are slowly becoming more appropriate to the crime and they also see the public taking a greater interest in the types of sentences passed down for crimes against persons. In particular respondents believe abusive men are now getting more sentences involving incarceration, which they feel is appropriate.