Join VAD as we learn about our members in this membership series. Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services (AASAS) is our guest this month and we are very pleased to provide information about their services to our membership.
Join VAD as we learn about our members in this membership series. Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services (AASAS) is our guest this month and we are very pleased to provide information about their services to our membership.
00:00:00 Teresa
Welcome to the.
00:00:00 Teresa
Voice of Albertans with disabilities. AKA vad society’s Podcast for June 2022 I'm Teresa Jackson, your host and VAD’s program and services manager.
00:00:11 Teresa
Thanks for joining us today.
00:00:13 Teresa
In today's podcast, I'll be talking to Deb Tomlinson and Cheryl Wallach from the Association of Alberta.
00:00:20 Teresa
Sexual Assault services working together for an Alberta free of sexual assault and sexual abuse.
00:00:27 Teresa
Debs role at the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services is a chief executive officer and Cheryl is a communication specialist.
00:00:36 Teresa
VAD has started meeting with our membership to learn about the resources that are available to arrive at or individual members within the disability community, and I wanted to talk to the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services to find out about the resources that this organization offers.
00:00:52 Teresa
Together, we hold the power so hello, Ladies.
00:00:55 Teresa
Please take a moment and briefly introduce yourself and then tell us about your role with the association.
00:01:02 Deb
Sure, thanks Teresa.
00:01:04 Deb
We're just we're happy to be here today and to talk a little bit about ourselves and about AASAS.
00:01:11 Deb
The organization.
00:01:12 Deb
So I'm Deb Tomlinson and I'm the chief executive officer.
00:01:18 Deb
I started with AASAS, an awfully long time ago.
00:01:22 Deb
When it was very, very small and really took a little break in between but came back in 2013 and.
00:01:32 Deb
The organization has grown and I think 2 our community response to sexual violence has changed quite dramatically.
00:01:41 Deb
We can talk more about that when a little bit later, but it's definitely a positive thing in a move in the right direction.
00:01:49 Deb
So I manage.
00:01:51 Deb
I lead the provincial network and I have an amazing team of people.
00:01:56 Deb
One of them is Cheryl and I'll hand it Over to her.
00:02:01 Cheryl
Thanks Deb.
00:02:02 Cheryl
I'm Cheryl Wallach and I'm the communications person for AASAS.
00:02:07 Cheryl
I've been at the organization as of this Sunday big anniversary coming up five years, and before that I spent a lot of time in animal welfare, so it's one of those things where I think I've always worked in anti violence but just in different areas of anti violence.
00:02:25 Cheryl
My job at AASAS really is to work with everyone to pull together any materials that they're looking for to be on top of our social media.
00:02:37 Cheryl
Any sort of publications and media relations and try to support.
00:02:42 Cheryl
The team really in the work that they do to get it out to the community as well as communications with our Members.
00:02:49 Teresa
Welcome ladies, thank you.
00:02:50 Deb
I have another Little tidbit for you Teresa.
00:02:53 Teresa
OK.
00:02:54 Deb
When I first moved from all I was born in Saskatchewan, but eventually I found myself out in Toronto and when I first moved from Toronto back to Calgary, I worked at Alberta Committee of Citizens with Disabilities, which is.
00:03:10 Deb
Was the old name for VAD.
00:03:14 Deb
Yeah, so I have a special connection.
00:03:18 Teresa
Wonderful, that's neat to meet somebody who is in the previous version of us. Awesome
00:03:26 Teresa
OK so I have a few questions about AASAS to gather some information for our listeners so the AASAS, member agencies and services are responsible for day-to-day frontline delivery of services within their local communities in regional areas.
00:03:42 Teresa
What kind of frontline services are offered by AASAS members?
00:03:47 Deb
Yeah, thanks for asking that because we have 15 sexual assault centers all across our province up North, Fort McMurray, Grand Prairie, right down to Medicine Hat and Lethbridge and the sexual assault centers are really the ones who are on the ground day in, day out.
00:04:06 Deb
Responding to the needs of Albertans who have been affected by sexual violence, so that could be survivors themselves, it could be their friends, their family members.
