project start date: June 2, 2014

In June of 2014 Violence Prevention Grey Bruce struck a sub committee to work with the community on sexual violence prevention in Grey Bruce. The committee has organized two Community Round Tables to bring people together to talk about sexual violence and to build strategies together to prevent sexual violence.

The ‘Into the Open’ Round Table in November 2014 was a rich discussion that brought together survivors, professionals, family and community members.  We held a second round table on March 4th 2015 to continue the dialogue and to explore: What does sexual violence prevention look like in Grey Bruce?
We  spent time taking apart what is “normal‘ about sexuality and sexual violence in Grey Bruce in order to have a better understanding about:

• What has changed in prevention over the past 25 years? What does it look like for children, families, for offenders? How does our history influence our ability to prevent sexual violence?
• Where is the silence? What keeps the silence going and what brings issues Into the Open?
• How do we overcome secrecy and shame and increase safety, empathy and prevention?

John Swales, survivor and founder of Destination 4 Men, and Carrie Seward, survivor and founder of Butterfly Healing spoke about their experiences overcoming barriers and talk about how friends, family and the community can build a culture of prevention. We worked together in small groups to create a shared understanding and build collective sexual abuse prevention strategies for Grey Bruce.

In 2016, we continued the conversation through the arts, bringing artists from different mediums together with members of the community. The group created artistic pieces inspired by the conversation and the issues. Two months later they gathered for a public showcase of their work at Heartwood Hall in Owen Sound.

Watch the videos that we created about the events below:

This project is currently on hiatus.
If you’re interested in hosting similar round tables or events, please contact Jon by email to coordinator(at)violencepreventiongreybruce.com.