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Rights + Justice
Gender + Sexuality

Angela Marie MacDougall Deals with Domestic Violence in the Pandemic. What Would You Ask Her?

The head of Battered Women's Support Services is next in the video interview series by Salt Spring Forum and The Tyee.

Tyee Staff 8 Jul 2020TheTyee.ca

AngelaMarieMacdougallProfile.jpg
Angela Marie MacDougall, executive director of Battered Women's Support Services, which has seen a 300 per cent rise in demand since COVID-19 measures were put in place in Vancouver. Send her your question today.

Angela Marie MacDougall is next up in the series of video interviews conducted and shared by the Salt Spring Forum in partnership with The Tyee. And you are invited to send her questions before the taping tomorrow afternoon.

MacDougall has been an activist, frontline worker and advocate for 30 years and the executive director of Battered Women's Support Services since 2003. She has raised the profile of BWSS and made giant strides in the battle to end gender-based violence, through increasing awareness, promoting equality for all women, and improved services and support for victims of violence.

At the beginning of 2020, contacts in China told MacDougall of an increase in violence against women in Wuhan once a lockdown was imposed there. On hearing this, she began ramping up services in Vancouver to meet the increased needs brought on by the pandemic, going to 24-7 availability for support to victims. By mid-April, Vancouver had seen a 300 per cent rise in demand for the services of BWSS.

Despite the increase in services, the demand has still exceeded the capacity of BWSS — with increased drug and alcohol abuse, a deterioration in mental health, stress brought on by financial problems and living situations, and fewer spaces in shelters for targeted women due to social distancing rules.

MacDougall has made it her mission to address these issues — through the development of empowerment and advocacy-based service delivery models grounded in strong theoretical frameworks and intersectionality that connect feminism, substance use, mental health, violence and women’s leadership.

Angela Marie MacDougall has been recognized for her work by being named a “Remarkable Woman” by the City of Vancouver and as one of Vancouver’s most powerful people by Vancouver Magazine.

Please send your questions for her to forum@saltspringforum by the end of Wednesday, July 8.

This Salt Spring Forum video-event will be moderated by Kisae Petersen, the executive director of Islanders Working Against Violence.

The finished video will be available on YouTube and on the Salt Spring Forum site on the weekend of July 11-12 and will be published with a text summary on The Tyee in the days following.

This series is produced in partnership with The Tyee. The Salt Spring Forum is sponsored by Country Grocer. [Tyee]

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