00:04:18 Deb
It could be even professionals who are looking to help survivors.
00:04:24 Deb
So we see individuals throughout the lifespan - all ages, some as early as early as age 3.
00:04:34 Deb
We see people of all gender identities, all races, ethnicities, sexual orientation.
00:04:43 Deb
The sexual assault centers provide a number of different services.
00:04:47 Deb
They start with kind of crisis response.
00:04:51 Deb
They do information support and referral, counseling.
00:04:56 Deb
Public education.
00:04:57 Deb
Then they help folks make a decision about whether or not they want to enter into the criminal justice system, and if they do, they support them, and if they don't, they support them as well and we also do outreach to communities that are underserved or unserved.
00:05:19 Deb
It's it, I think it's important to say too that the sexual assaults interests respond to survivors who are both recent survivors of sexual assault in adult hood like it just happened very recently.
00:05:32 Deb
They also respond to recent survivors of child sexual abuse, but also to historical, people who've experienced historical assault because survivors find it really difficult to come forward and share with others about what.
00:05:48 Deb
Had happened to.
00:05:48 Deb
Them a large portion of who we serve.
00:05:52 Deb
Are historical survivors so people for who the incident happened a long time ago and maybe now are just ready to come forward and reach out for help?
00:06:06 Deb
AASAS , I don't know if you want to know so, so that's what the centers do, which is just like the most important work.
00:06:14 Deb
Ours is what a sauce the provincial network does is a little bit different, so AASAS really really simply does two things.
00:06:22 Deb
One is we want to make sure that anybody who's
00:06:26 Deb
Been affected by sexual violence in Alberta.
00:06:29 Deb
Has access to services and supports so that they can heal and recover from the trauma they've experienced and the other thing we do is we want to make sure that everybody in Alberta understands.
00:06:44 Deb
So what sexual violence is, what a big problem it is, how harmful it is and what, what they should do if it happens to them or to somebody that they know or love or care about.
00:06:58 Deb
So our target audience for our awareness is really everybody.
00:07:04 Deb
In Alberta, an important audience, though is our government, so those decision makers, those policy makers because.
00:07:13 Deb
It's really important that our government has sexual violence on their radar as an important social policy issue that's kind of, in a nutshell, really what AASAS the provincial network does.
00:07:28 Teresa
Sounds like you do a lot of important Work on both sides.
00:07:32 Teresa
The next question we have is the primary work of the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services is to provide leadership, coordination and collaboration of sexual assault services in Alberta.
00:07:45 Teresa
Can you tell me how your organization does this?
00:07:48 Deb
Well, that's you know we do that coordination and collaboration through those two pillars that I was just talking about.
00:07:55 Deb
So first of all, the access pillar you know making sure that everybody in Alberta can access services to heal and recover, and the awareness pillar.
00:08:07 Deb
So making sure that Everybody knows about sexual violence in Alberta and what to do if it should happen to them.
00:08:15 Teresa
What is the prevalence of sexual violence in Alberta?
00:08:21 Cheryl
You know what's interesting is there hasn't been a huge amount of resource very specific to sexual violence in Canada or even Alberta.
00:08:30 Cheryl
There was a study done in 1986.
00:08:33 Cheryl
That was national.
00:08:34 Cheryl
So one of the things that we did as AASAS was decided that you know the research around prevalence in Alberta is really important.
00:08:41 Cheryl
We need to know what's going on, so we did some study ourselves and we released those results in 2020 and it.
00:08:50 Cheryl
Confirmed what we've always known because of the work that that we and our centers have done for decades.
00:08:56 Cheryl
Now is that it is a really serious issue in our province, more so than most people would really know or understand or think, because historically it hasn't really been talked about.
00:09:08 Cheryl
So what we found?
00:09:10 Cheryl
Through our study is that 43% of Albertans have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.
00:09:17 Cheryl
43% so almost half of Albertans.
00:09:24 Deb
Yeah, and I think it's important to note that you know we got this information we surveyed over 1500 Albertans.
00:09:32 Deb
We only talked to people over the age of 18 because we wanted, you know, to be safe and make sure that we were only talking to adults.
