Barbara Evoy is a woman who wear many hats.
She’s an advocate against human trafficking, a school board trustee, a radio personality, a television show host, author of two books, board member for many organizations across Centre Wellington, director of youth services for the Fergus-Elora Rotary Club, passionate mentor and so much more.
“The thread is all about connecting, trying to make families as healthy as possible so that we can raise healthy adults so that our communities can be healthier,” she said.
One thing Envoy is particularly passionate about is working with youth. She often hosts workshops in the community where she speaks about tough issues surrounding adolescence. Her latest venture was a workshop at The Grove on how to have difficult conversations in a real way.
Her work with Elora House also focuses on working with youth and families in raising awareness around human trafficking, another uncomfortable issue that Evoy says needs to be addressed.
She said one of the core issues when it comes to human trafficking is working on self-esteem and building stronger relationships.
“Much of the work that I do is around how to teach healthy families healthy dynamics,” Evoy said. “When it came to what I was hearing about not recognising who a victim is and what that looks like, I knew then that I had to put everything behind it.”
Evoy, like many other victims of trauma, didn’t realize that she was a victim until she started looking inward and educating herself about the topic.
“I couldn't really figure out exactly why I kept aligning myself with what I was hearing,” she said.
It took having a conversation about victim mentality with another woman for Evoy to realize she had suffered abuse.
“She said the weirdest or the hardest thing is that when she meets victims, they never identify themselves as being victims of human trafficking,” Evoy said. “You know, nobody knows the details of my story... but I realised I had been a victim in many ways.”
Since then Evoy has put on all her hats at once to help build a strong community with thriving families, whether it be on her television show Parenting with Barbara, or at an event like Starlight Shopping handing out flyers outlining the silent signs of human trafficking and abuse.
It’s a dedication to serving others that makes her happy to be continuing her work.
“I know what my next you know, 10 or 15 years have to look like and it's all about living in service to others and specifically, women,” Evoy said.
