Interval House of Hamilton is set to expand one of its awareness campaigns by joining up with the Tiger-Cats to launch a program with a focus on training coaches about gender-based violence.
The agency, which navigates women who have experienced violence, abuse or trafficking into safe and affordable housing, says the Coaching Boys into Men program will prepare mentors for weekly conversations with athletes about the impacts of violence, particularly against women and girls.
“The training is about simply three hours and they in turn will go back to their team and have weekly conversations of about 10 or 15 minutes,” Sue Taylor, executive director of Interval House told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton.
“They discuss gender-based violence, dating violence and how to be more than a bystander. So the time commitment is pretty low, but the outcomes are pretty spectacular.”
Taylor said the timing of the program amid Hockey Canada’s recent scandal over the handling of sexual abuse allegations is coincidental and there’s no connection between the two.
However, she said what has been seen with Hockey Canada does open up an opportunity to dismantle what she calls “toxic masculinity” recently seen in sports and the premise that the activity “does not equal violence.”
“I really believe that coaching … is such an important role we play with our youth. We coach them to play a good game, but we also coach them to be great adults,” Taylor said.
The program’s weekly dialogue is supported through scripts targeting dressing rooms where coaches can cover topics on what gender-based violence means, what does a healthy relationship looks like, what dating violence looks like, and tools youth can use when in a difficult position.
Taylor said similar programs with partners have been running stateside for about 10 years with data suggesting 90 per cent of youth participating have an increased knowledge in gender-based violence and are better equipped to intervene when they see or know something that’s wrong.
Interval House will now embark on a similar study in Ontario, Taylor said.
“The evaluations will start to take place as soon as we find coaches to participate,” Taylor said.
“Then within our first season, we should be able to see some of those results that the states were reporting.”
Interval House and the Ticats are now seeking interested parties and expect to reach out to school boards in addition to other city sporting agencies.
The initiative is geared toward youth between the ages of 12 and 18.
Interested parties can reach out to Interval House directly.
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