BY SISTER PEGGY FLANAGAN
The original committee, which resulted from the fourth directional statement of Chapter/94, was called Healing Violence Against Women. Our mandate to provide a major conference every two years on some aspect of Healing Violence over a period of ten years has been completed. These conferences, and smaller workshops were well attended. Awareness of the issues was raised as well as attitudes and actions taken to promote prevention and healing.
Another part of our mandate was to provide a bursary fund for women who have come through a cycle of abuse and are needing counselling and/or education in the field.
The committee members took part in a retreat to discern whether to continue as we have been, or to adopt a new mandate with the approval of the Leadership Team. We also met with the director of Providence Spirituality Centre to discuss how we might work together on workshops to eradicate violence so prevalent in our society and our world.
It was decided to shorten the name of our committee to The Healing Violence Committee. The following new mandate, based on our Mission Statement, was adopted and will be recited at each meeting:
Healing Violence Committee Mandate
Rooted in the words of our Mission Statement, i.e.
“In response to the needs of the times.”
“To empower others, especially the poor and oppressed, to achieve a quality of life in keeping with their human dignity.”
“Through promotion of structures and relationships of equality and mutuality.”
“We move to concrete actions to eradicate violence, especially against women and children.”
“We aim to raise awareness, to change attitudes and to take action to promote healing at three levels: personal, congregational, and societal, through education, networking and bursaries.”
Our Plans Are:
- To network with Providence Spirituality Centre to host workshops for the public.
- To include educational components for ourselves and our Sisters and Associates.
- To continue our ongoing commitment to our corporate stance against Human Trafficking and our corporate sponsorship of the Stop Trafficking newsletter. (see Sr. Jean Schafer’s letter)
Bursary:
We still have a Bursary Sub-committee.
Our fund has been increased from $10,000 to $15,000 per year, with a maximum disbursement per individual of $5,000 with the possibility of two renewals.
We encourage our Sisters to sponsor women for counseling and/or education. Applications may be obtained from any member of the HVC. The deadline for applications each year is March 30th.
Current members of the Healing Violence Committee:
Barbara Baker pa
Una Byrne sp
Catherine Casey sp
Marie Dundon sp
Peggy Flanagan sp
Carol Groten pa
Frances O’Brien sp
Alayne Scanlon pa
Margo Shafer sp
We consider your interest and prayerful support to be a very valuable and necessary part of the work of this committee.