By Thia James

Community Against Family Violence program ends in October

Sep 25, 2014 | 4:54 PM

Community Against Family Violence (CAFV), a program operated by the Co-operative Health Centre, will be discontinued next month.

The announcement was made by Sandy Pitzel, the program’s co-ordinator, who wrote about the discontinuation of the program in an open letter sent dated Sept. 24.

In it, she wrote that she was informed on Sept. 12 that the Co-operative Health Centre would be dissolving the program and her position on Oct. 10. Pitzel also sits on the health centre’s board of directors.

“I am very proud of the accomplishments that CAFV has achieved over the past 10 years I have worked in this capacity,” Pitzel wrote.

In the letter, she went on to thank members of the community for their help with the program that worked to educate students about domestic violence.

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A representative of the Co-operative Health Centre, who declined to be named, described what would be happening as a “shift of services” and said details cannot be released. He said the health centre’s board would make an announcement next week.

According to the health centre’s representative, the “shift” would include new services. At this time, he said, the executive director of the Co-operative Health Centre, Renee Danylczuk, and the board were working on the final details of the plan.

He would not comment about possible job losses or what the new services will include. He did say that Pitzel broke media protocol by making the announcement.

Pitzel could not be reached for further comment in time for publication.

She wrote that her last day at work will be Friday due to holidays. Her final event in her capacity as the program’s co-ordinator was the Celebrating Peace in Our Community event.

At the event on Thursday, Prince Albert Police Chief Troy Cooper said he knew the program would be “scaling down a bit,” and it was Pitzel’s last official function.

“At first when I heard that, I was upset, because the work that Sandy does, this day, and other things that she does in our community are really important…,” he said.

Later on Thursday, Cooper described the Community Against Family Violence as a strong partner for the police when they’ve dealt with issues surrounding domestic violence and other related issues, such as elder abuse and parenting.

“The work they do is important because it’s parallel to the work we’re doing. It’s trying to look at ways to reduce risk factors and reduce some of the complex issues that lead to domestic violence,” he said.

The program has worked to raise awareness about the issue of domestic abuse, sat committees and held legal workshops for victims of crime, Cooper added.

But for him, the program also has organized two events that are important on a personal level. One event is the Badge of Peace and Respect Awards, which honours students who promote peace and peaceful resolutions. The other event is the walk for police officers, which was held on Thursday morning.

As for Pitzel herself, Cooper described her as a passionate person who works on the issues she does because she actually cares.

“This is a personal thing for her, so she’ll be a volunteer in the community and she’ll continue to work towards a peaceful community regardless of where she’s working. That’s just the kind of person that she is, and so losing her from a full-time position, you know that’s a loss, a real loss for the community for sure and we’re very appreciative of the work that she’s done in the past.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames