A local counselling service recently won the Attorney General’s Victim Services Award for a new program targeting young men who have been abused or witnessed abuse in their home.
Family Counselling and Support Services of Guelph-Wellington began the Peaceful Alternatives for Male Youth at Risk program in September and have run two sessions so far.
“Family Counselling was fortunate enough to receive a $25,000 grant from the IODE 100th anniversary a year ago and it was a national grant and we were the organization that was selected, so we were beyond ourselves,” said executive director Joanne Young Evans in a phone interview.
“The program is unique in the province,” she said. “There is nobody else offering a program like this.”
The program is aimed at male youths aged 12 to 17 who have seen or experienced abuse in their home and are heading down the same path.
“We developed a program to work with these boys to teach them peaceful alternatives and that abuse is not the way to go,” Young Evans said.
She said the program is unique because it’s actually getting the young men to open up about their experiences and feelings, which is “phenomenal right there.”
“Number two you’re creating peer support … even those boys who haven’t come to the program, if they connect with these boys then they’re going to be out there assisting other boys that are having the same issues and either referring them to the program or they can be their friend and their support person in the school community and in the community itself,” she said.
“So I think what we’re doing is we’re targeting a very, very narrow age group, we’re targeting them before there’s charges laid and that kind of a thing, they get into that kind of trouble and we’re breaking that cycle.”
The program includes weekly sessions where participants talk about their experiences as well as alternative ways they could have handled various situations.
Currently the program is only offered in Guelph but youth from across the county are eligible to participate.
Family Counselling and Support Services is looking for new funding opportunities to keep the program alive past the session next September.
“What I’m concerned about is if we lose funding, if we lose momentum and we have to wait a whole year to offer it again then we’ve lost … those trained peers,” she explained.
“And I don’t want to lose the momentum of having those boys in the community and being able to help other boys that are either in the program or maybe thinking about going into the program or at least are having the same kind of issues.”
Being selected by the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Office as a worthy program gives credibility to the Peaceful Alternatives for Male Youth at Risk program, Young Evans said.
“We’re humbled, we’re honoured and this will help us … to show how important this program is, particularly in the eyes of the Attorney General’s office,” she said. “We’re looking for funding to continue the program and hopefully make it go province-wide just because we are having such great success with the program.”
Come September Family Counselling and Support Services of Guelph-Wellington is planning to open an office in Fergus at the Chamber of Commerce building on Tower Street.
“What we’ve heard from the youth, particularly here in the Fergus-Elora area, is there’s not a lot of choice for youth to come and talk about issues,” Young Evans said.
“So we want to be able to expand our services here and be here for support for youth in the community.”
The organization is also hoping to offer the Peaceful Alternatives for Male Youth at Risk program at St. John Bosco high school in Guelph.
