Two Steps Forward... One Step Back

An overview of Canadian initiatives and
resources to end woman abuse 1989 – 1997

Our mission is to help the people of Canada maintain and improve their health.

Health Canada

Two Steps Forward... One Step Back was prepared by Donna Denham and Joan Gillespie for the Family Violence Prevention Unit, Health Canada.

Également disponible en français sous le titre Les hauts et les bas de la lutte contre la violence faite aux femmes

The opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Health Canada.

Contents may not be reproduced for commercial purposes, but any other reproduction, with acknowledgements, is encouraged.

This publication may be provided in alternate formats upon request.

For further information on family violence issues, please contact:

The National Clearinghouse on Family Violence
Family Violence Prevention Unit
Health Issues Division
Public Health Agency of Canada
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© Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 1999
Cat. H72/1/167-1998E

ISBN 0-662-27297-8

Preface

In 1989 the Family Violence Prevention Unit of Health Canada contracted Linda MacLeod, a well-known and respected researcher and writer, to produce an overview on violence against women (VAW). In the preface to that paper, entitled Wife battering and the web of hope: Progress, dilemmas and visions of prevention, Ms. MacLeod described the paper as,

"an amalgamation of the hopes, concerns, observations and predictions of forty people working within and outside government at the federal and provincial/territorial levels, who kindly agreed to philosophize with me about the issue of wife battering and to offer informed opinions on our progress to date as well as the paths we should now explore."

Since its completion, this paper has become one of the most requested resources on woman abuse distributed through the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada. The paper has been a valuable resource for people trying to understand woman abuse within the Canadian context, perhaps for the first time, and for others who have worked on the issue for years.

In the years since the writing of The web of hope, there has been an explosion of new Canadian data and information, many new insights and some exceptional public education resources on woman abuse. The time has come to once again try to capture in a useful way an overall picture of the major achievements and challenges that face Canadians at this point in the struggle to end woman abuse. The hope is that this updated overview will be useful to students, policy makers, researchers and practitioners.

The report is designed so that it can be used to:

• introduce newcomers to the issue of violence against women in a way that is broad enough to give an overall picture without being overwhelming;

• link readers to high quality resources that provide more in-depth discussion on specific aspects of the issue;
  
• locate resource people working on similar issues; and
  
• locate practical resources that can be used to develop community initiatives aimed at addressing woman abuse.
  

For readers who want a more in-depth analysis of woman abuse in the Canadian context, the authors recommend the 1997 book by Linda MacLeod and Walter DeKeseredy entitled Woman abuse: A sociological study. It provides an interesting and comprehensive discussion of sociological theories, current research and evaluations of policies implemented to address woman abuse. It is written in plain language and is very user-friendly.

To gather information for this paper, we built on the approach that Ms. MacLeod used to write The web of hope. The authors inter-viewed about 50 people who have worked on the issue of woman abuse since 1989. Appendix 1 lists their names and the organizations that they represent. Most of the people interviewed have many more years of experience than the years covered in this overview. They spoke from very different points of view and diverse experiences. Among them they drew different conclusions from similar information and data. The people interviewed provided the information for the content of this resource. However, the authors are responsible for analyzing it and summarizing the themes.

To enhance the practical use of this resource, the authors asked each interviewee to identify the resources that they used personally and would recommend to others who wish to increase their own understanding or take action on some aspect of woman abuse. In addition, the authors reviewed other resources and documents that were produced through the 1990s but were not mentioned by interviewees. The practical guides, educational materials, books, brochures and training materials that were identified through this process are named throughout the paper to provide readers with entry points into more in-depth material on specific topics.

Appendix 3 lists these resources and provides information on how to obtain them. Most of the resources mentioned include excellent annotated bibliographies that will probably lead readers as far as they want to go on specific aspects of woman abuse. In this way, the authors hope that readers will be helped to find the information they need, in a format they can use.

Preface

Donna Denham and Joan Gillespie

March, 1998

Section 1: Setting the Scene

Looking back:

The years leading up to the 1990’s

In Canada, widespread interest about woman abuse began in the late 1970s. Grass-roots feminist collectives and consciousness-raising groups identified the issue of violence against women and created the first transition houses and crisis centres for abused women and their children. These activists used an holistic, empowering approach whereby women believed women, supported each other and worked together to help abused women find ways to free themselves from the violence being perpetrated primarily by the men in their lives. It was the women’s movement that identified violence against women as a political issue, a reality that required massive societal and structural reform, if it was to be effectively addressed.

In the wider community, there was little public or professional awareness of the issue and no understanding of the magnitude and extent of violence against women. Abused women were treated individually for emotional and psycho-logical problems, or abuse was treated within the context of "family problems." Survivors of abuse and feminist advocates were publicly ridiculed and angrily dismissed.

During the 1980s, public awareness and con-sequential outrage grew. As a result, interest in and commitment to doing something to reduce or even end violence against women increased dramatically.

• Federal, provincial and territorial governments provided funding for shelters and counselling services.
  
• The number of shelters in Canada increased from 78 in 1978 to over 400 across the country by the end of the 1980s.

• The number and range of individuals and organizations involved in the work to end violence against women increased substantially. Social service and health-care workers, police, lawyers, religious groups and university researchers were some of the groups, in addition to various governments, that began to seriously examine woman abuse in a way that would help Canadians better understand the issue and lead to more effective solutions.
  
• An increased emphasis on the criminal nature of wife assault developed.
  
• Large-scale public education campaigns were launched.
  

Overall, woman abuse began to be imprinted on the public consciousness. The issue of woman abuse became accepted as a legitimate social issue.

By the late 1980s, more and more people were beginning to realize that the problem was so pervasive in Canadian society that there would never be enough shelters, social workers, police or advocates to undo the damage that was being done to women in their homes. Prevention approaches were increasingly being built into more health programs and social service initiatives.

Co-ordinating committees, involving organizations from different sectors working with abused women and their families, developed and expanded in communities across Canada. Many of the committees began to work collaboratively, so that services could become better co-ordinated and, in some instances, integrated. Hundreds of projects funded under the first federal government Family Violence Initiative (1) started the great forward leap in the amount and kind of knowledge that became publicly available on woman abuse.

As the issue of identifying woman abuse became less associated with shelters and the feminist movement, and increasingly seen as a mainstream issue, many front-line workers became concerned. They were working harder and harder within their chronically under-funded shelters and women’s crisis centres to meet the needs of a growing number of abused women and their children. Crisis intervention took precedence over advocating for the longer-term goal of preventing woman abuse through extensive structural changes.

Over the last few years, the process of main-streaming the issue of violence has continued. This has meant that many more people representing the broad spectrum of Canadian society have become engaged in the process of educating themselves on the causes and the solutions for woman abuse.

The expansive activity of the 80s has given way in the 90s to an era of economic cutbacks, increased demands for accountability, and a heightened emphasis on criminal justice solutions. A synthesis of learnings and a consolidation of knowledge in the form of descriptions of best practices is under way in many sectors. In the spectrum of solutions, there is increased visibility for the experience of Aboriginal women, women of colour, immigrant women, women with disabilities, lesbians and women from other minority groups. With this change has come a much broader awareness of the needs of diverse communities of women and a deeper realization of the complexity of the issue.

Much has been achieved, but, as the workers in women’s shelters, sexual-assault crisis lines and women’s health centres would quickly point out,

Women continue to turn in record numbers to us for help. Women continue to be beaten and murdered by their partners, ex-partners and men they love. (2)

What is woman abuse?

The definition of woman abuse used for this resource was developed by Linda MacLeod. Her work has been informed by the stories of women and children survivors of abuse, and the people who have worked with survivors on the front-line.

Woman abuse is the misuse of power by a husband, ex-husband, intimate partner or ex-partner (male or female) against a woman, resulting in a loss of dignity, control and safety, as well as a feeling of powerlessness and entrapment experienced by the woman who is the direct victim of ongoing or repeated physical, psychological, economic, sexual, verbal, and/or spiritual abuse. Woman abuse also includes persistent threats or forcing women to witness violence against their children, other relatives, friends, pets and/or cherished possessions by their husbands, ex-husbands, intimate partners or ex-partners. Woman abuse is integrally linked to the social/economic/political structures, values and policies that create and perpetuate inequality. (3)

How widespread is the problem? Some of the facts

According to Statistics Canada:

• Three-in-ten women currently or previously married or in a common law relationship in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence at the hands of a marital partner. (4)
  
• The rate of wife assault among young women 18 to 24 years of age is four times the national average. (5)
  
• 13 percent of women who reported violence in a current marriage have, at some time, feared for their lives from the men with whom they currently live. (6)
  
• During 1994-95, 85,259 women and dependent children were admitted to 356 transition homes. Of these women, 79 percent reported that they were escaping abusive situations. (7)
  

Numbers never tell the whole story. This is very true in the case of woman abuse. Throughout this document, other facts and figures are given in relation to specific topics related to woman abuse. As well, some of the books and articles suggested for further reading put a human face to the real pain and costs of woman abuse.

What has been learned about woman abuse?

The following list developed by Linda MacLeod and Walter DeKeseredy summarizes some of the key learnings developed over the years by front-line workers and researchers in the field of woman abuse. (8)

From the interviews conducted for this report, the authors identified another key learning that could be added to the above list by MacLeod and DeKeseredy. Abuse occurs in lesbian relationships. Solutions to woman abuse must include ways to identify and address women’s violence within same-sex intimate relationships.

Wife abuse, partner abuse, violence against women, domestic violence... Why does the problem continue to be renamed?

In many ways, the different names that have been given to the issue reflect conflicting views, the diverse experiences of woman abuse, and the changes that have had to occur as research and experience with the issue expanded. Naming the issue has been challenging and has highlighted the differing perspectives on woman abuse.

Prior to 1970, there was no name for violence against women by their husbands or partners. "Wife beating" and "wife battering" were the words developed by feminists to denote the special circumstances in which the violence was taking place and to clearly indicate who the primary victims were. As the issue became more popular with social workers, medical personnel and male experts, words such as "abuse," "family violence" and "domestic violence" were adopted. Many people were prepared to situate the abuse within the family setting, but a great deal of resistance developed against identifying males as the primary abusers.

As feminists pushed for increased involvement of the criminal justice system, legal terms had to be incorporated. Thus "wife or woman assault" replaced abuse and battering. The criminal nature of the offence could thereby be emphasized, while the gender distinction was maintained. One of the limitations of the term "assault" is that it only refers to physical and sexual violence that is charge-able under the Criminal Code. Emotional, psychological and financial abuse is de-emphasized.

In the late 80s and early 90s, "male violence against women" became a common way to name the issue, because it clearly identified the gender-specific nature of the issue. As the experiences of Aboriginal women, women from diverse cultures, women with disabilities, and lesbians increasingly impacted on the work, this label became problematic for many men and women.

Today "woman abuse," "violence against women" (VAW) and the more gender-neutral terms "family or domestic violence" are the ones most commonly used. Governments and many community groups prefer the gender-neutral terms as a reflection of their desire to be inclusive. Many feminist grass-roots workers, academics and professionals prefer to retain a gender-specific term, as a way of underscoring the reality that violence against women is structured into the way our society works and that prevention work must be focussed on changing social structures, not just fixing individual women and dysfunctional families. (9)

In this document, the terms woman abuse and violence against women are used interchangeably. The authors are focussing on the violence that is directed at women by partners, ex-partners and caregivers.

Notes:

Among the people we interviewed, there was much agreement about what the major shifts have been over the last few years. There was also agreement that most of the changes indicate that the agenda to address woman abuse has, overall, moved forward. For some changes, such as the increase in public aware-ness, the general belief is that the advances are not only encouraging but quite remarkable.

From the interviews, the authors were able to identify the following seven significant changes that have occurred over the past 10 years.

Understanding the changes

Many of the people interviewed for this resource agreed on the nature of the significant shifts. What they did not always agree on was whether each of the shifts actually improved the choices for abused women.

The changes that have occurred through the last few years because of economic cutbacks implemented by all levels of government— particularly to the health, social and education sectors—have, for some of the people interviewed, presented real challenges and therefore considerably tempered their optimism about some of the other positive changes. Respondents whose daily work involved direct front-line service to abused women spoke most often about the negative impact decreased economic support has had on abused women and the services designed to help them.

In the case of two of the shifts (increased emphasis on working collaboratively and increased reliance on criminal justice remedies), advocates who work directly with women and their children expressed many concerns about who really benefited from the changes. The brief overviews on the following page summarize some of the key points made by the experts who were interviewed.

Readers are encouraged to refer to Appendix 3 for information on available resources that provide more detail on and in-depth analysis of each of the topic areas suggested by these identified changes.

• Increased awareness of woman abuse as a societal issue rather than a private family matter
  

There is universal agreement that the general public, most professional bodies, and all of our major institutions, have a level of awareness of the extent, nature and some of the causes of woman abuse that did not exist prior to the Montreal Massacre in 1989. Interviewees provided some interesting indicators from their work that demonstrate the impact of this increased awareness.

• Women are not staying in abusive relationships as long. They are identifying and naming violence in their lives, and then reaching out for help sooner.

Ground-breaking research and subsequent practical resources developed by previously under-represented groups of marginalized women have significantly expanded the manner in which woman abuse is described, the approaches to crisis intervention that are developed, and the shape of the solutions that are put forward to policy makers. There are many women’s voices now being heard, and they do not all sing the same tune. What does unite all women’s experience is their common struggle to seek an end to the abuse in their own lives, and to change the attitudes and beliefs that work against valuing women and children.

