The government's action plan to address domestic violence places new emphasis on prevention and better community support for abused women and their children.

Better Community-based Supports for Victims

The government is investing to provide stabilized funding to core services, and to expand community supports:

• Annual funding for community-based counseling services will be increased by $2.5 million starting in 2005-06 to address waiting lists and gaps in services for specific populations.
• A one-time investment of $2 million is being made to refurbish existing women's shelters and second-stage housing.
• New investments will go to help women's agencies, such as shelters, transitional and second-stage housing to improve their functional capacity and help them become more financially independent. This is in addition to the three per cent annual operating increase being provided to shelters, counseling services and crisis lines.
• $500,000 will go towards training social housing providers on issues facing abused women.
• $500,000 in 2004-05, growing to $2 million in 2007-08, will go to a new pilot training program to help abused women succeed in the workforce and gain economic independence.
• Annual funding of $3.5 million is being invested in housing supports for abused women.
• Stable funding in the amount of $2.4 million over three years will go to the domestic violence community coordinating committees to enhance program and service co-ordination.

Identifying Women and Children at  Risk and  Intervening Earlier

The government will spend $5.9 million over four years for training, research and conferences in key sectors to help prevent domestic violence:

• Professionals and service providers will be trained to intervene early and offer appropriate response, information and supports.
• Expert training panels will develop training materials tailored to front-line workers, professionals, family, friends and neighbours to help them detect early signs of abuse.
• Ontario will host a major provincial symposium in fall 2005 for community leaders, experts and service providers to share best practices in preventing domestic violence. This will be the first in a series of bi-annual provincial conferences on domestic violence.

Changing Attitudes to Prevent Violence from Happening in the First Place

A $4.9 million, four-year public education and prevention campaign will mobilize communities to play an active role in ending violence against women and girls. The multi-faceted campaign will include television ads, web-based information, community pilots and school resources to promote healthy, equal relationships and prevent violence from happening in the first place. One component, a high-profile public education campaign, Breaking the Code, will target boys and girls aged eight to 14 years, and the adults who influence them.

Strengthening the Justice System Response

The government is:

• Convening an inaugural meeting of federal/provincial/territorial attorneys general and Ministers Responsible for Women's Issues in 2005, to discuss key issues related to improvements needed in the justice system's response to abused women.
• Reviewing and proposing amendments to the Children's Law Reform Act to require courts to consider domestic violence when making orders relating to the custody of, or access to, a child.
• Improving programs that serve incarcerated women who have been victims of physical or sexual abuse.
• Evaluating and improving domestic violence courts, including an examination of the experience of women from diverse communities and research on the effectiveness of Partner Assault Response Programs for abusers.
• Evaluating existing bail safety pilot programs.
• Funding a technical and literature review of electronic monitoring systems to assess the impact on persons who have abused their partners.
• Improving civil protections for abused women, including improvements in restraining orders and enforcement of breaches.
• Helping to prevent offenders from harassing or threatening abused women via telephone from jail.
• Improving communications between family courts and criminal courts.
• Funding a symposium in Toronto to examine different models of integrated service and information-sharing systems to improve co-ordination between family and criminal courts.
• Pilot testing the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA) tool with police, Crown attorneys and others in the justice system to identify and assess risk in abusive situations.
• Creating new policies and police training to address the issue of dual charging.

  Improved Access to French Language Services

• Access to French-language violence prevention services will be improved within all components of the Domestic Violence Action Plan, in accordance with the French Language Services Act.