Surrey’s Fourth Annual Domestic Abuse Conference Focuses On The “Offender”

SURREY – The City of Surreyhosted its fourth annual domesticabuse conference Thursday.The conference titled, “Changethe Lens: Looking at theOffender”, featured a panel discussionwith members including;police, crown counsel, programspecialists, a behaviouralpsychologist, a parole officerand an offender.Also in attendance as representativesof BC Lion’s “Be MoreThan a Bystander” campaign,were BC Lion, Dean Valli, andExecutive Director of EndingViolence Association of BC(EVABC), Tracy Porteous.“Through the Crime ReductionStrategy, the City of Surreyworks to effectively partner withstakeholders from the community,service agencies, and multiplelevels of government to takeaction in priority areas toaddress root causes of crime,”said Mayor Dianne Watts. “Inthe area of domestic abuse, theCity spearheads various projectsthat help address the issue bycreating awareness, developingprevention initiatives, and aligningresources to ensure communitycollaboration. The SurreyCoalition against DomesticAbuse (SCADA) Conference isa great example of thiswork.”“SCADA is a broad and farreaching coalition of over100 agencies, educators, academics,government representatives,police and serviceproviders,” said CouncillorBarinder Rasode, Chair ofthe SCADA Committee.“Workshops and discussionsat this year’s conference willhelp provide another perspectiveon the issue of domesticabuse. We are shifting our focusby talking about the programs,services and supports in placefor the offender.”Surrey Coalition againstDomestic Abuse (SCADA)brings together communityorganizations who specialize inaddressing and reducing domesticabuse. Agencies who specializein reducing domestic abuseuse SCADA to learn from eachother in open dialogue and collaborationand to get up-to-dateon all new techniques, practicesand services. More informationabout SCADA can be found atwww.surrey.ca