Staff
An open house and information session at the Rainy River District Victim Services Program last Friday helped kick off National Victims of Crime Awareness Week locally.
“We want to bring attention to the needs of people who have been through whatever sort of victimization, but also to showcase the services,” RRDVSP director Peggy Loyie said about the open house, which ran at their Scott Street office.
This year, the theme for the week, which runs April 10-16, is “Many Voices, Many Paths.”
“We often talk about what we don’t have in our area, in our geographic area,” Loyie noted, saying this area tends to think of itself as a “have-not” region.
“But I think it’s really important to showcase what we do have and the expertise we do have in this community,” she stressed, pointing to the various local services that were present at the open house for people to connect with and learn about.
This includes services the RRDSVP provides, along with the Northwest Community Legal Clinic, Rainy River District Women’s Shelter of Hope, and Victim Witness Assistance Program.
Also on hand for Friday’s open house were representatives from the local OPP and Treaty #3 Police.
“That’s why we like to host the open house because these are the paths, in many ways, to healing and to coming to some sort of resolution, or some sort of resolve if faced with a victimization of any kind,” Loyie said, explaining how the open house tied into this year’s theme for the week.
“So we want to highlight the paths that we have in our community to address [this], resolve, support you get in crime and other tragic circumstances.”
The “Many Voices” part of the theme reflects the diversity of those who fall victim to crime.
“People who are victimized come from all backgrounds, all cultural backgrounds, ethnicity, socio-economic backgrounds—it’s across the demographics,” Loyie said.
National Victims of Crime Awareness Week is marked by various events all across Canada.
