|
BCIFV
home > Media Releases
> April 7, 2000
For Immediate
Release
Contact: The Person Within Project, 604-669-7055
April
7, 2000
Ground-breaking
Project Wins International Award
The
Person Within takes bronze out of
3000 entries from three continents in
Oregon's Summit Creative Awards
The
BC Institute Against Family Violence is proud to announce
that its video, The Person Within, has been chosen
to receive a bronze award in Oregon's Summit Creative Awards.
The BCIFV video was selected out of 3000 entries from across
Canada, the US, Europe, and Australia.
The
Person Within is the focal point of a workshop of the
same name, which was created to alert professionals, caregivers,
and the public to the ongoing problem of emotional abuse of
children with disabilities. The video, workshop, and accompanying
handbook teach participants to recognize and respond to signs
of emotional abuse - and to avoid becoming inadvertently abusive
themselves.
"Making
this video was very satisfying," says producer Chris Carter
of Vancouver's Creative Media Productions. "I've been doing
this kind of work for 20 years and something like this means
far more to me than putting together a promotional piece to
help a corporation feel good about itself.
"A
high point for me was working with people like Jeff Moulins
and Jesse Bennett," says Carter. Moulins and Bennett were
among several people with disabilities featured in the video.
They spoke compellingly of their experiences of abuse, as
did several parents of children with disabilities and professionals
in the field. "I also enjoyed working with professionals,"
says Carter. "These are people who wear their lives right
out in front of them."
One
of those professionals is The Person Within program
director and creator Sally Rogow, a retired UBC professor
of special education. Rogow's pioneering efforts in the field
began 30 years ago when she became the first to receive a
doctorate in the field from UBC. It continued with her creation
of a graduate program for resource teachers and publication
of several books and many articles. Most recently, she completed
research into treatment of children with disabilities in Nazi
Germany.
"This
award recognizes the time and commitment that have been devoted
to this project," says Rogow. "More importantly, it adds to
our impetus to continue promoting this workshop throughout
BC, and eventually across Canada and internationally." Currently,
Rogow conducts the workshop on a voluntary basis whenever
and wherever it's requested. But the long-term vision is for
it to become such an important and widely used educational
tool that others will have to be trained to lead the workshop
in other locations.
"This
is so important in these times of cutbacks," says Rogow. "Education
aides are not being given very much training and the turnover
of residential caregivers is unbelievably high. Children without
families are at special risk. The timeliness of the project
is highlighted by genetic research and bio-ethical debates.
These children have rights as well as needs and the project
is giving voice to this. We envision giving more workshops
in which we are fostering community awareness and describing
preventive strategies. We are looking at care homes, schools,
pre-schools, and so on. Our dream is to take this message
out into the world and link up with service organizations
that can help us keep our work moving forward."
For information on the BCIFV contact Penny Bain, executive
director, at (604) 669-7055 or visit our website at www.bcifv.org.
For information on Creative Media Productions or the Summit
Creative Award, contact Chris Carter at (604) 984-4310 or
chriscmp@netcom.ca.
For information on The Person Within contact the BCIFV
at 604-669-7055 or reception@bcifv.org.
|
