Breaking the cycle of violence with Christine Johnson

Brian speaks with Christina Johnson from the Sanare Centre about her recent recognition with the Alberta Inspiration Award for her work in gender-based violence prevention. They discuss the Evolvement Program, which aims to engage men and boys in creating allyships and reducing offending behavior. Christina shares insights into the Child Advocacy Centre's role in supporting victims of abuse and the importance of community involvement in prevention efforts. They also touch on the fundraising for facility dogs to assist in providing comfort to victims and the critical nature of support systems in healing from trauma.

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You know, like, not all superheroes wear capes, or sometimes they wear collars. This episode of Bring Back the Porch brought to you by Bernie Leahy, River Street Realty. Let's get you home. And our guest on the porch today is Christina Johnson from the Sanare Centre in Medicine Hat. Welcome. Hi. Now, you were recently a recipient of a 2024 Alberta Inspiration Award. Tell us about that, how it came to be and what it was awarded for. Well, I was in I was nominated by my peers and some of my staff and board and some other individuals. And three award was for research and innovation in the area of gender based violence. Okay. That's a big topic, a big topic, gender based violence. Yeah. That fills in with the work you do at this Sanare centre. Totally. The award specifically was for our work with the evolvement Program, which is a multi-tiered program where we work with men and boys, to create ally ships and reduce offending behavior. And we work with all men and boys with that. Not. It's not targeted at people who use offending behavior, but it's for everybody. So that was one portion of it. And then the other portion was opening the Child Advocacy Center here in Medicine Hat that is under the umbrella of supporting. Okay. You called the program evolve ment and it's spelled out Capital Emmy in probably well name for a reason. It is. And it's, you know, we worked for a really long time. And of course, this program is super close to my heart. You'll probably hear me get pretty passionate about it. The program started just as an idea. It started when we were doing police and court support, and we were working with individuals, primarily young women, who were experiencing sexual violence. And we work with them, and we would see the pain that was occurring. And then we'd see young men, very young men around the age of 15, 16, and you would see their families, both sides. You'd see their families devastated. The young men didn't necessarily understand. Sometimes they did understand what they were doing, and sometimes they were so confused and they were so scared. And I remember watching that and thinking to myself, like, we have to do better for our young men to set the stage so that there's a higher level of awareness of what abuse is, what it isn't, and actually stop this before it happens so that, you know, the young men aren't struggling and aren't using offending behavior, and also so that the young women weren't experiencing. And I don't want to negate that young men don't experience sexual violence or domestic violence because they do. It's what I was seeing as we were navigating. So that happened. And I thought to myself as like, Jesus, we really have to do better. That. And then, that always stuck with me. Like, how do we do better? And then, of course, I'm a mama. I'm a mama, and I have a girl, and I have a boy. And, you know, finding things for my young girl to do for my daughter to do was really easy. Like, there's good girls programing and there's so much programing about young women's leadership and young women's, empowerment. And you know what? When I started looking for my son, other than athletics, there was nothing. They are very limited, very limited opportunities. And, you know, like, thank goodness my son is an athlete. Like he played basketball all the way through. And I got to cheer him on and he got some robust male mentorship that was really, really important to his development, his sense of well-being. Something that was very near and dear to our hearts as he was navigating his high school journey is junior high, junior journey. And I got thinking, man, like, again, we've got to do better. We've got to do better by our young men. And, so that kind of started there. And then I started to sit on a provincial collaborative called impact. And impact is an organization of 300, gender based violence or connected to gender based violence organizations across Alberta. And we started talking about primary prevention, which was already planning in my brain. Like how do we do better. And so how do we stop this before it happens. And of course as part of that there was discussions around primary prevention, engaging men and boys as allies. And so from there we started to do. And of course this is percolating. And then there was a call and I always say I'm a percolator, right? And like a cup of coffee. And so during that time there was a call at the time was status of women to be able to do some work around engaging men and boys. And so we applied to be able to create a program to invite to engage men and boys as allies and to do some primary prevention work and what we like. So we of course, we worked with researchers and we worked with, men and boys themselves and not academics. There were academics that were involved as per the research, but we actually worked with like every day Albertans. So ex-military, ex construction, postal workers, like the people that live next door to you. And