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Eagle's Nest walk aims to empower Morley youth

The Eagle’s Nest Family Shelter held their second annual Family Violence Awareness Walk on Nov. 27, in honour of November as Family Violence Awareness Month.
There was a good showing of participating Morley youth at the second annual Family Violence Awareness Walk, hosted by the Eagle’s Nest Family Shelter on Nov. 27.
There was a good showing of participating Morley youth at the second annual Family Violence Awareness Walk, hosted by the Eagle’s Nest Family Shelter on Nov. 27.

The Eagle’s Nest Family Shelter held their second annual Family Violence Awareness Walk on Nov. 27, in honour of November as Family Violence Awareness Month.

The walk kicked off in the morning, winding its way to the Morley Gymnasium for a feast to follow. Local participants included the Stoney Tribal Cadet Corps, local elders and drummers and community members.

“This year we have the theme, ‘empowering our youth’ and we are really trying to get the message to the youth in the community that family violence is not acceptable and it’s not a part of our traditions,” explained shelter director, Nora Lee Rear.

“We believe that the Stoney community has the wisdom and knowledge to rid the community of family violence, but we need members of the community to be the ‘one’ person to break the cycle, for all it has ever taken to make a change is one person.”

Rear said the shelter has put a great deal of emphasis on education as the source of prevention. Over the past year, the shelter has brought in guest speakers and hosted workshops discussing issues of family violence and how this has been linked to abuse suffered by previous generations in residential schools.

“It’s the desire for change that we hope to build on at our walk, and it’s the desire for change that we have for the youth to be a part of it.”

In 2011, the Eagle’s Nest Family Shelter helped some 150 women and 190 children, a significant increase from 2010.

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