With November recognized as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Genesis House in Winkler has a lot going on.  

The women's shelter will host its 9th annual Family Dance this Friday, November 4th at the Morden Friendship Centre, the usual P.J. parties are planned at the branches of the South Central Regional Library, and Peace Begins at Home hockey games with the Winkler Flyers, Garden Valley Collegiate Zodiacs, and Pembina Valley Hawks.

During the hockey games, players will wear Peace Begins at Home jerseys, and spectators will be given a white ribbon to wear.

Braun said the family dance is geared to younger families.  This year's theme is 'Under the Sea.'  For some extra fun there will be a mermaid princess in attendance, and she will bring along a surprise guest.

Genesis House Executive Director Ang Braun said their goal with these events is reach out to different demographics, and get more people, men and women alike, talking about the issue.  "We know that domestic violence does not happen just with woman and children," said Braun.  "Men are involved in this.  So what type of supports do men need?  How do we get people talking about that so we can put those things in place."

In addition to their established events during the month of November, Braun said the women's shelter is launching some news things.  "Last year I was able to attend the World Conference for Shelters, and the United Nations has a couple of things they do, so we are picking up on one of those things."  She said they have engaged with the art galleries in Winkler, Morden, and Altona to light up in purple."  This will take place during the 16 days of activism for gender based violence, November 25th to December 10th.  

During the 16 days of activism, Braun noted the art gallery in Morden will exhibit the Faceless Dolls, representing missing and murdered Aboriginal woman.

Another new initiative is 'Power of the P.J.s.'  As opposed to only reciting statistics,  Braun said this is a new approach to engage people to let them know how many people actually use shelter services.  "So we said how many pair of pyjamas would it take?  And in Winkler our shelter would need 65 pairs of women's pyjamas, and about 80 pairs of children's pyjamas over the course of a year.  That's how many people stay with us."

Throughout November the shelter will be accepting P.J. donations for their clients.  Donations can be dropped off at the four branches of the South Central Regional Library.

Genesis House will wrap up Domestic Violence Awareness Month, December 1st with its last pyjama party at the Winkler Branch of the South Central Regional Library.