"Creating a Framework for the Wisdom of the Community:" Review of Victim Services in Nunavut, Northwest and Yukon Territories
4.0 Yukon Territory (cont'd)
4.3 Services Available in Yukon Communities (cont'd)
4.3.2 Inventory Findings
Details regarding each service interviewed for this research can be found in Victim Services in the Territories: A Compilation of Contacts and Resources." Insights interviewees shared regarding successes and obstacles to service provision can be found in the following sections of this chapter. Their recommendations for service provision to victimized people can be found at the end of this chapter. In addition, many respondents shared their understanding of informal and traditional ways of dealing with victims.
Traditional and Existing Informal Victim Services in the Yukon Territory
The purpose of gathering information on traditional First Nations of dealing with victimization is to explore approaches that may have worked in the past, and that therefore might be built into the design of any new victim-centred services. The purpose of gathering information on current informal ways of dealing with victims is to understand how gaps in contemporary formal services are being addressed. Given the degree of need, and the competing demands for limited resources, it is important to learn from, and to build on, the informal supports that have worked in the past, and continue to work in the present.
The information in this section is based on interviews with Territorial First Nations people, most of whom are currently key service providers in the Yukon. Their names are among those listed in Appendix A. As in the research undertaken in the other two territories, other respondents include women who were, or are, victims of interpersonal violence. The largest group of respondents are those community-based service providers contacted during the inventory of YT service providers (see Appendix B).[136]
Traditional Approaches to Dealing with Victims in Yukon
"Women endured it."
"Under the traditional First Nations clan system, there was a strict prohibition on intermarriage within clans … when there was wrongdoing, the Crow and Wolf clan leaders would have to resolve it … there might be a big community gathering to mediate and resolve it."
"Traditionally men were hunters and providers; there were distinct roles for men and women … I’m not convinced women were treated well."
"There were many more mechanisms to keep people connected to each other for survival … getting people into wilderness camps, back on the land, dealing with traditional elements and meeting basic needs in a supportive environment … they were more community-oriented to support each other … today victimized people are disconnected from each other, their culture, their language … they’re much more isolated … it’s 250 communities of 1, not 1 community of 250."
"In cultures based on the circle, people take care of the circle first before you take care of yourself … all life is interconnected, that’s your survival … it depends on your connection to the land and your family and others to whom you are linked … hunting and gathering societies manage relationships that are conducive to that."
"Traditionally there were gender specific gatherings when there was trauma."
"A lot of us don’t know what responsibility and accountability and change is about … I was taught to haul water, do laundry, cook, basic skills … I had to do them or I got beat … we need to do more on family violence, sexual abuse … it has to start coming out of the grave … its so buried people are saying let it stay there … a lot of us are saying ‘no, speak up!’"
"They used spiritual health for healing … pray with the sun in the morning to let go … there’s four directions … get up early enough and pray … my mom took me to a place up the bay … she told me that’s where sweat lodges and prayers were used all the time for anything and everything."
"Anything you have on your body is sacred … I carry ashes in my pocket from a sacred fire with special bark and plants my mom gathers … ashes help give me strength … there’s bad people out there that give bad energy and one needs protection."
"Somebody would go around and pick up all the kids who were hanging around on the street while their parents were drinking and bring them home and give them something to eat and somewhere to stay."
"I saw more neighbourhood community bonding when I lived in town 15 years ago … people knew everybody in the whole neighbourhood … now we don’t know everybody on the same street and don’t see many people doing community support …. more organized services are available."
"Some men have said that things are bad now because women are providers and working outside their traditional roles."
Most respondents believe that victims of spousal, physical or sexual assault in the distant past did not receive very much personalized support or validation. A common response is that women and children simply "endured it."
However, these respondents note that in pre-colonial times there were more built-in coping mechanisms within the culture that, in themselves, kept people more connected to each other, and therefore safer. People had to work together in order to survive. In addition, people in those times saw their natural environment as empowering and time spent on the land, in hunting and gathering pursuits, did, according to some respondents, help people with healing and health. Prayer, sweat lodge ceremonies and other traditional spiritual rituals also helped people maintain balance and harmony within themselves and within their clan. And, according to one respondent, some people found ways to protect themselves spiritually from those with negative energy.