00:09:40 Deb
But we talked to them about their experiences.
00:09:43 Deb
In their adult life and in their in their childhood.
00:09:47 Deb
So throughout their lifespan.
00:09:49 Deb
And we gave examples of very serious types of sexual assault, most of which would reach the threshold of a crime for kids.
00:10:00 Deb
100% would reach the threshold of a crime and found that that quite astounding number. So and if you do the math, it works.
00:10:09 Deb
Out to about 1.8 million Albertans. So we have a significant issue on our hands that we.
00:10:18 Deb
Need to address.
00:10:20 Cheryl
Yeah, another thing that we asked them to just to give us, you know, an idea of people awareness. We asked them and 67% of Albertans told us that they personally know a survivor of sexual violence.
00:10:33 Cheryl
Which is a.
00:10:33 Cheryl
High number considering it's not always talked about and that could have been impacted by you know Me2 in 2017, where more conversations started.
00:10:42 Cheryl
But I think we can all very safely assume that even if you're one of those people listening and you're like, well, no one has ever told me I'm not aware of anyone in my world that has been sexually.
00:10:53 Cheryl
Assaulted or harassed or abused.
00:10:55 Cheryl
Just chances are you do, you do know them.
00:10:59 Cheryl
You know that person just hasn't disclosed to you.
00:11:03 Cheryl
They may have disclosed to others or not disclosed at all.
00:11:06 Cheryl
So I think it's really safe for folks out there to look at this issue and think you know it.
00:11:12 Cheryl
It does impact me.
00:11:13 Cheryl
It impacts people.
00:11:14 Cheryl
I know my friends, my family, my coworkers.
00:11:18 Teresa
Yeah, very much so.
00:11:20 Teresa
I'm just wondering, are there a lot of people when you give them the awareness campaign information that realize sexual violence is something that they didn't understand.
00:11:33 Deb
I think you're right, Teresa.
00:11:35 Deb
I mean one of the downfalls of having this be such a hidden issue is that some people don't understand what sexual violence is, and sadly, sometimes even people experience sexual violence and they don't name it.
00:11:51 Deb
As such, and I'm talking about really serious incidents of sexual violence, you know they might.
00:11:58 Deb
I've heard folks call it, you know.
00:12:00 Deb
Well, maybe it was just really bad sex.
00:12:03 Deb
It's like no, that was sexual assault.
00:12:06 Deb
That's a crime.
00:12:08 Deb
So yeah, I think just just helping people be aware of what sexual violence is and that it happens a lot in our communities.
00:12:17 Teresa
How does the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault services work within the disability community?
00:12:26 Cheryl
Well, we know that individuals with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by sexual violence.
00:12:32 Cheryl
Now, our research in Alberta didn't have a large enough sample size to be statistically relevant, but there has been other research done which you know it’s quite consistent across the board, so we can confidently.
00:12:47 Cheryl
Say that that reflects the Alberta population as well.
00:12:50 Cheryl
So what some of the studies have.
00:12:52 Cheryl
Shown is that the risk of sexual abuse among persons with disabilities is at least a 150 Percent compared to individuals of the same sex and similar age without disabilities, so the risk is much higher.
00:13:08 Cheryl
One study states that 83% of women and 32% of males with an intellectual disability have been sexually assaulted.
00:13:17 Cheryl
And I know she seemed you said wow, there Teresa like is a bit surprising and I think a lot of people would go.
00:13:25 Cheryl
That is really surprising, but when you look at sexual violence, it's a crime of power and control.
00:13:31 Cheryl
The people who are sexually assaulted, abused and harassed tend to have less power in our society.
00:13:38 Cheryl
Right, so you think of it as male versus female in society, females have less power within society in general.
00:13:46 Cheryl
People with disabilities even more so.
00:13:49 Cheryl
That's the case and you see with people of different genders or sexual orientations that aren't the social quote norm.
00:13:58 Cheryl
Are more impacted by sexual violence than others.
00:14:01 Cheryl
So yeah, the disability community is just definitely disproportionately impacted with our organizations.
