An organization aiming to empower men to choose healthy alternatives to domestic violence in their relationships celebrated a successful year.
Men Are Part of the Solution (MAPS) held their annual general meeting at the Waywatay Inn Sept. 23.
“For the 2014-15 year, I think the highlight would be the fact that this was our first full year of the transitional housing service, the Phoenix House,” said Oswald Sawh, MAPS’ president.
The house opened in September 2013. A full year for the organization goes from April 1 to March 31. Since the house opened, it has provided services to 24 men. Seven have since moved to better things and six are still clients
“Out of the 24, we have 13 – more than half – have either been helped by our service or have moved on to stable housing and stable employment,” Sawh said, adding that he likes to think their families have also benefited.
Eleven have been evicted because they broke the strict rules that requires them to stay sober; one has since come back to try again.
MAPS also has a partnership with the City of Thompson and Manitoba Hydro to provide the men with seasonal debris cleanup work.
The biggest challenge the transition home has is having the clients take ownership of their recovery. While MAPS is there to help the clients out, they can’t be successful unless the client makes the effort to make a personal change.
“I’d like to see more acceptance that for me to proceed, I need to work at it just as much as I expect people to support me,” Sawh said.
Counselling, MAPS’ core service, hasn’t changed too much over the last year. There were 30 men that received counselling last year; as of Sept. 22, there are 40 men on the waiting list, something the organization feels is unacceptable.
MAPS provides what’s called Stage 1 counselling, which is where a group of men receive information over 12 sessions.
“I can’t stress enough that for guys that grew up in an abusive home, having these 12 sessions is good information but what they need is an ongoing support system,” Sawh said.
What’s needed is Stage 2 counselling, where men follow up with a counsellor and have a monthly group session where they can talk to others in a similar situation.
To do that, Sawh hopes to bring back Men’s Forums, where men are invited to listen to guest speakers and talk about it after among themselves. It was something MAPS did in the mid-2000s, but they stopped after they felt they were opening old wounds without being able to follow up with services to help the attendees deal with it afterwards, as the organization had no staff back then.
Sawh said the it’s important for adults that use violence in their relationships to get help for the sake of their children’s future.
“Because if we don’t, they’re going to grow up to be victimizers or victims and the cycle will continue,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is to help them so they can help their families.”
