The Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters (ACWS) announced this October that the Canadian Women’s Foundation will fund upcoming training sessions for the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) to participate in ACWS’ Leading Change program.
This program is designed to build leaders in violence prevention. It focuses on building the conversation among players about domestic and gender-based violence prevention.
ACWS states that the program sessions will provide the young players with the tools they need to begin leading the change to end domestic violence and abuse and contribute to a larger culture change.
The AJHL and ACWS recently announced their new partnership and the leagues participation in the Leading Change training will begin with each of the 16 AJHL member teams in the 2022-2023 season.
“We know that women, girls and Two Spirit, trans and non-binary people are at highest risk of experiencing gender-based violence and we are committed to seeing those numbers drop,” says Ann Decter, Senior Director of Community Initiatives and Policy with the Canadian Women’s Foundation.
“The training ACWS provides to athletic teams can spark vital culture change around sexual violence and sports.”
The executive director of ACWS Jan Reimer states that the ACWS Leading Change program is unique in that it’s designed to chip away at the roots causes of gender-based violence one workshop at a time.