Safe Hub – Mamook Kloshe
By Joyce Fosella, Executive Director (WAVS)
What is safety for women?
There are many programs, shelters, transition houses and subsidized housing that women who experience intimate partner violence. These is a need for the protection of women who are abused.
How can that issue be addressed?
Over 25 years ago the co-founders of Warriors Against Violence Society (the late Daniel Parker and Joseph Fossella) recognized that there were no services or programs to help men make change in unwanted behaviours. Yet over 90% of the violence to women is committed by men. A vision that Daniel and Joe came to was to find a way that would be helpful for men and that was a Safe House. A place they could go when there was a violent incident or where they could get help to address their issue of violence.
The meeting that was held in Vancouver on June 29th was attended and supported by several people from various organizations and community members and grassroots workers who had experience with marginalized people, people who were involved in the justice system and people with disabilities. They supported the idea of the Safe Hub and provided their ideas for what that would look like.
We are happy to say that out of this meeting we were able to get continued commitment from several individuals who want to support the idea and continue to attend other meetings as they occur.
We look forward to more planning for this “Safe Hub”.
From left to right: Joyce Fossella, Doris Rajan (IRIS) and Joe Fossella