00:14:09 Cheryl
We want to make sure and they try very hard to be accessible.
00:14:13 Cheryl
And interestingly enough, just last week it was National Accessibility Week and our, I'm just gonna use our member agency in Edmonton as an example.
00:14:22 Cheryl
They posted online about being accessible.
00:14:26 Cheryl
You know talking about physical accessibility, so doors, washrooms.
00:14:33 Cheryl
Having a person at the front desk all the time available for any extra assistance someone might need.
00:14:39 Cheryl
Those types of things.
00:14:41 Cheryl
They also talked about communication accessibility.
00:14:45 Cheryl
So they more specifically about language, but you know they offer counseling in multiple languages.
00:14:52 Cheryl
We'll bring an interpreter in.
00:14:54 Cheryl
They talk about modifying.
00:14:56 Cheryl
They will modify their education programs for folks with intellectual disabilities, people just need to contact them directly.
00:15:04 Cheryl
There's a button on their website.
00:15:06 Cheryl
You hit that button and it addresses accessibility issues and makes the site accessible.
00:15:12 Cheryl
They try to be chemical and sent free.
00:15:14 Cheryl
For folks with light sensitivities, if you contact them ahead of time, they will, you know, kill the fluorescent lights or lower them in their in their office.
00:15:24 Cheryl
So every organization of course is going to be different.
00:15:28 Cheryl
That's just one, but anyone with a disability who wants to seek out help.
00:15:34 Cheryl
They if they contacted the organization and via phone or website or through assistance then I am sure any one of our member Agency will do their very best to accommodate anyone with a disability and help them out.
00:15:48 Cheryl
As best they can.
00:15:50 Cheryl
Because I mean everyone needs the best kind of support possible.
00:15:55 Cheryl
Another thing for AASAS from the AASAS perspective, the things that we do around the disability community, probably the biggest things are for our with our training programs.
00:16:06 Cheryl
We do make them closed captioning available.
00:16:09 Cheryl
Try to make them as accessible as possible that way.
00:16:12 Cheryl
We know we have more work.
00:16:14 Cheryl
To do and we all you know, I think all every organization does and even just with this call coming today.
00:16:20 Cheryl
I'm like man. What else can we do?
00:16:22 Cheryl
We always need to do do.
00:16:24 Cheryl
More and do better.
00:16:26 Cheryl
When we run our awareness campaigns, probably the biggest partnership we had was through our I.
00:16:32 Cheryl
Believe you campaign.
00:16:34 Cheryl
Because we know that sexual violence impacts everyone, we want to make sure all of our campaigns are very inclusive.
00:16:43 Cheryl
But we also want to be very sensitive.
00:16:45 Cheryl
To how we might portray anyone with a disability within our materials.
00:16:49 Cheryl
Whether it's posters or or video.
00:16:51 Cheryl
So we consulted with a couple of disability.
00:16:55 Cheryl
On our, I believe you creative, you know just to make sure that we're doing things in the right and very best possible way so that folks from the disability community who might see that feel included, not, you know, just a token example or or something like that.
00:17:14 Cheryl
We want to make sure that everyone out there knows that we and our organizations are.
00:17:19 Cheryl
Here for them.
00:17:21 Teresa
Awesome, I remember that campaign. It was very well done.
00:17:25 Cheryl
Thank you.
00:17:26 Teresa
If someone is looking to get involved with the sexual assault and abuse prevention work, is there a referral process for your organization?
00:17:34 Deb
Yeah, I would encourage.
00:17:36 Deb
Folks to go to the AASAS website so that is just AASAS.ca.
00:17:43 Deb
And look up the page that.
00:17:46 Deb
Describes all our member agencies.
00:17:49 Deb
The 15 sexual assault centers.
00:17:51 Deb
That's where you're going to get your best volunteer opportunities.
00:17:56 Deb
If people are looking to get involved in that way, and that's also where you'll see jobs advertised as well.
00:18:03 Deb
If you're looking for work, but in terms of.
00:18:06 Deb
Volunteer opportunities there's often opportunities to work and part of the support and information lines and that involves a big commitment.
