The Anti-Violence Advocates Society (AVA) was formed to become a collective voice for the victims of violence, and to provide support to people affected by violence or abuse in the Barriere area.
We are a registered non-profit BC Society. We are an inclusive action-oriented group, advocating and working towards a society that will not tolerate violence or abuse.
One of our main focuses has been to raise funds for and implement a violence prevention education program in our local schools.
After researching various education programs for our youth we decided on presenting “Respectful Relationships” to grades 7 through 10.
Respectful Relationships is a national award winning primary violence prevention program. It has received both provincial and national awards and has shown through extensive evaluation that it truly is a “best practice” in the field of school based violence prevention.
This program has been overwhelmingly accepted by both our Barriere Elementary School and Barriere Secondary School principals. We hope to begin in the fall of 2016 as we still need to reconnect with both schools.
In 2014/15 we tried to raise awareness within our community about how abuse is a societal issue, and that the responsibility to work towards a society that will not tolerate violence or abuse rests with each one of us through several articles in our local newspaper, as well as radio interviews.
In addition, our board members have made presentations to various local organizations, businesses and our local government.
Awareness materials have also been widely distributed to the community at large.
We aim to stop the silence and break the cycle of abuse and are taking great steps in this direction.
To that end, the AVA society placed laminated Safe Home Response posters in all ladies washrooms throughout the entire North Thompson Valley.
Simpcw was sent 200 emergency phone number cards that were mailed out to all households in Chu Chua.
We gathered supplies to donate to Yellowhead Community Services Safe Home Response Program which are used to make emergency kits containing anything from toiletries to gum boots and pajamas, for families who access the program. Thanks to the generous community response and donations we were able to literally stuff a car full of these items.
Our thanks go out to the Barriere Quilter’s group who have donated quilts for children, as well as a quilt for our 2015 raffle which is valued at $650.
Bag Lady Enterprises in Barriere collects bottles at their site for us. If you have extra pop cans, etc. please drop them off and specify that they are for AVA.
We would like to invite anyone interested in joining our group to please call Lynn at 250-318-7381.
We will be meeting again on March 16 at 6:00 p.m. at the Ridge School building building in Barriere. Everyone is welcome.