Simply stated, the Council tries hard not to just talk about the various social problems that arise in our community, but to do something on every conceivable level of social action. So when, for example, participation in community meetings on public security and safety seemed futile (as ideas in the meetings were often infused with ageist and sexist assumptions), we decided to rechannel our energies on what could work within our own model of empowerment, mutual respect and mutual aid.

David Singleton

Violence prevention is understood as any action or process that promotes our right to feel whole and secure including our right to physical, emotional, and financial autonomy and well-being, as well as our right to participate freely in our community and beyond. In other words, that the consciousness of our immanent worth is as important a factor in any violence prevention strategy as the most structural levels of social change and social action.

Some of the violence prevention strategies exercised at the NDG Senior Citizens' Council include:

1. Annual participation in International Women's Day festivities. Last year, for example, women of all ages were invited to prepare a dish of food representative of their cultural heritage. We hoped to celebrate the Chronologies of women, the traditions of women's work and, of course, to make visible our community of women. We invited two Mohawk women who are members of the Longhouse to come and speak to us about their traditional roles as women living in contemporary Mohawk society. This was most definitely an empowering experience for all who attended and we receive many requests to have these potluck luncheons for women on a regular basis.
   
   
2. Courses by the Montreal Assault Prevention Centre. So successful was the center's original demonstration in the fall of 1990 that we have continued to run it once or twice a year, as often as the Centre is able. I took the first series of classes with women who were predominantly over the age of 60 years. We were reminded of the wisdom in our bodies, our intuition, our strength, our power-from-within, and we amazed ourselves as we experienced putting our power-from-within into "action". This course celebrated our strengths as women and validated the pain and fear that we experience as women living in a man-made world. We unlearned many of the practices we were socialized to believe are natural: passivity in the face of danger; denial of our feelings at critical moments in our lives; and to be afraid of men because they are made of unbreakable materials and substances whereas we are constructed to break oh so easily.
   
   I'm sure the energy and excitement released in this course could light an entire community. One of the Crones remarked on her evaluation: "[This course] has given me a lot more confidence in myself, knowing that I can walk the streets or be more comfortable living alone now that I have learned how to defend myself if I am ever attacked."
   
   
3. Women of all ages who suffer or have suffered from panic attacks gathered to form a much needed self-help group called Listening to Our Bodies. This group often serves as a consciousness-raising forum where we rediscover that the violence committed against us throughout our lives is the product of our experiences, not the imagining of our crazy minds. We learn that fear and panic are a direct result of living in a patriarchal and misogynous society. We take back our power as women, we celebrate our herstories/chronchroneologies and the links between generations of women are newly remembered as we demand the validity of our feelings, and the right to a safe and healthy life.
   
   
4. Members of the Senior Citizens' Council gathered with women of all ages and from numerous communities on the island of Montreal two years ago to participate in the annual Take Back The Night march. The streets are often intimidating for most women but many elders are isolated in their homes for fear of getting attacked should they dare venture out-of-doors. Participation in the Assault Prevention Class inspired our courage to march through the streets, and at night.
   
   One of the women who "didn't believe in marches" participated in the event as well as the Assault Prevention class. Last year she rallied to get an additional, parallel march organized in the NDG community since a disproportionate number of older women live in this part of Montreal, though she received little support. She also ran for and got herself elected to one of the hospital boards on the island to fight for better health-care for older women and men. A little inspiration goes a long, long way.