Family Violence Prevention Week, Feb. 14-20

Next Week -- Feb. 14-20 --is Family Violence Prevention Week in Nova Scotia.

Family Violence Prevention Week is a multi-media public education campaign to raise awareness about the problem of family violence and the need for us all to work together to prevent it. This campaign is sponsored by the Family Violence Prevention Initiative, a unique multi-departmental government-community partnership created in 1992 to co-ordinate government and community efforts to respond to this serious problem.

The official launch takes place Monday, Feb. 15, from noon to 1 p.m. at St. Paul's Anglican Church in the Grand Parade, Halifax. During this event, a proclamation will be signed declaring Feb. 14-20, 1999, to be Family Violence Prevention Week, and a candle of hope will symbolize every Nova Scotian's desire to end violence in the family. Community Services Minister Francene Cosman and Larry Uteck, deputy mayor of Halifax Regional Municipality, will speak at the event.

"For too many Nova Scotians, family violence is a cruel reality," said Ms. Cosman. "Please join in supporting the efforts of the Family Violence Prevention Initiative and the many community-based organizations working to make Nova Scotia free of family violence."

The Family Violence Prevention Initiative is co-ordinating a number of events throughout the Halifax area and the province in an effort to draw attention to this issue. Events are listed on the Community Services website at www.gov.ns.ca/coms/fvpi.htm .

With the support of corporate sponsor GlaxoWellcome, the initiative also funds local Interagency Committees on Family Violence to engage in public awareness activities in communities around the province.

Each of us is likely to live with, work with, or know someone who has experienced, or is experiencing the trauma of family violence. The costs of family violence are enormous --from the physical and emotional pain and anguish experienced by victims, to children too traumatized to develop normally, to lost productivity in the workplace, to increasing demands on the social, legal, health-care systems --family violence has a devastating impact.