zorra-now-winter-2024

TOWNSHIP DEPARTMENT INFORMATION TOWNSHIP DEPARTMENT INFORMATION 20 Zorra Now | Winter 2024 Zorra Now | Winter 2024 21 On Dec. 3 outside the Township of Zorra’s new municipal offices in Thamesford, a purple park bench was unveiled as part of the nationwide Purple Bench initiative. The bench was donated by Woodstock’s Maglin Site Furniture and the township agreed on Aug. 7, 2024 to support the project by maintaining the bench as part of its regular maintenance schedule. “These benches serve as more than just seats,” Domestic Abuse Services Oxford (DASO) executive director Diane Harris told Zorra Township Council when she sought support for the project on Aug. 7. “They feature plaques (also donated by Maglin Site) displaying emergency contact numbers for individuals experiencing domestic violence. They have been strategically placed in various locations to raise awareness and provide resources for those in need.” The Purple Bench memorial project started in Nova Scotia in 2015 but stems from the death on Oct. 19, 1990 of Barbara Baillie at the hands of her husband. Baillie’s children created the Barb’s Bench Project by placing a memorial bench in a park in Spryfield, Nova Scotia, and encouraging others across the country to do the same as a way of building awareness about and paying tribute to the victims of intimate partner violence. In April 2024, the opposition New Democrats introduced Bill 173 in the Ontario Legislature, calling on the government to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic in the province. As an Opposition bill, the likelihood of the measure passing was low, but what became known as the Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act did achieve second reading. Premier Doug Ford, however, has publicly stated that although he wants the province to have “zero tolerance” towards intimate partner violence the government is not prepared to declare an epidemic. Harris, speaking recently in an interview, said bringing the Purple Bench Project to Oxford (eight benches in total will be installed across the county) will hopefully encourage people to think past those stereotypes about family violence in rural areas and change their perspective when they see signs of it in their communities. “Things aren’t the way they used to be,” she said. “This is no longer something that gets hidden away. I think people have come to recognize that these people who are dying are somebody’s mother, or sister, or daughter.” Harris says over 60 women were killed by their intimate partners in the province in the past year. She described these deaths as “senseless” and “preventable.” And she hopes the Purple Bench Project can play a small role in that prevention. Having the benches in the communities, she hopes, will help people recognize that the things they’re seeing in either their own lives or in the lives of their friends or neighbours aren’t healthy, could lead to more serious consequences, and should be addressed. Using a smartphone to scan the QR code on the bench will lead to information about where and how to seek help. According to DASO, publicly available data indicates that in 2021, there were 1,624 occurrences of domestic violence in Oxford County, including 339 instances in which charges were laid for intimate partner violence. There were 959 calls to the DASO crisis line, the agency provided safe shelter to 129 women and children, and 82 women were offered counselling for victims of sexual assault. Harris explained the agency also provides programming for those who are the aggressors in incidences of intimate partner violence. And she adds that an ongoing initiative is to build the capacity within the county’s workplaces to recognize when an employee or colleague may be experiencing domestic violence. But DASO’s representatives at the council meetings also stressed that Oxford County has one crisis centre, one long-term women’s transitional program, and one part-time sexual violence counsellor for a population of 128,000 people. What this means is that many county residents in need of these services “are going without or are forced to travel to nearby urban centres such as London, Brantford or Waterloo.” Purple Bench project builds awareness about domestic violence Township office bench unveiled on December 3rd By Stew Slater The call from the New Democrats, though, is not without justification. Declaring an epidemic was one of the recommendations from a 2022 coroner’s inquest into the deaths of three women in Renfrew County in 2015. And in 2023 the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), of which Zorra Township is a member along with 92 others, declared that gender- based and intimate partner violence is an epidemic in Ontario “that requires urgent and coordinated government action.” Since the AMO declaration, family crisis service providers across the province – like DASO, which operates a 17-bed, nine-room emergency residence in Woodstock along with a crisis support line and outreach workers who can visit people in their home communities anywhere in Oxford – have visited their municipal councils calling on local politicians to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic within their jurisdictions. Many have done so. In June and July 2023, representatives of DASO, the Domestic Abuse Resource Team, and Ingamo Homes (which operates 21 townhouses of second-stage transitional housing for those who have suffered from domestic abuse, and of which Harris is also executive director) brought a motion forward to the City of Woodstock and Oxford County Council. In both cases, it was unanimously approved. Many residents of rural areas in Ontario, the delegation told Oxford County Council during its July 2023 presentation, “assume that violence is an urban issue that affects those of a specific socioeconomic status, ethnic origin, race, or age. This denial or lack of awareness becomes a significant obstacle to survivors in small towns with little resources due to the absence of other options.” “Rural women who do access services locally lack the anonymity and thus confidentiality that comes with living in an urban area,” they added. In 2023, they continued, “167 women who came to DASO in need of sanctuary to escape and survive abuse did NOT receive support.” And Ingamo Homes “regularly has to turn people away due to capacity issues and has a waitlist of up to one year.” With those shortcomings in mind, Harris hopes the installation of the eight Purple Benches will also encourage Oxford County residents and decision- makers to keep the struggle against intimate partner violence in their minds, and hopefully advocate for increasing funding from all levels of government for the services assisting those in need. At the first of the Oxford County bench unveilings on Nov. 20 at the Drumbo splashpad in cooperation with Blandford-Blenheim township, the DASO executive director said a woman approached her and said, “if this means even one person can get help and escape their situation, then it’s a success.” “It was so encouraging to hear those words,” Harris said, “because it helps us feel that we’ve got support in the rural communities for the work we’re doing.” DASO’s 24-hour crisis/help line can be reached at 519-539-4811 or toll-free at 1-800-265-1938. It’s also available by texting 519-788-9993. For non-crisis inquiries at DASO, call 519-539-7488. Sophie Foster, DASO; Sofia Caldwell, Manager of Recreation and Facilities; Deputy Mayor Katie Grigg; Mayor Marcus Ryan; Diane Larder, Chief Administrative Officer