Some respondents note that clan leaders would meet to mediate disputes but it’s unclear if incidents of interpersonal violence were dealt with in this manner. And one respondent says there were gender specific gatherings for traumatic events, but again it is not clear if these would include incidents of interpersonal violence.
In more recent times, when formal services were either non existent or in their infancy, respondents report that in some communities a few adults would gather up, feed and house those children whose parents were drinking or otherwise unavailable. A number of respondents said that this spirit of community support and togetherness has eroded in the last 20 years referring to the advent of more formalized services and a societal shift towards individualism, as opposed to communalism.
Some respondents note that there is some blaming of women for the current levels of interpersonal violence. Apparently, some people believe violence is the result of women stepping outside their traditional roles and taking on the role of ‘provider,’ a role previously fulfilled by the men in the community.
Existing Informal Methods of Dealing with Victims in the Yukon
"I know there is some informal community support for some people, friends or family … some people go to their clergy to talk … sometimes there are healthy people in a community and they are really helpful to people."
"The issues of belonging, family and containment is very difficult for abused women in the communities… there’s huge resistance to acknowledging spousal violence, its impacts on the family and its presence in the community."
"Victimized people have hardly any family and community support."
"The Family Violence Prevention Unit gets calls from people asking what should we say, what should we do … we educate family members and friends about how to deal with victims."
"I’ve been humbled to see healthy grieving in the face of horrible traumas in Old Crow … the whole community will gather at the community centre and cook for the family."
"Our outreach workers offer a lot of informal outreach in the community … they go to community dinners, etc."
"Everyone needs to survive … victims rely on defence mechanisms … they need support to open up … denial and avoidance are common coping mechanisms."
"In recent years, First Nations have been holding healing conferences and gatherings … often the support for victims just doesn’t happen … many women just don’t feel empowered to speak about their lives to other people, especially when they are victims of violence."
"Generally victims are silenced … victims don’t come forward … they’re fairly isolated in terms of dealing with their victimization."
"Victims may have reached out in the past for support and it hasn’t worked, so they don’t reach out again."
"It really depends on the community … there’s a lot of telephone counseling that happens."
"Agency people phone Victoria Faulkner Women’s Centre and Yukon Status of Women Council looking for women-centred services which may be lacking elsewhere or to help women work through a system that’s not working for them there."
Most respondents report that many victims of physical, emotional and sexual abuse remain hidden and silent within the community. Some towns may have a loose network of informal support, but not a great deal is known about how it works or where it exists. Two respondents stated that some victimized people are being supported through phone contact with friends and/or family members. And the Family Violence Prevention Unit reports that they get calls from community people asking how they can be supportive to the victimized people in their town.
Victim Services Outreach Workers (Family Violence Prevention Unit, Yukon Justice) are attempting to help build those informal support networks, and increase the viability of more formal services, within the smaller communities by focusing on community inter-agency cooperation and relationship building. Community building and some communal support of victims are also being encouraged by those band councils who have held healing conferences and other gatherings to address their social problems. And both the Victoria Faulkner’s Women Centre and the Yukon Status of Women Council report that they receive calls from agencies seeking services for female victims that fall outside the existing formal services.
However, by and large, victimized people who don’t use the more formalized services, described elsewhere in this document, develop their own coping mechanisms. Children and adults of both sexes, and in all cultures, ‘deal’ informally with their own victimization through a range of symptoms and behaviours known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These symptoms include identity confusion, memory dysfunction, dissociation, mental disorientation, a wide range of emotional and psychological problems, relationship disruptions, sexuality dysfunction, a wide range of physical symptoms, and/or a general loss of faith in life. Each individual unconsciously puts these symptoms together in a way that enables them to survive in their particular circumstances. These circumstances may be painful but they are at least predictable and familiar. In that respect, there is as much safety and happiness as the individual has come to accept as ‘normal’.
