YEG Built For Life Foundation

Bailey’s Law has officially received Royal Assent‼️

In 30 days, Bailey’s Law will come into force, and its provisions will be added to the Criminal Code.

I am incredibly proud of this legislation. I want to thank Bailey McCourt’s family for their courage and unwavering advocacy throughout this process.

I also extend my sincere thanks to my staff for their dedication, hard work, and continued support in helping bring this bill forward.

Bailey’s Law PASSES the Senate!

This may be the most significant change to the law of intimate partner violence in Canadian history.

I’m proud to stand with victims of IPV. It’s not the end. It’s the end of the beginning. And we will continue to press on in Bailey’s memory.

Come out and support a great organization!

Warriors Way Forward Association is a survivor-led nonprofit based in Alberta dedicated to supporting individuals and families impacted by domestic violence. Founded by a survivor after facing significant barriers when seeking safety, our mission is to help bridge gaps in support by connecting survivors to resources, safety planning, emergency assistance, advocacy, and community supports. We work alongside survivors, service providers, first responders, educators, and community partners to raise awareness, improve responses to domestic violence, and create safer futures for women, children, and families.
Empowering Survivors. Creating Safe Futures.
Warriors Way Forward Association

“Pregnancy is a high risk factor for serious harm and femicide. Homicide by a male partner is the leading cause of death for pregnant women.”

We are officially in our 3rd year!

Three years of passion, progress, and purpose. We couldn't have reached this milestone without the trust and loyalty of our amazing community.

Thank you to our incredible partners, Balance Psychological Services and Value Village for supporting the immediate needs of clients with counselling and personal items.

Thank you to , Bad Habit Tattoo Co., UBAKA, Justin Gray Homes, Alexandra Park Dental, event attendees, donors and all other sponsors who made 2025 an incredible year through fundraising and donating monetary funds for our scholarship program and child friendly toys to share with the families we support.

YEG Built for Life Foundation proudly partnered and sponsored a Christmas blessing in 2025. We hope to make an annual Christmas blessing for women and children!

Thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way, we are excited to continue to provide education to front line workers about domestic violence, and advocate for legislation change to better support women and children who have experienced domestic violence, intimate partner violence and abuse.

Don’t forget to check out our 2nd year of scholarships! Applications are open until August 1, 2026!

https://www.yegbuiltforlife.org/scholarships.html #/

PTSD isn’t always loud.

It isn’t always flashbacks.
It isn’t always nightmares.
It isn’t always what people see in movies.

Sometimes it looks like:

Overthinking every situation.
Replaying conversations for hours after they end.
Scanning every room for exits.
Sitting with your back to the wall.
Jumping at unexpected sounds.
Feeling tense even when everything seems okay.

Sometimes it looks like avoiding certain places, people, or memories.

Sometimes it looks like always having a backup plan.
Always preparing for the worst.
Always waiting for something to go wrong.

And sometimes it just looks like exhaustion.
Because living in a constant state of alertness is exhausting.

That's why so many people struggle in silence.

Their wounds are invisible.
Their effort is invisible.
Their survival is invisible.

June is PTSD Awareness Month.

So if you're carrying scars from experiences you never should have had to survive, this is your reminder:

What happened to you matters.
What you're carrying is real.
And you deserve to be seen, understood, and supported.

Most people think abuse has to be loud before they are allowed to call it abuse. They think if someone is not screaming, threatening, mocking, name-calling, or openly controlling you, then maybe it is not that serious. Maybe you are overreacting. Maybe you are too sensitive. Maybe you are imagining things.

But that is exactly how narcissistic abuse survives. Because abuse is not always loud. Sometimes it is the silent treatment for days. Sometimes it is withholding affection and treating you like a roommate, not a partner. Sometimes it is giving one-word answers at home while being warm to everyone else. Sometimes it is punishing you with distance every time you bring up an issue. Sometimes it is making you beg for basic conversation after they hurt you. Sometimes it is acting normal in public, then becoming cold the moment you are alone. Sometimes it is refusing to resolve anything, then blaming your reaction. Sometimes it is only showing closeness when they want something from you.

This is why narcissistic abuse is so confusing. It does not always leave bruises people can see. It leaves confusion, self-doubt, emotional starvation, and a home that never feels emotionally safe. From the outside, the narcissist may look charming, calm, funny, responsible, respected, and completely normal. But behind closed doors, they slowly control the emotional climate, weaken your confidence, and make you question your own reality. And when children are involved, it becomes even more serious. Need help with healing? Book 1:1 session with me. Link In Bio

Read my new article "Coercively Controlling Fathers and the Hidden Threat They Pose to Children". https://dremmakatz.substack.com/p/coercively-controlling-fathers-and

Mainstream thinking tends to be that if children are going to be harmed by anything in relation to domestic abuse, it is seeing or hearing incidents of physical violence, or getting hurt themselves during such incidents. People often don't think about abuse based on coercive control, and would struggle to see just how dangerous and harmful a coercive control-perpetrating father could be to children.

This article shows how coercive control does harm children - how every coercive control tactic that a perpetrator is using will also be harming any children or young people in the family. It also reveals what key research studies have found about the parenting of domestically-abusive and coercively controlling fathers.

Victim-survivor mothers are not to blame for any of these harms — they were victims of the same abuse that harmed the children. Victims are not to blame for harm experienced by other victims. It is perpetrators who are responsible, as they had both power and unconstrained choices, but they continued their abuse rather than stopping it.

"Coercively Controlling Fathers and the Hidden Threat They Pose to Children" - 3 Key Facts explored in the article:

Fact 1: Just looking at physical violence is nowhere near enough to tell us about the full scope and severity of domestic abuse.

Fact 2: Situations where coercive control is present are uniquely harmful.

Fact 3: Fathers who carry out coercive control-based domestic abuse cannot parent in adequate ways. Every tactic that the coercively controlling father uses against the victim-survivor mother harms the children’s lives on a day-to-day basis.

I say 'fathers' for a reason here. Of course, a coercively controlling mother would be harmful too. However, 97% of those convicted for coercive control are men, so in the vast majority of cases it is the father who is the coercive control perpetrator in the family.

Link https://dremmakatz.substack.com/p/coercively-controlling-fathers-and