we said, what do you need? What would work? We started creating and we got it all wrong. Many times we were told, you're on and really worked with men as our partners, as guiding and creating this curriculum, which is, we have evolvement circles which men get together, men of all ages, well, 18 plus get together. And they talk about men's mental health. It's just a huge topic for men in a safe space. And so the there's a group of men that lead it, they get together, they discuss topics, then they come together. One of the guys will present the topic, and then other men talk about how it affects them. So they do that once a month. And then we have the in school Evolvement leadership program, which is all about social emotional learning and leadership for young men and boys. We've got it credit map. So it's worth three credits if it's taken in school. So that's one of the things we've done. And then and I'm really excited about that program. We've got some extraordinarily exciting outcomes coming out of that. And then over and above that, we have a group of young men, a group of junior high high school men that get together in the evenings, and they are doing the evolvement leadership curriculum and then going out into the community and putting it into works. So they go and take the skills they learn, whether it's around leadership, emotional regulation. They sometimes they say, like we talk a lot about emotions is what they say. You know, and then they go and they take those and they do volunteerism. They go to local gyms, play basketball, they go, they do whatever. We can take those skills that they're learning and then put them in real life practice. I remember a phrase that more is caught than taught when children are watching mom and dad. So if you can start the prevention and set an example at an early age, you have you've done your job totally right. Like, let's set let's set people up for success. The, one of the philosophies that I was taught was that oftentimes relationships, we just expect people to be able to know how to navigate them. And it's like a download, right? Like, oh, you know, your computer all of a sudden they're like, Microsoft creates or Apple creates a download and you get it and then it's installed. Yeah. And that's how most of us learn how to navigate relationships is through watching and learning. But what happens if that's not the most healthy way to navigate a relationship? So we teach people how to tie their shoes. What would it look like if we said, you know, this is what social emotional learning looks like? This is what social emotional development looks like, and this is what leadership looks like. And you are a leader. And so rather than telling people that they're bad, what if we told them they're good? And what if we told them they're leaders and then gave them the skills and worked with them to develop the skills in real life, to be leaders, to create change, to create allyship, and then to live a really good life where there are doing good things in society. I remember when I was just, you know, almost maybe 3 or 4 years old, my parents telling me, you never hit a girl, never. Yes. Still in my head today. And I have never, raised my hand. But there's been times when I was tempted. Sure, but that was planted in my head a long time ago. And I think that's what you're doing. I hope so, I hope so, you know, you know, that's. It's a good thing. Like, don't hit people. Yeah. I think that's really important. Anyone? Exactly. I'm gonna remember, you know. Well, there's a difference between, like, consensual use of force, like, UFC and stuff like that. That's consensual use of force. Right. And there's a difference between abusive behaviors. And sometimes I think we forget that. Yeah, yeah. What are the types of abuse that you see commonly in scenarios centers. So we we are trauma center scenario. And we have the two streams really are two programs. And one of them is a sexual assault center, where we work with all humans that have experienced sexual assault and sexual abuse. And then the other extreme is a child advocacy center. And what the child advocacy Center is, is a collaborative of professionals who come together to support children who've experienced child abuse. And it's child abuse that would meet criminal code threshold. So and those professionals are crown prosecutors, medicine and police service, RCMP, children's services and Recovery Alberta. And then of course, Scenario Center. Then we all come together to provide that support. When you are dealing with children, you have to be very careful. Yeah, we do. Yeah. How do you how do you, approach someone who has been abused, a child, say, let's say a six year old girl who comes forward and someone comes through the justice system as a victim. Okay? So if they come through the justice system, so they've already disclose their abuse, then we're working alongside them to support and primarily with their parent as well, or whoever is, the caregiver of the child. We're working to figure out what that child, what that family needs in order to be successful, not only navigating the, criminal justice system, but also in life because the criminal justice system, whilst important, is one piece. But it's about life. And so we work with the whole family system to ensure that that child is getting what they need. Is there an opportunity for some who know now that they're doing something wrong and when they need to get help, can they come to you? So sometimes, depending on what's happening, we have worked with children with sexual behaviors of concern. We have worked with those kids. It's something that we're definitely working