00:18:18 Deb
But often means you can work from home on that and, but you do have to be trained quite intensively, sometimes 50 to 60 hours of training so that when someone calls to reach out for help, you know how to give a really good positive trauma informed response.
00:18:39 Deb
I know the centers also look at volunteers for opportunities to do education in the community.
00:18:45 Deb
They do booths, they do presentations and then of course each of the sexual assault centers and AASAS has a board of directors and those folks are always looking so recruiting people to be in leadership roles and guide and direct.
00:19:03 Deb
You know, the agencies.
00:19:05 Deb
In the future in Alberta, so there's lots of opportunities.
00:19:09 Teresa
What is an interesting fact about AASAS that everyone should know?
00:19:14 Cheryl
Well, that's easy.
00:19:16 Cheryl
We have amazing training programs.
00:19:19 Cheryl
And a lot of people don't know that, so I think we have four that I can think of off the top of my head, there's first responder to sexual assault and abuse training, and some people hear the title and they go.
00:19:30 Cheryl
Oh is that for police and paramedics and doctors?
00:19:34 Cheryl
No, it's for anyone who might be the first person responding to a disclosure.
00:19:40 Cheryl
Of sexual violence.
00:19:42 Cheryl
We take people, it's it's.
00:19:43 Cheryl
It's a two full day training online or five afternoons.
00:19:49 Cheryl
We we're doing it in person prepandemic
00:19:52 Cheryl
We've started to do a small number of in person trainings again and what we do is we take people through an understanding of what sexual violence.
00:20:02 Cheryl
Is right from child sexual abuse?
00:20:06 Cheryl
Adults who are sexually abused as children?
00:20:09 Cheryl
Sexual violence or sexual harassment, sexual assault.
00:20:14 Cheryl
And we learn not just about what that is and what it means.
00:20:18 Cheryl
We learn about the impacts on people and we learn how to respond.
00:20:22 Cheryl
If someone discloses that type of sexual.
00:20:25 Cheryl
Violence to you.
00:20:27 Cheryl
And when we respond, it's not about us.
00:20:29 Cheryl
As responders, we're learning skills and we have a lot of those skills because lots of us know how.
00:20:35 Cheryl
To listen and.
00:20:36 Cheryl
Reframe things what it is, is learning how to use our skills to best support the other person.
00:20:43 Cheryl
And it can be a.
00:20:44 Cheryl
Hard thing, because if it's someone most time, it's somebody know telling you about this that you're.
00:20:50 Cheryl
Going to be upset.
00:20:51 Cheryl
Right, But what we talk about, really, is the most important thing, is what we're saying, how we're saying it, and its impact on the person who's already experienced this this horrible event.
00:21:06 Cheryl
Right, so it's really popular and has gotten great evaluation.
00:21:12 Cheryl
And whether you're professional and.
00:21:14 Cheryl
Need to do this.
00:21:15 Cheryl
As part of your work, that's.
00:21:18 Cheryl
Great, but as a person within the community.
00:21:20 Cheryl
you become a safe person and if you talk that you know like I went and got this training about sexual violence when I first started AASAS and I got the training and I'm like
00:21:33 Cheryl
I got this.
00:21:34 Cheryl
Training and boom.
00:21:36 Cheryl
I had a disclosure in my personal life.
00:21:40 Cheryl
You know, so people know you're saved that you care that you're supportive and you understand when you go through something this like this, where you where you're learning how to be really a good responder.
00:21:57 Teresa
You said the there's four training programs.
00:22:00 Teresa
Is there a fee?
00:22:01 Teresa
For them?
00:22:02 Cheryl
There is a thief for all except for esos I think.
00:22:09 Deb
Yes, yeah it depends.
00:22:10 Deb
Yeah, so for first responder training it's a two day training, 2 full day training.
00:22:17 Deb
Or you can take it online as well.
00:22:19 Deb
I believe currently it's at 299- $299. We really try to keep it as affordable as we possibly can.
00:22:29 Deb
We have a counseling training for therapists, so for professional therapists who want to learn more about specifically processing sexual violence trauma with clients, what's involved in that?
