Tackling the tough issues

Teresa KinneyTeresa Kinney, BSW’91, will admit her job is a tough one; more than that, though, it’s a rewarding one. She works the London’s Abused Women’s Centre in London, Ontario.

“The work is hard, but it’s always wonderful to see women move through the agency and regain some of the power they’ve lost,” says Kinney, who admits to being a victim of violence herself.

A history that has now proved invaluable in her job; having enduring her own experiences has made her more empathetic says Kinney. And she adds that she has an understanding of the “journey back” these women make in getting to know who they are again, what they’re capable of, and how they can survive and prosper.

Kinney admits that leaving judgment behind is the key to her job. “We would never tell a woman to get out, or what she should do. That’s what her abuser does; he controls her.” Instead, Kinney listens and provides a woman with options; she leaves all the decisions up to her

It’s a difficult thing to do, especially if you watch a woman go back to an abuser only to be hurt again. Leaving an abuser can be just as dangerous as staying explains Kinney. At the time a woman first leaves is when she is most vulnerable to serious injury or death by her intimate partner. It is during that time, women are most often killed. In the past 18 months, four women in London were killed by abusive partners. There are more than 70 women per year who fall victim to that fate across the country.

But Kinney does what she can to make sure that doesn’t happen. She helps women get access to the services they need—medical, legal, educational, or otherwise. She’s working for a change at the most basic level, one person at a time. But Kinney says that real change needs to happen at a higher level: through the legal system, which should be protecting these women, and through the medical system, which is treating them. And through a society that says violence against women will not be tolerated.

Stronger support from these systems is what’s needed, because when it comes down to it, Kinney says: “Really, it’s the women who are doing all the work. We just need to give them the tools to do it.”

By Leslie Strudwick