Federal funding is supporting new programs for sexual harassment awareness in Alberta workplaces.
The Lloydminster Sexual Assault Services (LSAS) is in line to benefit from some of this new programming that’s being rolled out to support sexual harassment awareness training.
Community Initiatives Director Heather Sinfield says the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services (AASAS) received the funding. The financial support is coming through the Department of Justice Canada and is 1.34 million dollars over the next five years.
Sinfield adds there are two ways in which the programming affects Lloydminster.
“The first part of their project is celebrating Alberta leaders who take a personal role in stepping up against sexual harassment in the workplace. The second piece of the funded initiative for AASAS is a curriculum development. It’s going to be available in 2022 for businesses and organizations that are interested in bringing this curriculum into their space.”
Sinfield says it will be 3-4 hours of not your average sexual harassment awareness training and will be piloted this Fall. LSAS has been reaching out to local businesses to get onboard with the #MomentsMatter campaign which will launch on August 31.
Sinfield says there’s a lot of stigma and dismissive attitudes around sexual harassment in the workplace and the new programs will look to address these issues and go further.
“When we think of sexual harassment training, we kind of think of some cheesy videos that don’t really make us understand the full scope of the issue. This curriculum is really targeting how subtle and nuanced sexual harassment can be, and that slippery slope that it can end up leading to further violence, or even from a workplace standpoint, loss of revenue or loss of ethical and safe workplaces.”
Sinfield is inviting businesses and interested groups to get in touch with LSAS for more information.