There are also some more affirmative methods used by victimized First Nation individuals, and some non-Aboriginal people, to cope with their situation. For example, some respondents report that prayer, and the intervention of angels and other helpful spirits, has made a tremendous difference in their lives, and in the lives of other victimized people they know. Others say that sports, sewing and traditional crafts, dancing and singing have proven a useful tool in dealing with their victimization. But perhaps the most universal method of informally coping with violent relationships, addictions and victimization, for First Nations people at least, has always been spending time away from the community, and sometimes one’s family, by going out on the land to camp, hunt, fish and trap. This can be difficult for individuals and families without the resources necessary to life on the land. However, respondents stated that it is the universal goal of most First Nations people to spend as much time as possible away from the cares and problems of community life and replenish their psychic energy at favourite spots far from "town".
According to respondents, families and communities, in both First Nation and non-Aboriginal Yukon cultures, tend to informally deal with victims in a variety of ways. There is a fair amount of collective and personal denial about the existence and impact of interpersonal violence within families and communities. Several respondents point out that abused and assaulted women and children are not a priority concern in any Yukon culture. They make the point that women in almost every culture are considered second-class, and some go so far as to see women as largely disposable citizens.
In these circumstances, it is understandable when victims are also dealt with informally through blaming and shaming. And there is also some blaming and attacking of service providers and activists who attempt to highlight the situation. Over time, victims, and sometimes those providing service to them, learn to blame themselves. Blaming and shaming have the effect of silencing people, making them easier to control, undemanding of service or recovery and obedient towards the existing private and public circumstances in which they, and their children, must survive.
Implications for Victim Service Delivery
As stated throughout this chapter, there are in the Yukon a wide variety of experienced, universally available resources for victims. However, the situation in terms of chronic violence and victimization, and its attendant denial, blaming and secrecy, is, according to respondents, very entrenched and difficult to alter.
When some victimized people finally come to the attention of the ‘system,’ service providers, funders and community caregivers are usually dealing with traumatic reactions that have, in themselves, become social norms over many generations. This is true in both the First Nations population and the non-Aboriginal population. As noted earlier, individuals, families and groups of people who have been marginalized, dominated and oppressed over several hundred years develop coping mechanisms for survival that include all the elements of post traumatic stress disorder. When these coping mechanisms are filtered through an individual’s culturally based social norms, as described earlier, they can become even more confusing to deal with. Service providers can find themselves in some difficult situations as they try, for example, to balance the need to empower an abused First Nations woman with that woman’s desire to maintain an ongoing, non-confrontational relationship with her husband and his family (remembering the value high context cultures place on maintaining non-confrontational, intact family ties at all costs). Alternately, how do service providers convince an abused man from a low context culture, which values privacy, individualism and ‘success,’ that he might find it helpful to share his story and feelings with other men?
Service providers are in the position of needing to understand the dynamics of patriarchy, trauma, victimization, culture and social norms. This information, alongside practical information about legislation, resources and intervention methods, will at least make it easier to understand the victim’s behaviour and feelings, and help them choose interventions that are meaningful to them. It may also make it easier for victim-centred programs in First Nation and non-Aboriginal cultures to assist and support each other on both practical and emotional levels.
Current Formal Services Available in the Yukon Territory
Services currently available to victims of crime in the Yukon Territory can be grouped under the service categories of women’s shelters, victims services, advocacy and information services, treatment programs, community justice committees, and counseling and mentoring programs.
Women’s Shelters
All five Yukon women’s shelters were interviewed during this research process. These shelters are located in Whitehorse, Watson Lake, Carmacks, Ross River and Dawson City. All shelters but one have full-time paid staff. The shelter in Ross River has on call, as needed staffing only. All shelters offer shelter, food, lay counselling, referral, advocacy, information and support. All shelters focus on the safety of the women and children in their facilities and promote respect for the choices and dignity of the women and children in question.
