The online survey is complete, data has been collected and stored and a half-dozen focus group sessions have been conducted.
It鈥檚 now time to move onto the next phase of development of the Cyber Violence Pilot Project 小蓝视频 conducted under the auspices of the Envision Counselling and Support Services team in southeast Saskatchewan.
Julie Dzuba, who was named the lead director of the project less than a year ago, said the online survey and fact gathering call out resulted in about 370 responses, giving her team a credible base of information.
The focus group sessions were part of the needs assessment process, she told the Mercury during a brief interview held in conjunction with Envision鈥檚 recent open house event to mark International Women鈥檚 Day.
Using a portion of a $160,000 federal grant that was forwarded to the team for the two-year project, Dzuba said the next few steps forward will involve the development of some strategy for youth 鈥渨ho just don鈥檛 know who to take their issues to because when they have tried in the past, they weren鈥檛 really dealt with properly or responsibly, so they often ended up just dealing with it themselves.鈥� Sometimes the outcomes weren鈥檛 that good.
The project definitely focuses on youth, she said. The strategies will no doubt centre on helping young people build some coping skills, especially when it comes to online bullying or outright threats or direct abuse.
鈥淲e can help them maybe be aware of where the negative issues will come from whether it be body issues, peer pressure or compatibility questions. But it will be for the young people, for sure.鈥�
That鈥檚 not to say there won鈥檛 be a parental or guardian component to the package. There will be since the adults need to understand where the problems come from and how they surface. There will be practical ways to help the adults help their kids.
鈥淎 lot of parents don鈥檛 understand what鈥檚 going on and they don鈥檛 always monitor what is happening to their kid online or elsewhere and they might not understand the extent of the problem,鈥� Dzuba added.
The pilot project is on time, on budget and working within it鈥檚 designated parameters, she said.
Dzuba added that a strategy schedule could be readied by the end of April with swift implementation shortly after.
鈥淲e then expect to do another round of review to see if and where we鈥檙e making progress. That will end up in an evaluation and a reach out to the victims 鈥� the kids, to let them know we鈥檙e always available to them to get them through rough spots,鈥� she said.
By that point, the two-year mandate, and budget will probably be exhausted, but by then there will be some structure to the project that will probably become an ongoing program of assistance. Whether there will be an opportunity to obtain more federal support or financial backing from any other source, will be determined at that juncture, she suggested.聽
