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By Ian Gustafson

Gender-based violence

Rural Red Deer Restorative Justice Program receives $50K government grant

Oct 23, 2025 | 1:39 PM

The Rural Red Deer Restorative Justice Program has received $50,000 from the provincial government in an effort to help end gender-based violence.

They were one of 18 organizations from across Alberta to receive a share of $1.36 million in funding from the Community Pathways to Justice Grant as part of Alberta’s 10-year strategy to end gender-based violence.

Rural Red Deer Restorative Justice Program executive director Jo Phillips said they applied to better support people who are experiencing gender-based violence by creating pathways for them to seek healing or restoration.

“[Resources for victims of gender-based violence] is a very significant need,” she said. “We’re going to use the funds to hire a gender-based violence consultant who will be able to come in and assess each file before we start working on it to make sure that we’re not creating more harm when this stuff is coming up. They are also going to help us develop pathways for people who have been harmed.”

She explained that when people look at gender based violence, they automatically think about things like sexual assault and domestic violence. But this type of violence can be gender based bullying, intimidation, homophobia, transphobia, sexist language, outing people without consent, non-consensual sharing of images and many more.

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“Because we primarily work with youth, we see this stuff in schools all the time, but there’s just not a pathway to address it,” she added.

There were also two other central Alberta-based organizations that were given funding, including the Pembina Crisis Connection Society in Drayton Valley and the Mountain Rose Women’s Shelter Association in Rocky Mountain House. In addition, five were also in Calgary, six in Edmonton, two in southern Alberta, and two in northern Alberta.

The grant funds programs that focus on victim support, education and awareness, legal navigation, system coordination and restorative justice.

“We’re excited the government is actually looking at restorative justice as a pathway for healing from this type of violence,” Phillips said. “Our intention is not to create programs that already exist within our community but to be walking alongside those programs.”