It Takes a Community: Why community needs to take action on child abuse. Speaker, Kristine Cassie.

Each year the Government of Alberta acknowledges October as Child Abuse Prevention Month. Recently the Chinook Sexual Assault Centre renovated space in downtown Lethbridge to accommodate the needs of the Chinook Child and Youth Advocacy Centre – a program that provides coordinated, multidisciplinary approach in a safe, comfortable environment to address the needs of abused children, youth and their families. The talk will explore the prevalence of child sexual abuse, long standing implications of abuse when left unaddressed, and why it is important, as a community, to take action.

Speaker: Kristine Cassie

Kristine has worked in the human services sector for more than 39 years with substantial experience and advocacy efforts in the areas of youth empowerment, housing, domestic and sexual violence. Skilled at the development of programs, policy development, and risk management, Kristine has been instrumental in a number of community networks including: the Sexual Violence Action Committee; Domestic Violence Action Team; Southern Alberta Network of Children’s Services; Social Housing In Action; Coalition of Municipalities Against Racism and Discrimination; YWCA Canada Atlantic Expansion Project; YWCA Canada Integrating Committee; Miner’s Days Historical Association of Coalhurst; Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services, Provincial Child Advocacy Centre Network, Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters and is a member of the Coaching Association of Canada Task Force on Gender Based Violence and Teen Dating Violence which will conclude its work in the fall of 2023. Kristine served one term as a School Board Trustee at Palliser School Division continues to serve on the Board of Governors at Lethbridge College, and currently is the CEO of the Chinook Sexual Assault Centre. Kristine is a registered social worker, holds a master’s in leadership and is a certified community traumatologist. Kristine is Metis and a lifelong Albertan, having been raised in Grande Prairie, she currently resides in Southern Alberta in the Town of Coalhurst. Together with her husband of 38 years, they have raised a wonderful young man, Gabriel, who now resides in Ottawa.