Funding to promote healthy relationships in youths is coming to Lakehead University.
The Federal government is providing $980,595 over the next four years to support programming that focuses on youth dating violence prevention.
“University is a big change for young people, and ensuring that they have the supports they need is the first step to set them up for success,” said Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Patty Hadju.
“When our young people are experiencing a crisis, they need a safe place and safe people to turn to. This funding will help support the students at Lakehead University to make sure they have just that.”
The university will work with local organizations on delivering and testing innovative, evidence-based interventions, as well as training for service providers and educators.
The hope is that this initiative will help foster safe environments where young people can form positive, healthy relationships free from abuse.
According to the federal government, 45 per cent of Canadian teens report experiencing dating violence since age 15.
“Oftentimes young people don’t even see the signs or understand what makes a healthy relationship and it sets up a pattern of abuse cycles for years to come,” explained Hadju. “For young people, those signs can be really hard to see and it doesn’t start with physical violence.”
“It can start with controlling behaviour, it can start with a pattern of conversations that are abusive, it can be driving fear around who you’re contacting, (a) lack of privacy and all kinds of different subtle signs that can lead to greater problems and relationships.
“The challenge with abusive relationships is sometimes people don’t know that what they’re experiencing is controlling behaviour or abusive behaviour, and it can lend itself to a cycle of actually being in those types of relationships for a very long time.”
This is one of 11 initiatives reciting a total of $14.5 million over the next five years.
The funding recipients are community associations and non-profit organizations as well as universities from across Canada.
They include the Antigonish Women’s Resource Centre and Sexual Assault Services Association, the University of Calgary, Université du Québec à Montréal, the University of Windsor, the Coaching Association of Canada, Family Service Saskatoon, the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba, Lakehead University, Elizabeth Fry Toronto, the Students Commission of Canada, and the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre.
