‘We need to get to boys and men before they cause harm’

Changing Ways is internationally known for its programs for men who have been charged with domestic abuse.

Now — amid a rise of social media influencers promoting aggressive versions of masculinity to young males — the agency is working to prevent boys from ever turning to violence in the first place.

With federal pandemic-recovery funding allocated by United Way Elgin Middlesex, Changing Ways is expanding its partnerships with other organizations in the region and building a network of intervention services for young people on the cusp of using harm.
“Our focus is boys and men because that’s the demographic most likely to use violence,” said Tim Smuck, executive director of the nonprofit, which serves London and Elgin and Middlesex counties.

The funding enables Changing Ways to expand on its 20 years of work to combat intimate partner violence as an agency that provides court-ordered counselling for men who’ve been charged with domestic abuse.

“To end violence against women and domestic abuse, we have to get to the root of the issue,” said Smuck. “That means working to help men who’ve abused recognize their patterns. But it also means educating our community on the risk factors linked to boys and men who use harm, and establishing support services for them.”

‘Young people charged more than ever before’

The agency, which has called on the City of London to declare gender-based violence an epidemic, is one of 26 groups that United Way Elgin Middlesex allocated to receive funding from the Government of Canada’s Community Services Recovery Fund to address needs that have emerged or increased since the start of COVID-19.

“Without this funding, we wouldn’t be able to do this,” said Smuck, who noted most funding in the area of domestic violence tends to be directed toward victim services. “We would be restricted to delivering our base service.”

Throughout the pandemic, UWEM helped the agency’s United Way-funded Caring Dads program continue its work by investing in electronic tablets that would enable clients to log in for virtual support meetings and counselling sessions.

United Way helped keep families safe during the pandemic by providing funds to help Caring Dads deliver remote support to men at risk of abusing.

But at that same time, staff and volunteers were seeing soaring numbers of 18-24 year old court-mandated clients — which more than doubled since the beginning of the pandemic.

“We are seeing young people charged more than ever before,” said Smuck.

This, amid a rise in “influential voices,” and men’s rights groups targeting boys online with misogynist messages that complain about discrimination against men and normalize violence against women.

“We know a lot of young boys are being influenced by these negative channels,” said Smuck. “We want to push the counter narrative: to tell men and boys, ‘You play an important role in making your community safe. You can show up without being emasculated.’”

Boys have important role in making community safe

“The patriarchal beliefs that give men privilege in our society — that they’re strong, they’re leaders, they’re logical — are also the ones that can handcuff men from seeking help to deal with their emotions,” said Holly Meaney, the agency’s new community engagement and research co-ordinator.

A recent PhD candidate and former men’s counsellor, Meaney was one of the employees who helped to serve the influx of young males being ordered to attend Changing Ways during the pandemic.

Knowing that many clients in the 18-24 age bracket would have been showing signs of violent behaviour as early as 12 years old, Meaney, Smuck and the Changing Ways team began to explore ways to create interventions for boys through a multi-agency, community-wide prevention strategy.

New partnerships in the works

As part of the project, Changing Ways will work with organizations, such as police services, school boards, Western University and Fanshawe College to create spaces and strategies to bring boys and men into conversations around healthy relationships.
It will also strengthen relationships with other agencies in the intimate-partner and domestic violence sector, such as ANOVA, London Abused Women’s Centre and the Muslim Resource Centre for Social Support and Integration.

Breaking the cycle

“I didn’t want to be like my dad,” is a common refrain uttered by Changing Ways’ clients.
“We hear that all the time from men who end up in our support groups,” said Meaney.
“We want to make sure that going forward, there are more community supports available for boys and young men in that position — to help them learn to express feelings in non-violent ways.”

A volunteer group that aims to help racialized Londoners prevent and manage diabetes now has its own kitchen to prepare healthy meals and food boxes and offer educational cooking classes.

Type Diabeat-It moved into the commercial-grade kitchen in August, four years after founder Mystery Furtado started the organization by planting a few rows of vegetables in the London Food Bank’s community garden.

Located on Exeter Road, the kitchen will be a hub for processing harvest from the organization’s on-site greenhouse and teaching how to prepare healthy, Afrocentric and diabetes-friendly plant-based recipes that can feed a family for less than $20, Furtado said.

“This is huge,” said Furtado, a nurse and clinical educator who is originally from Belize.
“Our kitchen is going to help so many people.”

The kitchen is one of 26 new community projects in London, Elgin and Middlesex that United Way Elgin Middlesex allocated to receive funding from the Government of Canada’s Community Services Recovery Fund, which aims to help charities, nonprofits and Indigenous governing bodies address needs that have emerged or increased since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Type Diabeat-It is the only Black-led organization in Southwestern Ontario planting and preparing “cultural produce” with a focus on newcomers and BPOC (Black and people of colour) communities, Furtado said.

It’s an important focus. Along with Indigenous people, BPOC communities have much higher rates of type 2 diabetes compared to the general population.

Before moving into the kitchen, Furtado would hold her cooking demonstrations at community centres, agencies and churches across London.

“For so long, we’ve been bouncing all over the place and relying on community partners in order to do the work we do,” she said. “Now we have a home.”

‘The pandemic showed us we need a kitchen’

Before the pandemic, Furtado was running cooking demonstrations at London community centres and churches, and her team of volunteers were distributing 80 boxes monthly of locally grown afro-centric produce and cultural recipe cards to Londoners – specifically people living with diabetes and in public-housing communities.

But COVID-19 shutdowns disrupted the food box program by limiting Furtado’s ability to access community space where volunteers could package the food. While partner organizations offered to share spaces for food prep and cooking demos when possible, it became impossible to maintain the program after the first year of the pandemic. And social distancing restrictions meant Furtado needed to book spacious areas – and often use a hot plate to cook.

“The pandemic showed us we needed a kitchen.”

Diabetes Canada says healthy eating can help people manage all types of diabetes. But some newcomers to Canada say it’s a challenge to eat healthy meals after arriving, not only because of cost but because it’s difficult to find the nutritional foods they were used to back home.

When getting settled, it can be easy to turn to more affordable processed foods, leading to eating habits that can get passed down through generations.

Helping people manage and prevent diabetes by eating healthy has been a lifelong passion for Furtado, who lost grandparents on both her maternal and paternal sides to the disease, and who was only nine when she became responsible for administering her grandma’s insulin at their home in a remote area of Belize.

“Our goal is to address food insecurity and create food literacy for the African, Caribbean and Black communities,“ she said “We are targeting a specific demographic that might not relate to the food recipes that are recommended here in Canada.”

Furtado wants to help families find their way back to nutritional comfort food. It’s why her recipes include traditional favourites such as Ghanian Red Bean stew, green banana salad and cassava fries.

It’s also why, she and her team of volunteers will still continue bringing locally grown produce popular in African and Caribbean countries, such as okra, swiss chard and callaloo, along with recipe cards and cooking demonstrations to public-housing communities and churches in London’s Boullee, Limberlost and Glen Cairn neighbourhoods.

“I’ve been on welfare and I live in public housing,” she said. “I know what it’s like to be unable to access services because you can’t get to them – We’re going to keep bringing our services into communities.”

Quick facts:

• Cardinal Fine Cabinetry provided the kitchen and has agreed to let Type Diabeat-It cultivate 1.5 acres of land on the property to grow produce.
• The kitchen project is a collaboration with London Food Bank, London Intercommunity Health Centre, Foundation for Black Communities and City of London.
• Type Diabeat-It works closely with other community groups including LUSO, BGC London, Northwest London Resource Centre and London Intercommunity Health Centre.