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| I~ © oO > -- c or EB | Thursaay, Peruary 8, 2018 NICOLE O'REILLY noreilly@thespec.cem A pilot program target- = ing high school-aged boys in 2 Halton Region is working to § 5 8 anadi 3 c iito insidehaiton.com reshape how men view vio- lence against women and - their role in stopping it. "The success of the pro- gram has béen breaking down that violence against women isn't just what you see in a shelter," said Brent Dugyid; public educator at Halton Women's Place. "The definition of violence needs to be broadened to include things like sexist jokes and homophobic remarks." The pilot program, called engageMENt, began at three Halton high schools in September, where students examined everything from sports and video game cul- ture, to the connection be- tween toxic masculinity and domestic violence. Halton Women's Place operates two emergency women's shelters in Burling- ton and Milton, where their 52 beds are almost always full. Duguid becatiie the first man hired a little over two years ago, and a year later Kyle Smith joined him onthe four-person public educa- tion team. : "Halton Women's Place has long believed that men need to be part of the solu- tion to end violence against women," Duguid said. As public educators they spend most of their time in schools delivering age-ap- propriate talks . about healthy relationships and violence against women. But the thrust to hire men was to develop the male-ally program. The pilot ran as an after- school program at Bishop, Reding Catholic Secondary School in Milton. Through boys Grade 9 gym classes at St. Ignatius of Loyola Catho- lic Secondary Schoolin Oak- ville. And through a life- skills class in a special edu- cation program at White Oaks Secondary School in Oakville. In all, about 90 boys went through the eight-week pro- JOB. NEED ONE? Nikki Wesley/Metroland Brent Duguid and Kyle Smith are running a special program for teen boys called engageMENt, which aims to reshape how men view violence against women and educate them on the important role they play in stopping it. gram from September to De- cember. Now they're looking at continuing the pilot pro- gram at new schools this year. Eventually, Duguid said, he'd also like to see schools take over the program, with teachers trained to run them. He also hopes to bring the program out of the class- room into community set- ¥ecenitre.on.ca. tings. Both men said they saw remarkable transforma- tions. "There was a real resis- tance in the beginning and there seemed to be a real un- derstanding by the end," Du- guid said. Initially many of the boys 'simply didn't think domestic 'violence was a significant problem in Halton - a tradi- tionally safe and wealthy community. But the statics' are "sobering" and show the violence happens "in your own backyard," Duguid said. Some boys argued that sexist jokes or homophobic comments are not part ofthe real problem of domestic vi- olence. Halton high- school boys j join war on gender violence "Alot of boys said there is a gap ... that those things don't connect," Smith said. Another common push- back they heard was the con- fused beliefthat men face the same levels of discrimina- tion and violence as women. "It's mot on the same scale," Smith said hetells the boys. ; At one point Duguid said he played a clip from a video game where a player hires a sex worker, kills her and runs her over with a car, AH the boys laughed, he said. "There is an entire gener- ation that laughs at that, and before you there were people who would not find that fun- ny at all," he told the boys. "So obviously there is a so- cial change." It's not realistic to expect boys to stop playing violent video games, but Smith said they want them to be con- scious consumers and be a voice for change. In another lesson, they compared two Sports Ilus- @® See SPECIAL, page 17