On November 8th, 2017 the Men's Program in Owen Sound hosted a one-day community forum called Know Me(n) Better at the Bayshore Community Centre. More than 85 service providers and community members participated. Findings from that event have just been released and are available on the Violence Prevention Grey Bruce website.

Know Me(n) Better was advertised as a community forum to discuss "men, why we don't talk, all the things we need to talk about, and how we, as a community and services can work together in better ways". Four men from Grey and Bruce counties spoke about their personal experiences during a morning session and in the afternoon participants gathered in small groups to discuss many of the issues impacting men in Grey and Bruce. Some of the many issues discussed were the impact of colonization and racism, barriers to men accessing services, the needs of boys, and the impacts of substance use and addiction. The lessons and themes from those stories and discussions are summarized in the new report.

Men's Program Supervisor Joachim Ostertag coordinated the event and co-wrote the report. According to Ostertag, November's event confirmed that there is a need to discuss men's struggles and issues more frequently. "I was impressed by the courage of the men speaking. Also the great interest from the community," he said.

"I think there's a lot of valuable information for men in general in the community and service providers about the experiences of men, how we can move on from the various struggles that men face, and also the challenges that services face supporting men," Ostertag added.

"Going forward, we at the Men's Program hope to build from this momentum by organizing future events in the community by and for men. We asked people what they would want to talk about going forward and they had many suggestions which are included in the report".

Ostertag encourages service providers and community members to read the report, consider ways to hold similar conversations more widely, and address the challenges raised by Know Me(n) Better.

The report is available for download from www.violencepreventiongreybruce.com under the initiative Know Me(n) Better. For more information, contact Joachim Ostertag at the Men's Program in Owen Sound. 

Source: Press Release