towards with in our community, because we know that that's something that's missing. Okay. You are in the process of fundraising. We are for a very good cause. Super hero search. Oh my goodness. You know, like not all superheroes wear capes. Oh sometimes they wear collars. And so that's what we're currently fundraising for right now. We're fundraising for a facility dog. And these facility dogs are professionals. They're working dogs. And their whole goal is to provide comfort caring and connection. So when a child or an adult comes into the center and they're meeting that little extra support, whether it's in telling their story, if they're a child to services or to RCMP or is sitting in the therapy room, because of course, we provide therapy in our center, whether it's any of those or perhaps it's even going out and doing an education program in a school, the facility dog can assist with all of that to minimize anxiety, increase comfort, and just make it a whole better experience. Yeah, and we've seen that in the courts, too, with, some young people testifying with a support dog. And, it makes a world of difference. I don't know why or how. Well, but everybody loves dogs. Well, you know, I'm a dog person. Me too. I have a dog. Her name is Rosie, and she provides me great comfort when I've had a hard day. That dog comes in lays his head on my lap. It's, you know, one of the best things they know. Yeah, yeah. And so this guy also will be able to go to court with kids. Okay. How far along are we in fundraising? Well, we're almost halfway there. Okay. I, how do we put our money in? How do you put your money in? Will you go to our website sanare centre dot ca that's s a n a r e centre. dot c a. Canadian? Yes. c e n t r e You got it. Okay, dot c a let's make it even more Canadian. And if I go there, I can find the place I can navigate to where I need to, to make my donation. Yeah, it's right on the the banner right in the front. You just click it and it will take you right there. Okay? Yeah. I wanted to go back to one thing you were talking about with the men, this group, and getting them together. Do you find men? It's hard for them to express their emotions when other men are around. Because we're macho. Totally. Really? And I would say yes. In the beginning. Yeah, I would say yes in the beginning. And that's part of the reason why one of the men that's been with us for a very long time, this group in it's different names, has been around now for approximately six years. And one of the men that's been there from the beginning will stand up and tell a story, and they'll be really vulnerable first. And that opens the door for the other men to be more honorable as well. Okay. If there some who are listening or watching this and I think that sounds like something that could help me, how do they get Ahold of you? Very simply, you can go to evolvement to our Facebook page. So that's there. Also our website, the coordinator of the of of evolvement, his name is Steve Steven Craig and he would love to speak with them even if they're thinking like I might want to go to Evolvement Circle, but I'm not sure they can talk to him. Check it out. Steve will meet with them and then they can go from there and it's evolvement evolve. E m e n t. You got it. Okay. Anything else that you wanted to touch on before we say goodbye? Just that the prevalence in Medicine Hat is high, as you know, and it's on par with the rest of the province. But sometimes we think that sexual violence, and that's the majority of what we see through the child advocacy centers. Well, we do see physical abuse and neglect, but a large percentage of the children that are coming through have experienced sexual violence. And so in Alberta, there was a 2020 study. And sometimes, you know, we think it doesn't happen here. It doesn't happen to people we know. But approximately one out of two Albertans have experienced sexual violence before the age of 18. And what we know is that if people don't get help before the age of 18 or 50%, more likely to experience it again. And so abuse again, yes, sexual abuse again. And so it's really important that, if someone starts talking about their experience of violence, specifically if it's child like, I always say, like rather than asking questions because we can ask leading questions sometimes and that can create problems. The smile and the nod in the room is really important. And then think telling whoever it is, child or not, that I believe you, it's not your fault. Thank you for trusting me with this. And I'm going to try to, you know, if there are over the age of 18, I'm going to try to get you some help with this. If they're under the age of 18, I'm going to get you some help with this and then going from there. But that first response is critical. We all know somebody who's gone through this, but that I believe you. It's not your fault. The blame game totally. And minimizing that because they're so brave for telling their story. Yeah. How far back? I mean, you could have people who were abused when they were children and they're in their 80s now. Never, never resolved. It never resolved. And believe it or not, we see lots of people that are coming forward for the first time in their 80s and are working through things. And, you know, at sonore, we support people, all people of all ages. And I think that's important to remember is that healing is is a journey and we're there to help. And that's the goal alone. No, no, we'll walk alongside you will walk behind you. We'll walk with you. Sanare center Christina Johnson, thank you for your visit. Well, thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure. Take care.