Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. The most recent antiviolence campaign in the NWT was called What Will It Take? It was aimed at changes by standard responses to violence against women. Can the Health and Social Services Minister report on what that campaign accomplished, including how many people took the workshops and where they were offered? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member has indicated, the campaign was intended to break down some of the myths and stigma that exist around family violence and create awareness. The program has had a number of workshops delivered across the Northwest Territories. In 2015-2016, as an example, there were 26 workshops that took place. Twelve of those were facilitated by the Status of Women with 146 participants in communities across the Northwest Territories. We also had other facilitators providing the workshop. FOXY facilitated 14 sessions for youth across the Northwest Territories. I don’t have the participation numbers for the number of people who attended the FOXY sessions, but I will get that information and share it with the Member and committee.
Thank you to the Minister for that answer. Does the Minister have an evaluation of this campaign that he could share with the House, other than strictly relying on participation numbers?
Mr. Speaker, in 2015, the Department of Health and Social Services worked with the Program Review Office to develop a comprehensive evaluation of framework for the What Will It Take? campaign. Based on this framework, the new participation feedback forms are being developed, and they will be completed in time to provide to participants during the 201617 delivery of What Will It Take?, and that will help us get the information and evaluate the effectiveness of the program longterm.
Thank you to the Minister. It’s good to hear that these plans are in place and going forward. How does the Minister plan to follow up the What Will It Take? campaign, or alternatively, can he advise us how long this campaign will run for?
Mr. Speaker, the department has $82,000 in annual funding, and ongoing funding which was available to implement What Will It Take? training across the Northwest Territories. We’re looking at branching out and launching a broader media campaign to create awareness of the program, but also to start working to break down some of the other myths that exist around family violence. We have been attending the community healthy living fairs that have been taking part in the Northwest Territories and we’ve been promoting What Will It Take. We intend to keep running this program. How it looks in the future will depend completely on the evaluations and the effectiveness, which we’ll be in a better position to assess once the questionnaires have come in after the 201617 delivery of the What Will It Take? campaign.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you to the Minister for that. My last question is in reference to the change to the Change the Story strategy which I referenced in my statement. What would it take for the Minister to create a territorial primary prevention strategy on violence against women?
Mr. Speaker, we work in cooperation between the departments, and addressing family violence is a priority for the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Social Services. Education, Culture and Employment clearly has a role in helping break down some of this with younger people and youth, and the Status of Women certainly as a partnership. We work together trying to come up with mechanisms and programs that will help us break down the stigma and reduce family violence. I hear the Member. I’m not familiar with the program that she is describing. I’d certainly love to sit down with the Member and committee and get a bit of an update on what she has learned and see if we can share that with departments to move forward, to continue to combat violence against women and children in the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
