This evening's Take Back The Night event will take place virtually and Huronia Transition Homes hopes everyone will get involved.
Take Back The Night is a way for members of the Simcoe County community to come together and raise their voices to end all violence against women.
Held annually in Barrie on the third Thursday of September since 1999, hundreds of women would normally be seen rallying at city hall then marching through the downtown core.
Due to the pandemic and public health restrictions this year, however, a gathering is not possible. Instead, Athena’s Sexual Assault Counselling and Advocacy Centre and Huronia Transition Homes will host a virtual event tonight.
Participants are being asked to join in this year by creating a sign in any language, answering one of these questions:
What will you do to end violence against women or what words of hope and encouragement would you share with someone who is experiencing, or who has experienced gender-based violence?
Participants are then asked to share their messages on their social media platforms on Sept. 16 using the hashtag #TBTNBARRIE and tag Huronia Transition Homes’ Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Thursday's event hopes to facilitate conversations with staff/organization members related to violence against women and advocate daily for the rights of women and girls to be free from sexual violence and harassment in the workplace and the broader community.
Athena’s is made up of community members who are dedicated to not just ending violence against women and children, but also supplying shelter, support and counselling to women survivors of sexual assault.
Athena’s works together with other shelters and programs under the organization Huronia Transition Homes, which aims to eliminate all violence against women.
Huronia Transition Homes is an anti-violence organization with a mandate to end all violence against all women. Guided by intersectional feminism, the mandate steers the organization to address violence against women both individually and systematically. It operates five distinct programs throughout Simcoe County La Maison Rosewood Shelter, Athena’s Sexual Assault Counselling & Advocacy Centre, Choices for Children, Operation Grow, and a specialized anti-human-trafficking program.
Statistics show one in three women in Canada will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime, which is approximately 39 per cent of all Canadian women, and half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16.
For Indigenous women, racialized women, women with a disability, women in poverty, and women a part of the LGBTQ2SA+ community, the numbers are even higher.
If you have any questions or would like more information, contact Lyndsay Gray at 705-737-2884 ext. 230 or [email protected].
