YEG Built For Life Foundation

06/03/2026

“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.”

06/03/2026

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 #/

06/02/2026

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.

05/31/2026

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

05/28/2026

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

05/16/2026

United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls Reem Alsalem talks about the gender bias where women and children suffer in family courts all over the world. Her findings show domestic abuse being ignored in family courts in many countries across the globe and child contact or custody given to father's who are perpetrators. She has identified "parental alienation" as a pseudo-science where predominantly it is mothers are accused of "parental alienation" in order for domestic abuse and other serious issue to be deflected and credible evidence ignored.
2 years ago but still more relevant than ever.

05/15/2026

Breaking - Today, the Supreme Court of Canada decided to create a new tort of intimate partner violence (IPV) in its decision in Ahluwalia v. Ahluwalia, recognizing IPV as distinct from other general forms of violence, such as battery and assault, and making it easier for survivors to access compensation for the harms they experienced.

In a decision that is markedly feminist and intersectional, the majority specifically cited LEAF’s argument that access to justice matters when deciding whether to create a new tort.

We are thrilled by the outcome of this case and what it means for survivors. At a time when misogyny is becoming more and more mainstream, this decision marks an important advancement in recognizing and opposing gendered harm.

Read our full press release: https://www.leaf.ca/news/supreme-court-delivers-a-landmark-victory-for-survivors-of-intimate-partner-violence/

05/13/2026

If you know someone experiencing domestic violence, report it.

05/13/2026

The new term: Child and Mother Sabotage (CAMS)

To replace ‘PA’ and ‘AB’ in situations where women and/or children have been abused, we recommend use of the term Child and Mother Sabotage (CAMS). This term applies post-separation when:

The abusive father manipulates others, including but not limited to children, other family members, friends, neighbours, extended social network and professionals, into believing that the mother is disordered, vindictive, mad, bad, evil, untrustworthy, unsafe, dangerous, etc.;

The abusive parent’s manipulation plays on sexist views of the female as a ‘hysterical, hostile or vengeful’ when she raises safety concerns or abuse claims;

This manipulation results in third parties’ negative views of and actions toward the mother, such as removal of child residency, loss of contact and/or relationship with the child, loss of employment or educational opportunities, friendship losses, isolation, homelessness, defamation of character, and health and wellbeing strains;

There is a clearly mapped history and evidence of a pattern of power and control (or ‘coercive control’) dynamics between the perpetrator father and victim mother;

There is indication within this history that the perpetrator father intends to undermine or sabotage and control the victim mother’s relationships with their children.

CAMS as a preferable term for how perpetrator fathers intentionally sabotage the child-mother connection