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Ad Terrace Review — Wednesday, January 23, 1991

Professionals finish com

by Tod Strachan

A group of Northwest pro-
fessionals are now better prepared
to make a difference here: from
“Terrace are Lynn Hughes repre-
senting the Notthwest Counselling
Centre, Karen Walker of the Vic-

tim’s Assistance Program, Joanne |

Mermans from the-Terrace Sexual
Abuse Centre, Marilyn Bailey who
works for Terrace and. District
Community Services, Lauren Stin-
son of the Terrace Sexual Abuse
Centre, Doreen McMillan from
the Muks-kum-ol Housing Society
and representing Kitsumkalum
Band Council is Mildred Roberts.
From Kitamaat Village are Verlie
Nelson, Kay Grant and Frieda
Ross who are all employed by the
Kitamaat Band Council.

Every one of these professionals
has recently completed the Canada
Employment Centre-sponsored,
Gitksan Wet’suwet’an-designed
"Child Sexual Abuse Prevention
Training Program" under the direc-
tion of Gitksan Wet’suwet’an
coordinator Veronica Morrison.
This is the second time this pro-
gram has been offered to pro-
fessionals, the first time being in
Hazelton. Helping Morrison in
Terrace with the presentation of
the program were Roberts, who
doubled as the cultural resource
pexson, and Hughes, who served as
the core-resource person.

The Child Sexual Abuse Preven-
tion Training Program is not just
another. weekend ~ "workshop".
Participants spend 10 months of
their time and attention learning
how to address the needs of their
particular community. Each month,
the program involves a week of
classroom discussion and three
weeks in the field studying and
putting into practice what has been
learned.

The first session began in Ter-
race early last April with a week
of orientation during which the

group identified their expectations

and learning needs. This was fol-
lowed by developing a clear under-
standing of all aspects of sexual
abuse; human needs, rights and
responsibilities, the impact of
victimization on developmental

Recent graduates of the Gitksan Wet’suwet’

Veronica Morrison (program

person), (front row) Frieda Ross, Joann Mermans,

prehensive abuse prevention course

an-designed Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program are (back row, from lef)

coordinator), Verlie Nelson, Karen Walker, Kay Grant and Lynn Hughes (core resource

Mildred Roberts (cultural resource person) and Marilyn Bailey. Program

graduates not available for the group photo were Lauren Stinson and Doreen McMillan.

tasks of children and adults; back-
ground factors and profiles of
offenders and intervention strate-
gies; the phases of the "helping"
process; communication skills with
children and adolescents; skills and
techniques helpful in dealing with
groups of abuse survivors; liaison
between cultural groups and social
organizations; and perhaps most
importantly, stress reduction tech-
niques... "Taking care of yourself".

Clearly, these are all skills that
will help these workers battle the
devastation caused by sexual
abuse... a battle that is gradually
being won through public aware-
ness and confidence. But other
things were learned as well and
many of these perhaps are of equal
importance. |

One factor of significance in the
minds of these most recent gra-
duates of this program is the
"cross-cultural" experience they
discovered, Classroom discussion
mixed equally both native and

non-native ideas, and a not-so-
surprising fact was discovered:
there are far fewer cultural dif-
ferences than most people believe.

"We thought we were different...
But we're not," said Kay Grant
during an interview. Everyone in
the room agreed. Perhaps a decade

or two ago there were differences,

but the gap has narrowed to a
point where it is practically non-
existent.

Indescribing the Gitksan Wet’su-
wet’an Child Sexual Abuse Pre-
vention Training Program, Veron-
ica Morrison explains that partici-
pants first have to understand the
issues involved in sexual abuse,
become comfortable in their own
minds with the whole topic of
sexual abuse, and then decide
exactly what it is that they want to
do prevent to prevent sexual abuse.

In confronting personal biases
and misconceptions, confidence is
gained, and according to Morrison,
"You're more comfortable... And
others are more comfortable too."

Big Band Dance ready to boogie

The Big Band Association, in
conjunction with the Terrace
Concert Society, is gearing up
for their annual Big Band

. Dance, which will be held Feb.
16 in the Caledonia school gym.
Band musicians consist mainly
of teachers from Terrace,
Kitimat, Prince Rupert and
Smithers.

Preparing for this yearly event
is a tremendous amount of
work. First put together in 1975

by Community Band manager
Jim Ryan, and sponsored by the
Band Parents Association, it
was staged as a Christmas dance
to raise funds for local school
bands, It proved so popular with
the community that it became a
yearly event.

. Ryan says many a fine musi-
cian faithfully made the once-
yearly round trip to play at the
darice (as many still do), and
that as an example of this, the

entire trumpet section from
Prince Rupert put in an ap-
pearance nearly every year,
regardless of what winter road
conditions may have been.

To the best of his knowledge,
Ryan added, School District 88
is the only district that allows
such an event to be held on
school property. Not only do the
proceeds of the dance go to a
good cause, but Ryan feels it in-
spires a sense of community.

The work of preparing for the
dance is divided between three
schools; Skeena Junior Secon-
dary, Thornhill Junior Sec-
ondary and Caledonia Senior
Secondary. Each school handles
a different aspect of the dance
each year, such as decorating
and food preparation.

Funds from the dance go to-

wards the band travel budget of °

all three schools, band

uniforms, festival entry fees and

workshops. Geoff Parr, music
director at Caledonia, explains

that the bulk of the money goes .

toward travel expenses. ‘‘Taking
a school band down to Van-
couver, for example, can cost 10

grand. And that’s travelling by -

bus.’’ Parr, who plays the saxo-
phone, urges people to reserve
their tickets in advance, even if
they are unable to pay for them
immediately. This better allows
the Band Association to plan
around the number of people
who will attend. _

So if you’re looking for a fun-
filled, foot-stompin’ evening of

good food and great music, plan- |

on attending the Big Band
Dance; it’s a great way of show-
ing support for our students.
Tickets are $25 per person and
are on sale at Sight and Sound.
Ticket reservation information
is also available there.

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