00:22:44 Deb
That's a 12 week online course.
00:22:47 Deb
All of these are on the.
00:22:49 Deb
AASAS website again we have another one called enhanced emergency sexual assault services.
00:22:55 Deb
That one is mostly offered in community and focuses on 1st responders like police and health professionals.
00:23:05 Deb
And how to respond in a good way in a supportive way.
00:23:09 Deb
But also if the individual wants to pursue charges or an investigation or the criminal justice, how to help them in in terms of collecting evidence.
00:23:22 Deb
And then do you want to talk about workplace sexual harassment, Cheryl.
00:23:26 Cheryl
Sure, Teresa, I don't know if you've heard about our moments Matter Campaign, it just launched, launched last year.
00:23:33 Cheryl
It's our anti workplace sexual harassment campaign and the main focus is around primary prevention around sexual harassment.
00:23:43 Cheryl
We know that in.
00:23:44 Cheryl
Our workplaces there are policies and procedures in place.
00:23:48 Cheryl
It's required by Alberta law that we have.
00:23:50 Cheryl
Policies and procedures in place.
00:23:51 Cheryl
About you know sexual harassment is bad.
00:23:54 Cheryl
Don't do it.
00:23:56 Cheryl
Here's what happens if you do do it.
00:23:58 Cheryl
These are the procedures that we go through.
00:24:01 Cheryl
But like a lot of things that we have out there, it doesn't actually stop sexual harassment from happening in the first place.
00:24:08 Cheryl
So what we what we look at doing is how can we make it so that this doesn't happen?
00:24:17 Cheryl
So what it focuses on is building positive, respectful workplace cultures where people are listened to where people are respected and cared about.
00:24:27 Cheryl
Where there's no room for bad behavior, including sexual harassment.
00:24:33 Cheryl
So as part of that campaign we wanted.
00:24:36 Cheryl
To build a.
00:24:36 Cheryl
Workplace sexual harassment training, which we've done, but we've made it a little bit different from your typical workplace sexual harassment trainings.
00:24:45 Cheryl
It's not just about this is what it is, and it's bad.
00:24:49 Cheryl
And This is why and don't do it and this is Why not to do it?
00:24:53 Cheryl
We're actually taking a look at.
00:24:57 Cheryl
Being more actionable, So what do you do?
00:25:01 Cheryl
if you see someone being sexually harassed in the workplace, what do you do if you?
00:25:09 Cheryl
Hear about it going on.
00:25:11 Cheryl
What do you do if someone tells you you have done something?
00:25:17 Cheryl
Which is really hard for folks, right?
00:25:20 Cheryl
And what do you do as a leader of an organization?
00:25:23 Cheryl
You know if you hear it happening or to lead by example with your positive, respectful behavior so that other people emulate
00:25:33 Cheryl
You within that organization.
00:25:36 Cheryl
And you build up this organization of positive, respectful behavior where there's no sexual harassment.
00:25:42 Cheryl
It seems very big and pie in the sky and it really is and it's hard.
00:25:47 Cheryl
But if we want to change the world and end sexual violence, including sexual pronouncements.
00:25:53 Deb
And our and our culture change our culture, yeah.
00:25:57 Cheryl
We have to do that kind of work so as AASAS organisations.
00:26:03 Cheryl
We can be there.
00:26:04 Cheryl
We are there to support people.
00:26:05 Cheryl
It's happened too, but we really need society to make some change so it doesn't happen.
00:26:12 Cheryl
You know in the first place.
00:26:13 Cheryl
And even we even have it in our first responder training a module on rethinking prevention.
00:26:19 Cheryl
So we have.
00:26:21 Cheryl
We've all heard those tips.
00:26:23 Cheryl
See now I'm going off track for workplace sexual harassment.
00:26:25 Cheryl
You know the tips around avoiding or preventing sexual assault by, you know, carrying your keys with between your fingers, never leaving your drink unattended.
00:26:35 Cheryl
Don't go out late at night by yourself, you know, don’t wear headphones while you're running.
00:26:40 Cheryl
And that's a.
