Gain the skills and confidence to prevent domestic abuse

November is Family Violence Prevention Month, and we’re focusing on the role ordinary Albertans can play in supporting survivors and stopping abuse before it starts. 

We know people experiencing domestic abuse will often tell someone they know, like a friend or someone they trust, before reaching out to a formal service. People who get positive support are less likely to experience further incidents and more likely to get help. That’s why understanding how to best support survivors is so important for our community. 

With REAL Talk, a few words can empower change and bring people together. REAL Talk means: 

• Recognizing when something seems off. We all have a gut instinct about what healthy relationships look like. Recognizing when something seems off is about trusting that instinct.  
• Empathizing is about recognizing and respecting the person’s thoughts and feelings. There are many things survivors consider when deciding what to do. Empathy is about respecting those choices.  
• Asking questions is about being curious rather than giving advice. Asking questions helps you understand the survivors’ thoughts and feelings and can give you a better sense of how to offer support. 
• Listening involves letting the person describe the experience without judgement and without assigning blame. Since survivors often fear they’ll be shamed for their experience, not believed, or not supported for their decisions, listening without judgment makes them feel respected.  

We know talking about abuse can be intimidating. Some common fears people have include saying the wrong thing, or not knowing how to support someone experiencing abuse. We ’ve heard from people who have taken our REAL Talk program that it’s helped them learn how to talk to friends and family about abuse without judgement. Recently, our REAL Talk coordinator had a youth tell him REAL Talk helped them apologize to someone they hurt.  

REAL Talk is also important for communities, because we know unhealthy controlling relationships happen in every community. Abuse doesn’t discriminate between gender, economics, age or cultural identity. By having the conversation about abuse, we normalize it. And when we normalize the conversation, more people share their experiences and get supported.   

This Family Violence Prevention Month, learn more and sign up for REAL Talk.