There’s no place like home, because home is where we feel welcomed and where we feel we belong.

Creating that sense of home in the construction industry for individuals who haven’t traditionally worked in the trades is a major focus for the Manitoba Construction Sector Council (MCSC) right now. To grow the sector, construction sites need to be places where all can feel welcome.

That can be a challenge for women in a male-dominated field, but MCSC has been prioritizing culture change by working with the Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades, and Technology (CCWESTT) and the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association (MHCA).

The three organizations partnered to bring the Be More Than a Bystander training course to the province at the end of January. The course was originally started by a partnership between Ending Violence Association of B.C. and the B.C. Lions Football Club for high school students, but the success of the program led to the creation of workplace programming. The first day of the three-day course started by addressing the societal problems and industry challenges surrounding gender-based violence that are present, which goes beyond just gender-based attacks and includes the language used that can contribute to a culture of violence. The second and third days looked at what can be done to bring cultural change to the industry.

The course saw over 20 participants, the majority of whom were men, from a variety of employers and fields. While culture change can sound like a daunting task, what the participants took away were practical lessons and a focus on the little things that need to be done.

“It gave simple, practical, non-confrontational methods to deal with uncomfortable situations,” stated one participant in a course follow-up survey.

“I liked the multitude of tools that were provided to us, from very small non-confrontational methods to direct methods. There were tools for everyone,” noted another participant.

As a “train the trainer” course, those in attendance not only learned about practical tactics, but can now take this training to their specific workplaces to train others and further these important messages.

“I soaked in all the information about all the statistics they have,” said Barry Boulette, a Red River College Polytechnic Welding Instructor who attended the course. “Some of it’s alarming, some of it isn’t, but I’d like to be part of that change by moving forward and moving in a positive direction.”

Jacquelyn Oduro, Director of WorkSafely, Education and Training at MHCA, was involved in bringing the training course to Manitoba. She knows how important this training is to the heavy construction sector in particular.

Watch the video! (Manitoba Construction Sector Council recently helped champion three separate training programs aimed at combatting and preventing gender-based violence in the skilled trades, including Be More Than a Bystander.) 

“A course like this is so important for us because we have recruitment challenges, and a low percentage of workers on site in our industry are women,” noted Oduro. “If we just speak about gender, we have half the population available as an untapped resource. But we have to create a welcoming culture first. In male dominated workforces, men have to be the change makers to the culture in the workplace, which is why his course was designed for men.”

That’s where the simple and practical tactics are so integral. To create culture change with regards to gender-based violence in the workplace, people have to stand up to that behaviour. The barrier to people intervening, according to training participants, is that most people don’t know what to do and don’t want to become the target.

“What will happen to you if you do? What can I do? Or there’s the ‘it’s not my problem’ attitude,” said one participant.

“(People don’t want to have the) target on their backs and be excluded or harassed themselves,” said another.

By presenting a variety of methods to intervene, from more direct to less direct strategies, participants all left the training more confident in stepping in.

“We always think of these grand gestures when it comes to being a bystander or intervening where you have to step into a scenario and speak up,” said Oduro. “But this course gave tangible actions to distract or turn the attention away from the situation that supports the individual or group of people. It made it very doable and gave tools that don’t need to put the target on your back.”

There is plenty of work still to be done in this area, but with this training following a coaction discussion in November, strides are being made. Cultural change takes time, but MCSC and its partners are ensuring that the construction industry becomes a more welcoming place for everybody each day. That will continue to be the case too, with plans for more Be More Than a Bystander training sessions in the future, including one this fall.