';

Made in Alberta’ Rural and Small Town Primary Prevention Collaborative

Gender-based violence is pervasive across Alberta — but for those living in rural and remote communities, the risks are higher, and the challenges more complex.

That’s where the Made in Alberta Rural and Small Town Collaborative comes in.

To respond to the disproportionate rates of gender-based violence in rural Alberta, Shift has partnered with three women’s shelters — YWCA Banff, Big Hill Haven in Cochrane, and Rowan House Society in High River — to launch the Made in Alberta Rural and Small Town Collaborative.

Together with local leaders, we’re examining the root causes of violence, identifying risk factors for male perpetration, and co-creating community-driven solutions to stop harm before it starts.

This is prevention done the Alberta way: community-led, research-backed, and grounded in the realities of rural life.

In the Media

Rocky Mountain Outlook

Western Wheel

Cochrane Now

Applying Primary Prevention in Rural and Small Town Alberta

Gender-based violence isn’t just the result of individual choices — it’s also influenced by how our communities function, what society accepts, and who holds power.

Primary prevention is about stopping violence before it starts. It focuses on shifting the community conditions that increase the risk of someone choosing to use violence. That means promoting gender equality, fostering healthy relationships, and supporting social norms that reject violence — so people are less likely to cause harm in the first place.

In rural and small-town communities, primary prevention requires proactive, community-led strategies shaped by the people who live there. These approaches build on each community’s strengths and are tailored to local social and economic realities.

Why This Project Matters

In Canada, men perpetrate most of the violence experienced by all genders. Men:

  • Commit 99% of sexual assaults against women 1
  • Commit 93% of sexual assaults against men 1
  • Commit 83% of all violence against women 2
  • Are 3X more likely to offend criminally, including violent crime 3

The evidence is clear: we need to stop placing the burden of safety on survivors.
Real change means shifting some of our focus — and our resources — toward changing the people, norms and systems that enable harm in the first place.

If we’re serious about ending gender-based violence, we must meet men where they are — in the spaces they naturally gather — and engage them as allies in prevention. Real change starts by supporting men to be part of the solution and helping stop violence before it starts.

In rural Alberta, the risks of experiencing and perpetrating violence are higher — and so is our resolve.

Nearly 1 in 5 Albertans live in rural communities, where the risk of domestic and sexual violence and homicide is higher. To prevent gender-based violence, we must understand and address the unique social, economic and geographic factors that contribute to perpetration of violence. In many rural areas, there are specific risk factors.

At the individual level, this can include a history of experiencing or witnessing violence substance use, adherence to rigid gender norms and beliefs in male dominance, mental health challenges, unresolved trauma, low educational attainment, and lack of employment.

At the community level, risk factors can include community tolerance for violence and harmful gender norms, lack of awareness, weak sanctions against perpetrators, geographical distance, lack of anonymity, and lack of housing, childcare, or employment supports for families.

In addition, many small towns and rural communities often lack the resources, programs, and trained professionals needed to intervene early and support people — especially men — before harm occurs. Preventing perpetration in rural Alberta means investing in local, trauma-informed, and community-led solutions that address the root causes of violence.

Ending gender-based violence in Alberta starts at the community level. That’s why we’re investing in local, rural-led solutions — working with industry and community leaders in Banff, Cochrane, and High River to build capacity and drive proactive, community-powered prevention.

Our Approach

To end gender-based violence in small towns and rural communities, we need to start with the insights of local leaders who are already working to end gender-based violence.

Our 8-phase approach moves from insight to action to drive real change by:

  1. Building leadership capacity to champion and implement primary prevention approaches.
  2. Leveraging local and open-source data to uncover patterns of violence perpetration.
  3. Gathering community insights to understand what drives and disrupts violence locally.
  4. Identifying practical, real-world solutions with diverse communities and sectors.
  5. Co-creating tailored, actionable strategies with local leaders and everyday Albertans.
  6. Supporting implementation of primary prevention strategies across the community.
  7. Measuring impact to strengthen accountability and ensure long-term change.
  8. Assessing feasibility and adapting strategies for use in other communities.

Local roots, local change: we’re turning community findings into real prevention in Banff, High River, and Cochrane.

From Research to Action

Hear from our founder, Lana Wells, speaking to CTV News about our most recent report, Domestic Violence in Cochrane: What RCMP Data Reveals About Perpetration.

The Communities

To begin our work, the Made-in-Alberta Rural Collaborative collected open-access data and collaborated closely with each community to develop community profiles – detailed snapshots that highlight the community’s unique characteristics, strengths, needs, and challenges.

Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Collaborative created these profiles in partnership with Shift at the University of Calgary, the CARE Lab at the University of Alberta, and HelpSeeker Technologies. With support for stakeholder engagement, research, and evaluation provided by Dr. Caroline Claussen of C3 Inc and Sharon Blackwell of SMCG Consulting, we gathered data-driven insights into the local conditions and trends that contribute to violence perpetration.

These community profiles are key to understanding local drivers of harm and tailoring prevention strategies that reflect each community’s reality. Learn more about the context in each community below!

Banff is neither a typical urban center nor a conventional rural town. Its status as a world-class destination brings energy and opportunity, while a young, international workforce adds richness to the town’s social fabric. However, risk factors for gender-based violence in Banff are shaped by its location within a national park and its reliance on a tourism-driven economy.

Key Community Trends


In Banff, over 62% of the workforce is employed in the tourism industry, with a seasonal ‘shadow population’ of 800-1,000 people living in the town along with 4.3 million annual visitors.4 The combination of the seasonal ‘shadow population’, increasing demographic diversity, a pervasive housing crisis, nightlife culture, and the dominance of tourism and hospitality likely contributes to high rates of sexual violence and assault.

Cochrane is one of Canada’s fastest-growing municipalities, known for its western heritage and community hospitality. With rapid population growth in any town, crime and violence tend to rise. This means that Cochrane’s ongoing expansion brings both new opportunities and challenges for preventing and addressing violence.

Key Community Trends

 


Cochrane’s proximity to Calgary, a large reservation and its strong commuter culture influences the town’s social cohesion and sense of community. Rapid population changes have brought together long-time residents and newcomers, creating a diverse and evolving social landscape in Cochrane.

High River is a rural town with a strong agricultural identity, rooted in farming, ranching, and agribusiness. Known for its community resilience — especially following the devastating 2013 flood — High River continues to adapt in the face of economic, environmental, and demographic change. Its growing cultural diversity, shaped by an influx of newcomers and foreign workers, adds both strength and complexity to the fabric of the community.

Key Community Trends

High River’s agribusiness sector employs a significant number of newcomers, including immigrants and temporary foreign workers. These workers often face economic precarity, language barriers, and social isolation. Religion and faith communities play a prominent role in social life, shaping collective values and community support networks. At the same time, a persistent gender income gap and deeply held traditional gender norms influence how power and responsibility are distributed in households and relationships.

The Research

Click on each of the reports below to learn more.

Banff_What we found
HighRiver report coverpage
Banff_Next steps
RCMP Repoer coverpage
Cochrane_What we found

Project Progress

What have we done?

  • Strengthened regional collaboration between 3 rural gender-based violence organizations, academic partners, and a tech company
  • Developed community profiles for Banff, Cochrane, and High. River, shared through interactive “data walk” events in each community, with 39, 42, and 30+ participants respectively
  • Conducted community share back events in Banff, Cochrane, and High River, where we translated data and the insights of locals into summary reports with tailored recommendations that engage community leaders, organizations, and employers in prevention efforts
  • Engaged a diverse range of industry and community leaders, both traditional and informal, in the Bow Valley, in Cochrane, High River, and surrounding rural areas including Okotoks, Diamond Valley, Nanton, Claresholm, and Vulcan
  • Shared our approach and key learnings through presentations at conferences and meetings with communities, boards, donors, and funders
  • Secured additional funding to expand and deepen primary prevention capacities and efforts across participating communities

Next Steps in 2025?

  • Gather additional data to better understand the scope of the problem from Banff and Cochrane RCMP, along with specific local workplaces
  • Continue ongoing engagement with industry and community leaders to design local and context-specific primary prevention strategies
  • Connect with equity-deserving and Indigenous peoples to explore parallel approaches to prevention
  • Produce an evaluation strategy for the initiative
  • Support capacity-building efforts to build a primary prevention workforce across all 3 communities
  • Co-develop tactical and pragmatic strategies to advance primary prevention and move the needle on stopping violence before it starts in all 3 communities

Truly a ‘Made-In-Alberta’ strategy for ending gender-based violence across our province, this project is community-led, research-informed, and grounded in lasting partnerships at the local level.

References

1 Rotenberg, C. (2017). Police-reported sexual assaults in Canada, 2009 to 2014: A statistical profile. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2017001/article/54866-eng.htm

2 Sinha, M. (2015). Measuring violence against women: Statistical Trends: Highlights. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2013001/article/11766/hl-fs-eng.htm

3 Government of Canada. (2019). State of the criminal justice system – 2019 report. Government of Canada. https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/state-etat/2019rpt-rap2019/p7.html

4 Lee, J. (2023, December 14). Canmore, Banff, Kananaskis key contributors to $25-billion tourism goal. St. Albert Gazette. https://www.stalbertgazette.com/beyond-local/canmore-banff-kananaskis-key-contributors-to-25-billion-tourism-goal-8354067

Shift: The project to end domestic violence