00:26:41 Cheryl
Risk reduction tip.
00:26:42 Cheryl
You're reducing your own personal risk and there's nothing wrong with that.
00:26:47 Cheryl
And in terms of making yourself feel safe or more safe, but it's not stopping that person from making that choice.
00:26:54 Cheryl
Ways of sexually assaulting or abusing or harassing someone.
00:27:00 Cheryl
Right, so we need society to shift to the point where that's just not acceptable.
00:27:07 Cheryl
It's not just overlooked, as you know, in the workplace it just happens and you just have to deal with.
00:27:12 Cheryl
But you know that, Oh yeah, you know catcalls out on the street whatever.
00:27:17 Cheryl
No big deal doesn't deal with it.
00:27:20 Cheryl
No, because all of those behaviors are the foundation that lead to things like sexual assault.
00:27:26 Teresa
So kind of like a preventative maintenance instead of reactive.
00:27:34 Teresa
I like that idea.
00:27:37 Teresa
Can you please tell our listeners how to get ahold of the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services if they want more information?
00:27:45 Deb
Yeah, I would encourage folks to go to the AASAS website, but most people when they're looking for services or supports or even volunteer opportunities. As I was just mentioning, they actually go to the sexual assault centers themselves are member agencies.
00:28:05 Deb
The AASAS work is really more in the background supporting the sexual assault centers, so I would say to reach out to the sexual assault center.
00:28:15 Deb
And folks can also contact Alberta, one line for sexual violence.
00:28:21 Deb
Whether that's for support for themselves or so they can help others.
00:28:25 Deb
And that's a province wide talk text or chat line that I guarantee you will.
00:28:35 Deb
Offer a positive, informative, supportive response to anybody who reaches out for help the the text and talk number is 1866.
00:28:48 Deb
64038 thousand to chat. Just go to the AASAS website.
00:28:56 Deb
AASAS.ca and click on the little button at the bottom of the screen and you can start chatting right away.
00:29:04 Teresa
Is there anything else that I should be asking that I haven't?
00:29:07 Teresa
Asked yet.
00:29:09 Deb
Well, I.
00:29:10 Deb
Think just to tell everybody that.
00:29:13 Deb
Everyone has the potential to make a difference in the life of a survivor.
00:29:18 Deb
Come talk about sexual violence.
00:29:20 Deb
Break the silence.
00:29:23 Deb
And you'll find if you do as Sheryl was saying earlier, folks will reach out to you and they'll disclose.
00:29:30 Deb
And if they do give a positive response, don't ask questions.
00:29:35 Deb
Don't ask why.
00:29:36 Deb
Don't judge, just say I'm sorry that happened to you.
00:29:40 Deb
I believe you it's.
00:29:42 Deb
Not your fault.
00:29:43 Deb
When you're ready, if you want some help to reach out your resources, I can tell you where to find them.
00:29:50 Deb
That will make a tremendous difference, because survivors who get a positive response are more likely to reach out for help and more likely to consider accessing justice.
00:30:01 Deb
So everybody has a.
00:30:03 Deb
Really important role to play in ending sexual violence.
00:30:07 Teresa
That was very well said.
00:30:09 Teresa
Thank you for your time and energy today.
00:30:10 Teresa
Devin, Cheryl.
00:30:12 Teresa
Your supported of the community is a value to all.
00:30:15 Teresa
Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services is an organizational member of VAD and a link to the website can be accessed on our membership list online.
00:30:25 Teresa
Individuals looking to access VAD members can do so at vadsociety.ca/social Dash action. Thank you again for joining.
00:30:35 Teresa
Dads Podcast voice of Albertans with disabilities is across disability nonprofit organization oven for people with disabilities that is guided by the principles of accessibility, equity and inclusion.
00:30:49 Teresa
Learn about VAD services on our website at vadsociety.ca or call 780-488-9088 For more information.
00:30:58 Teresa
If you have a topic you would like to hear more about in a podcast, please email myself at VAD at vadsociety.ca with topic ideas, speaker suggestions or your feedback.
00:31:10 Teresa
Signing off for the day together, we hold the power.