Grand Forks will be recognizing National Victims of Crime Week (April 22 to 28) with an art exhibition on Thursday, April 26 at the Grand Forks Curling Rink.
The Social Justice Art Exhibition event aims to raise awareness about victim issues and community programs, services and laws that can help victims of crime and their families.
“It’s designed to bring awareness not only to victims of crime but also to communities,” explained Cathy Riddle, program manager for the Boundary Regional RCMP Victim Services. “We have been recognizing (the event) publicly for the last five years.”
The exhibition will showcase art creations by youth who were engaged in an eight-week education session.
Boundary Regional RCMP Victim Services and the Boundary Women’s Transition House partnered with the Vancouver organization Children of the Street last May to begin the initiative.
Training started with 26 people and six facilitators were chosen to run the eight-week program.
“That program was social justice art, which is what we’re going to be showcasing on April 25 and 26. It’s all done by the youth,” stated Riddle.
She pointed out that the program was run out of Boundary Central Secondary School in Midway and there was also a project run out of the Boundary Women’s Resource Centre in Grand Forks, as well as Community Futures.
“We talked about issues like the negative influences of gangs, drug and alcohol use and abuse, sexual exploitation of kids, and global stewardship,” said Riddle. “Every week we did two hours with the kids. There was an hour of education and then an hour of art.”
During dinner at the event, which begins at 6 p.m., guest speaker and Children of the Street Executive Director Diane Sowden will present “It can happen to anyone.”
Sowden will be discussing her personal experience of losing her 13-year-old daughter to the sex trade and the increasing dangers associated with sexual exploitation of youth.
“She’s going to design (her speech) around the needs of our community,” said Riddle. “We’re going to look at how we can get our kids involved, keeping them involved and educating them on the dangers of what’s happening in the exploitation of our kids online, at home and the people traveling through trying to recruit our kids on the streets.”
Riddle would like to encourage everybody to come out to the event.
“Come out and hear about it because it is happening in our communities,” she concluded. “We have a lot of strong programs going and there is a lot of support out there for anybody involved. We have a lot of resources on our hands where we can reach out and give anyone who needs help a hand.”
The event is sponsored by the Boundary Regional RCMP Victim Services, Boundary Women’s Transition House, Get Bent Dance Studio in Penticton, and the Children of the Street Society.
National Victims of Crime Week was an initiative started by the federal government seven years ago.
RCMP Victim Services has been running for 20 years in Grand Forks and 11 years in Midway.
The Youth Art Engagement Project will be held on April 25 at 4 p.m., in the McArthur Centre in Greenwood.
In Grand Forks, as mentioned, the project is on Thursday, April 26 at the Grand Forks Curling Rink and begins at 4 p.m.
Dinner begins at 6 p.m. for both events and is $10 per person.