Although it may not always seem like it, the impact of each voice is a force of change — nothing can replace the perspectives gained from each person’s unique lived experience.
Add your voice: Take the survey
For Ang Braun, who is the executive director of Genesis House, a Southern Manitoban organization that provides services and support for domestic violence and abuse, this thinking is why it’s an important time for the voices of everyone (directly affected by domestic abuse or not) to be heard and amplified.
‘What we did 40 years ago may not be relevant today’
Braun is setting out on a complicated journey on behalf of each community member.
After 20 years of working in a domestic abuse agency, she is asking the difficult question of how it all could be better.
“What we did 40 years ago might not be relevant today,” she says. “We need to figure out if we’re meeting the needs for the whole group of people that we should be serving.”
“Are we leading with compassion? Are we hearing people and meeting them where they are as much as we’re able?”
Braun is also interested in discovering to what extent the community is aware of the services available to it and whether agencies offer trauma-informed care. Both concerns only add to the list of questions she asks herself concerning domestic abuse services.
“Are we leading with compassion? Are we hearing people and meeting them where they are as much as we’re able?” she asks.
For Braun, the answers lie in the experiences of individuals. From those who have accessed domestic abuse services to empathetic community members who support them, each perspective matters to her because, in her view, no one understands a community better than the people who call it home.
Identifying challenges and barriers
Collecting information is the first step in improving the community’s services through action. To this end, Braun has developed a painless online survey designed to collect every experience.
Although the benefits of hearing many different voices will be immeasurable to domestic violence agencies and the people they serve, Braun says participation in the survey is simple and streamlined.
“Once you've selected some categories, the page will take you to the right survey for you,” says Braun, adding that most participants will fall into one of five categories.
Select which answer best describes you:
Personal experience with the Genesis House shelter, programs or services.
Personal experience with another intimate partner/gender-based violence shelter and its programs and services.
Employee or volunteer at Genesis House (past or present).
Employee or volunteer at a different intimate partner/gender-based violence shelter (past or present).
A community member, stakeholder or other agency.
The 5 categories of participants that Braun would like to connect with through her survey.
The survey’s first category is for individuals who have used any type of service from domestic abuse agencies.
Braun is particularly interested in hearing from this group because its truths are sometimes hidden. She suspects that most people are hesitant to offer criticism to agencies because they feel indebted to them for their help.
“That’s not what I want. What I want [you] to be able to do is give us honest feedback. That survey is going to ask you about the types of barriers that you experienced,” she says. “We want to make sure that we are accessible to people and that people feel that they can trust our services.”
Value in everyone’s perspective
The other versions of the survey welcome insight from intimate violence shelter volunteers, community members, and stakeholders.
Braun also welcomes input from those who have no ties to domestic abuse services but view them as an essential component of a community’s health.
She stresses that for any and every participant, the survey (which takes about three minutes to complete) is completely anonymous and confidential, and any section of it can be skipped at any time.
Related stories:
- Power of the PJ's: A campaign of comfort and change for domestic violence survivors
- 'Stars are aligning': Genesis House looking to secure grants, take major steps toward transitional housing facility
‘The survey will provide . . . direction’
Braun is eager for the results of the survey and the difference it will make to the future of domestic abuse services in Southern Manitoba. She intends to share the findings with agencies across the province.
“It will inform how we direct our policy, and that may shift some of our practices. We want to make sure that we are relevant and meet the needs of people,” she says. “The survey will provide that direction. We really just need to know the truth about people’s experience.”
According to Braun, the survey is a response to recent (uncomfortable) realizations.
“We have a project around [experiencing] homelessness and it discovered a whole group of people that we were underserving. We now [also] have a project on a sexual assault intervention, which I expect will expose more of the same people that don't know about us,” she says. “Finding out that there are these pockets of people that we are not aware of means that we’re not fully accessible. They don't even know we're here or that we are an appropriate service for them.”
In the end, Braun’s willingness to face the shortcomings of domestic abuse support in the province is inspired by the spirit of the many people who use the services.
“One of the greatest things I've learned is the amount of resilience that people have — it's really an endless amount of hope and of the ability to still find joy when there's been so much sadness and so much difficulty,” she says.
To add your voice to the important data that will shape the future of communities across Southern Manitoba, click here.