Working with communities: The Cultural Intermediaries of the Shield of Athena
Part of the Shield of Athena’s network of services is the Cultural Intermediary (CI) service. Women from different communities have been trained on conjugal and family violence and they assist social workers, in what we call a three tiered intervention, when a victim does not speak French or English.
The CI’s also do a lot of outreach in their communities so as to raise awareness about conjugal/family violence, tops that are still considered as taboo. In this film they describe the challenges and obstacles they faced during the initial contact with their communities and how they overcame these difficult moments so as to gain their trust and break the silence surrounding conjugal, family and honor based violence.
Breaking the silence in communities about these types of violence is an important step in and helping those suffering from such abuse.