The Langley Advance, March 17, 1993 SANCTUARY SOUGHT FOR WOMEN by Deborah Bach
	It may not be a situation she can personally relate to, but musician Katie MacColl says that statistics related to the abuse of women alarmed her enough to goad her into action. "Not only have I not been in the situation, but I don’t even know anyone who’s been abused,” says the Burnaby singer and songwriter, “so the more I find out about it, the more I realize that something needs to be done." That’s why MacColl, 25, and songwriting partner Steve Mitchell will be appearing on March 25th to 28th at Willowbrook Shopping Centre to promote a two-song cassette they recorded and are now selling. The songs on the tape, entitled “Songs for Sanctuary,” deal with abusive situations, says MacColl, and are aimed at helping raise funds and public awareness for the Sanctuary Foundation. MacColl says the goal of the Lower Mainland-based organization, which will be on hand to supply brochures and information over the weekend at Willowbrook, is to set up a second stage transitional housing site in the Lower Mainland. MacColl makes the distinction between second stage transitional housing, which provides extended or more long-term housing for women leaving abusive situations, and first stage, a more emergency, short term type of shelter. Second stage housing, says MacColl, is “more expensive to set up, so there’s very few around.” MacColl says she got involved in the project last spring, when she was recording a song called “Back Off.” "The lyrics obviously are speaking to an abusive situation, and I got thinking that it would be very appropriate to use as a fundraiser,” she says. The next step was finding a group to approach. MacColl flipped through the yellow pages, and was surprised when the first women’s group she spoke to turned her down. "They thought it would be too much work and too much manpower,” she said. She took her idea to Mitchell, who had noticed a newspaper ad for a benefit put on by the Sanctuary Foundation. The pair contacted executive director Robyn Bradford, and were met with an enthusiastic response. So far, says MacColl, she and Mitchell have sold almost half of the 500 cassettes, through appearances at mall in the Lower Mainland. The duo recently took the tapes to Richmond Centre, says MacColl, and were “very pleased with how things went.” After Willowbrook, they’ll take their tapes to Eaton Centre and Brentwood Mall in Burnaby, then to Guildford Town Centre in Surrey. The response to the cassettes, which sell for $5, has been encouraging, says MacColl. The Body Shop, she said, approached her and said they would kick in a prize for the shop in Willowbrook which purchases the greatest number of MacColl and Mitchell’s tape. The “most important message of these songs,” says MacColl, “is non-violence. I think if that were to occur more often, perhaps it would break the chain of abuse.” "The message is that there is an option,” she says. “We don’t have to retaliate. You can back off and go on from there.” MacColl says she “believes a great deal” in the efforts of the Sanctuary Foundation. The need for action, she says, became apparent to her through a look at Canadian statistics. "Some of the statistics are really scary,” she says. “One of them reads that a woman in B.C. has more chance of being injured by her partner than she does in a car accident.” One in eight women, points out MacColl, is currently being abused by her partner. “That’s too many,” she says.
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