Kaushee’s Place in Whitehorse is the largest shelter with 15 beds and 20 staff. It services all Yukon communities. In addition to emergency shelter, Kaushee’s Place provides a 5-apartment second stage facility where women and children can stay up to 6 months as they develop plans and make arrangements for independent living. Kaushee’s Place employs, in addition to shelter staff, an outreach worker, a sexual assault worker and a second stage coordinator. Programs include a 24- hour crisis line, childcare programs, aftercare programs and a parenting program in addition to regular shelter programming. Kaushee’s Place also works with a variety of agencies, such as the Alcohol and Drug Secretariat and the Family Violence Prevention Unit in planning gender specific programs for women and in helping develop policy and legislation affecting victimized women and children. Kaushee’s Place reports that they are consistently operating at 98% to 105 % capacity. The majority of clients are First Nations women. From January 1999 to July 2001, approximately 53% of admissions were to First Nations women.[137]
The next largest shelter is in Watson Lake. The Help and Hope for Families Society operates a 13-bed transition house with 3 full-time and 3 casual staff. In addition to standard shelter programming, they take 24-hour crisis calls and offer a program called "Safe Circles," which is a weekly support circle for abused women. They also take children apprehended for up to 48 hours by Social Services for whom no suitable placement can be found.
The shelter in Dawson City, Dawson City Women’s Shelter, has 3 full-time and one part-time staff. In addition to standard shelter programs, they offer a resource library and a weekly childcare program called "Kid’s Time."
The shelter in Ross River, Magedi Safe House, is open to abused women, neglected children and abused elders. With 4 on call workers it is opened on an as-needed basis. They report that 20 people used their service in the past year.
The shelter in Carmacks, Carmacks Safe House, with one full-time staff and on call staff offers weekly support/culture groups in addition to standard shelter programs.
Victim Services
There are a large number of victim-centred, comprehensive, diversified and universally available victim service programs in Yukon. They include:
- Victim Services, Family Violence Prevention Unit, Yukon Justice;
- Kwanlin Dun First Nations Community Justice Project Victim Services;
- RCMP Crimes Against the Persons Unit Victim Assistance volunteers;
- Crown Victim Witness Assistance Program, Justice Canada;
- Committee on Abuse in Residential Schools;
- Youth Victim Services, Family Violence Prevention Unit, Yukon Justice;
- Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society; and
- Child Abuse Treatment Services, Yukon Health and Social Services.
All victim-focused programs offer supportive lay counselling and referral services in addition to other services as described below.
Victim Services, Family Violence Prevention Unit, Yukon Justice
Yukon Justice Family Violence Prevention Unit, Victim Services, offers home and hospital visits, crisis intervention, advocacy and court accompaniment. They assist with Victim Impact Statements and offer a Women’s Program whose goal is the safety and recovery of women victimized by spousal assault. They have 5 full-time staff, 3 part-time staff and handled 782 cases, a total of 1025 victims, in 2001/2002. Seventy percent of their clients are women and 45% are First Nations. Victim Services has offices in the Whitehorse RCMP detachment as well as in Dawson City and Watson Lake. They travel and offer services in Mayo, Ross River and other communities. Victim Services also does public education, workshops and training, school presentations and offender assessments. They assist in Peace Bond applications and with Emergency Intervention Orders and Victim Assistance Orders. Their focus is victims of spousal assault (67% of case load) and sexual assault (21% of case load).
Kwanlin Dun First Nations Community Justice Project Victim Services
Kwanlin Dun First Nation Victim Services offers one-to-one and group counselling in the form of healing circles for victimized First Nations people and their families. Their focus is Kwanlin Dun band members residing in Whitehorse. There is one staff person who also takes crisis calls and assists with Victim Impact Statements and court attendance of victims. This program assists over 50 First Nations victims per year. It is part of the Kwanlin Dun First Nations Community Social Justice Project.
RCMP Crimes Against the Persons Unit Victim Assistance Volunteers
The RCMP Victim Assistance volunteers assist primarily with victims who are not victims of spousal and sexual assault. They may accompany police to crime scenes and victims are also referred to them by police. This program exists in most Yukon communities.
Crown Victim Witness Assistant Program, Department of Justice Canada
The federal Crown Victim Witness Assistance Program assists victimized individuals with the court process. They assist with Victim Impact Statements and attend hearings and trials with victims. They prepare victims for court, explaining the court process and reviewing statements. There are 2 staff at this time and a third is being recruited. They make referrals to other victim services and agencies. They travel with the federal prosecutor to all Yukon communities on court circuit.
