Funding from the province’s civil forfeiture program is going towards community programs in the South Okanagan.
The South Okanagan Integrated Community Services Society, known as Desert Sun, is receiving a grant of $9,000 to go towards the Desert Sunshine Education Day program.
“This program is an extremely important tool toward combating violence against women,” said Linda Larson, Boundary-Similkameen MLA. “We must do all we can to support all people in our goal toward a violence-free society.”
The grant will go toward specialized two-day training for rural front-line workers in the anti-violence sector and other sectors. The training will focus on the impact of violence and how best to support victims seeking help. The project will also include a community presentation on violence against women.
“As the South Okanagan’s primary non-profit service provider of counselling for families, men, women and seniors, we are thrilled to be the recipient of this grant to use toward offering training to other community service providers from the Okanagan, Boundary and Interior region,” said Tamara Aspell, executive director of the Okanagan Integrated Community Services Society.
“We are in the preliminary stages of developing what we know will offer valuable skills combined with education, prevention and awareness, across the sector to those attunes working to respond to violence against women.”
The priority focus for the proceeds from civil forfeiture is on initiatives relating to violence against women through the Violence Free BC initiative. Funding was also made available for those serving victims through restorative justice, community and youth crime prevention and police training and equipment.
The call for applications for the forfeiture funds were made in November 2014 and recipients were selected using the established grant criteria.
Since the civil forfeiture program became active, it has returned approximately $15 million from successful forfeiture actions to crime prevention and victims programs in B.C.
Violence Free BC is the provincial government’s long-term strategy and commitment to end violence against women.