Committee on Abuse in Residential Schools
The Committee on Abuse in Residential Schools (CAIRS) offers recreational and healing programs to First Nations victims of residential schools and their families. They have five staff and offer talking/healing circles, support groups and one to one counselling. They have a drop in centre and several cultural programs in Whitehorse. They see from 25 to 40 people a day. This service is available to all Yukon residents who have experienced residential school trauma.
Youth Victim Services, Family Violence Prevention Unit, Yukon Justice
Youth Victim Services is a new program (January 2002) at the Family Violence Prevention Unit, Yukon Justice. There is one full-time and one full-time seasonal staff assigned to run several programs. These include a group for teenage girls who have experienced violence in dating relationships, drop in and group counseling, court assistance, youth outreach workshops, public education, and they are developing a bullying program. They had 30 clients in the first 2 months of the program.
Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society
Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society in Watson Lake is, like CAIRS, a healing and recovery program for residential school survivors and their families. Their focus is Kaska people of the southeastern Yukon. They bring in a therapist from BC and offer cultural activities. They also run a summer long camp for families. They serve approximately 200 families a month and 1,500 individuals per year.
Child Abuse Treatment Services, Yukon Health and Social Services
Child Abuse Treatment Services, Yukon Health and Social Services has five full-time staff working with children from 3 to 18 years old. They offer various forms of therapy to victimized children and non-offending parents. Two outreach workers offer treatment services three days per week in the various Yukon communities. They had 315 clients in the past year.
Advocacy and Information Services
There are a large number of service providers in Yukon offering advocacy, information and generalized support services to all Yukon residents. These services are the Bringing Youth Towards Equality and Youth Shaping the Future Council; Women’s Directorate, Yukon Government; Yukon Status of Women Council; Victoria Faulkner Women’s Centre; Yukon Public Legal Aid Association; Skookum Jim Friendship Centre; Yukon Legal Services Society; and Blood Ties Four Directions Society. The mandates of these services include services to victimized people seeking these services. The services provided in each are described below.
Bringing Youth Towards Equality and Youth Shaping the Future Council
Bringing Youth Towards Equality and Youth Shaping the Future Council is a youth organization which focuses on building peer support networks, mentorship and employment programs for young people ages 15 to 30. They offer conflict resolution and mediation training. They have five full-time staff who serve approximately 45 young people per week. They work with youth and their families and schools to solve problems and assist with legal issues. They have traveled to several Yukon communities to offer training.
Women’s Directorate, Yukon Government
The Women’s Directorate focuses on policy development that will increase the status and equality of Yukon women. They publish the Family Violence Resource Directory and Options, Choices and Changes, a handbook for women in violent relationships. They have an extensive resource library and co-chair the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Status of Women Working Group on Violence Against Women.
Yukon Status of Women Council and the Victoria Faulkner Women’s Centre
Both the Yukon Status of Women Council and the Victoria Faulkner Women’s Centre have resource libraries and offer lay counselling, advocacy, information and support services to women needing information and support in dealing with formal support systems and various problems, including victimization. Located in the same office, both organizations serve up to 600 clients per year from all Yukon communities.
Yukon Public Legal Aid Association
The Yukon Public Legal Education Association provides legal information and education to all Yukon residents. It has two full-time staff giving information to persons who don’t qualify for legal aid or who need legal information. In the last fiscal year, they had 2,466 phone requests, 251 in−person requests and 28 mail requests.
Yukon Legal Services Society
The Yukon Legal Services Society provides free legal services to all qualifying Yukon residents who can’t afford a lawyer. Yukon Legal Services Society has 10 full-time staff.
Skookum Jim Friendship Centre
Skookum Jim Friendship Centre has three full-time staff working in the Tan Sakwathan Youth Diversion Program which provides early intervention and healthy alternatives to First Nations youth and their families who come in conflict with the law.
Blood Ties Four Directions Society
Blood Ties Four Directions Society offers drop-in support, groups and referral for all Yukon individuals living with HIV and Hepatitis C. They do prevention and education workshops throughout the Yukon. They have 2 full-time staff.
Treatment Programs[138]
There are a variety of residential and non-residential treatment programs in Yukon available to all Yukon residents. These programs include Residential Treatment Programs, and the Alcohol and Drug Secretariat, both of Yukon Health and Social Services.
The Residential Treatment Programs run by Yukon Health and Social Services provide home style residential treatment services for lower functioning, cognitively impaired youth who may have been previously victimized. The goal of the program is to encourage independent living. Three residences in Whitehorse are available to all Yukon youth. There are presently 12 residents.[139]
The Alcohol and Drug Secretariat offers residential detoxification, addictions treatment, prevention programs, out-patient counselling and aftercare services in a 10-bed facility. Most clients have a history of victimization. They take referrals from all Yukon communities. With a staff of 26 (increasing to 42.4 in 2002/3) they serve approximately 1,200 detox clients and 200 counselling clients per year. Staff travel to all Yukon communities and will be adding new counselling staff positions in Watson Lake, Dawson City and Haines Junction. They have assisted communities in developing aftercare programs for community members.
Counselling and Mentoring Programs
This sector includes those services that offer counselling and mentoring services to victimized people and the general public. These services include Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Society of the Yukon; Community Health Centres, Yukon Health and Social Services; Mental Health Services, Yukon Health and Social Services; and Yukon Family Services.
The Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Society of Yukon has one full-time coordinator and two part-time peer support workers offering, in conjunction with the Family Violence Prevention Unit, Yukon Justice, an intervention project called "With a little help from my friends." The goal is to support women with FAS to reduce their victimization and criminal behaviours. They work with families, individuals and communities to teach ways to work and live with FAS. Life skills, general mentoring and personalized support are the focus.
Community Health Centres offer standard health care in each Yukon community. In this capacity, they do lay counselling with victimized women, report child abuse, refer patients to services and offer medical treatment to victims.
Mental Health Services, Yukon Health and Social Services, have 11 full-time staff doing assessments, individual and group therapy and referral for a range of mental health patients. They accept referrals from all Yukon communities and do outreach into all communities.
Yukon Family Services is a non-government counselling agency with 21 staff. It offers individual, family and group sessions on a variety of issues. Educational programs, play therapy, youth work, parenting and other programs are available. They have community offices in Dawson City, Watson Lake and Haines Junction. They also offer services in Teslin, Carmacks, Mayo, Pelly Crossing, Destruction Bay, Beaver Creek and Burwash Landing on an itinerant basis. They had 4,300 counselling hours in 2001/2 and 280 days of service in rural communities.
- [136] The full list of Nunavut community-based service providers can be found in Victim Services in the Territories: A Compilation of Contacts and Resources, Mary Beth Levan, Ottawa: Policy Centre for Victim Issues and Research and Statistics Division, Department of Justice Canada, 2002.
- [137] See Kaushee’s Place, Yukon Women’s Transition Home, Program Review, November 2001.
- [138] Some offender treatment programs are included in the inventory of Yukon services, Appendix B, as many offenders are also victims. These programs include: Offender Programs of the Family Violence Prevention Unit, Yukon Justice; Residential Treatment Programs, Yukon Health and Social Services; Youth Sex Offender Treatment Program, Yukon Health and Social Services; and Alcohol and Drug Secretariat, Yukon Health and Social Services.
Yukon Community Justice Committees state that they see the protection and recovery of victims as part of their mandate. (See the Yukon Community Justice Committee online at www.communityjustice.yk.net )
These committees are composed of volunteer participants with paid coordinators. Offenders are referred to them by the police and by the courts. They do pre- and post-charge diversion programming for non-violent offenses. They also hold peacemaking circles, family group conferencing circles and healing circles which include both victims and offenders, their supporters, professional service providers and other community members. They provide sentencing recommendations to the Territorial Court and work with community members on various restorative justice initiatives. - [139] The majority of Yukon children in all forms of care are First Nation. See Anglin. Jim, Their Future Begins Today: Yukon Residential Care Review, December, 2001.
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