The feminist analysis of woman abuse is no longer considered complete unless it includes consideration of race, class, sexual orientation, disability, geographical isolation and other specific determining factors that put women at increased risk of systemic discrimination and abuse. The integration of this expanded notion of violence against women within the feminist framework continues to evolve, but there is general agreement that in Canada we are much further advanced on this front than we were prior to 1989.

With the greater understanding of woman abuse has come greater scrutiny and questioning of the effectiveness of traditional policing practices and shelter responses. The need for more choice and flexibility in many of the services and programs designed to help abused women and their children and families has become increasingly evident. Aspects of this topic are discussed in Section 4.

The following list identifies some of the ways in which the analysis of woman abuse has been expanded in the past few years:

The National Survey on Violence against Women, carried out by The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics in 1993, showed that children witnessed violence against their mothers in almost 40 percent of marriages where such violence was occurring. The survey also provided support to the generational cycle of violence theory identified by Peter Jaffe and associates in their work on the impact of children who have witnessed. (1) For some time, workers in shelters and counselling agencies have been aware of the emotional and behavioural problems demonstrated by many children who have been exposed to woman abuse. (2) The data and analysis produced by the research done over the past few years helped to document the breadth of the problem and to determine directions for effective intervention and prevention.

What has changed over the past 10 years is the extent to which politicians and policy makers are now including the witnessing of family violence as one of the factors that puts a child at increased risk of developing future behavioural, social, health and academic problems. This has meant that the large early intervention programs implemented over the last few years—e.g., Canada’s Action Plan for Children, Ontario’s Healthy Babies Program, the Aboriginal Head Start Program, to name just a few—have included family violence as one of the risk factors that need to be screened for and addressed.

A number of shelters that have restructured themselves over the past few years have developed a continuum of service approach. Specific screening procedures, with individual and group programs for children who have been exposed to woman abuse, have been included as part of the work that shelter and outreach services must offer to reduce the long-term impact of witnessing abuse. (3)

Many workers believe that exposure to woman abuse must be seen as a separate and distinct form of child abuse, rather than an extension of woman abuse as it tends to be seen presently. The laws designed to protect children from harm could then be used to help promote earlier intervention. A great deal more effort is required to raise the awareness of people working with young children about the impact of exposure to woman abuse. Research has begun to provide new insights on this issue.

The authors concluded from their interviews that the recognition of children who have been exposed to woman abuse as being "children at risk", and therefore appropriate targets for early intervention and prevention pro-grams, might be the one outcome from the Family Violence Initiatives with the most far-reaching impact on the lives of abused women and their children. We believe that the money committed by the federal government through the successive Initiatives provided the leadership and the means that increased Canadians’ collective understanding of the link between woman abuse and some children’s behavioural problems.

• Increased emphasis on criminal justice solutions
  

A number of significant changes to the criminal justice system have occurred in this period. Some who were interviewed felt that setting out to change laws and criminal justice procedures that have been known to work against women could be seen as an indication that society is prepared to address some of the structural conditions contributing to woman abuse. On the other hand, it was also expressed that whether these changes actually contribute to this social change or just provide newer and more effective ways to control women is very much an issue of ongoing debate. As one of the people interviewed said,

It is amazing and frightening to see just how easily changes to laws designed to protect abused women can be turned around and used very effectively against us.

Some went on to state that traditionally, the justice system has limited itself to issues of blame, punishment and crisis intervention. Numerous initiatives undertaken nationally and in the provinces and territories have been designed to make the justice system more responsive to the needs of abused women. The changes have concentrated on making the system more accessible and assisting women to get the follow-up and preventive support they need to address relevant economic, social and health factors.

The following five legal decisions and new laws were identified by many of the people interviewed as the ones that have had the most significant national impact on the movement to address woman abuse. Many front-line workers said that, even more important than the actual passing of new legislation and laws, is the discussion that surrounds the development and implementation of these changes. Some of these changes are seen by many advocates as quite profound.

The Lavallee Supreme Court Decision (1990)

This decision affirmed that the battered woman syndrome was sufficiently supported by scientific evidence to be credible. It also acknowledged that experts on woman abuse can be called upon as expert witnesses to assist in the judicial process. The battered woman syndrome defence has been used in a number of cases in which women killed violent partners. However, women’s advocates are now reluctant to argue the battered woman’s syndrome for a variety of reasons including that it may hurt them more than it helps.

Criminal Harassment/Anti-Stalking Law (1993)

This new law was created to increase the protection offered to women. It prohibits anyone from repeatedly communicating with or following, or engaging in threatening conduct directed at another person, any member of their family or anyone known to that person.

Bill C-72: The Self-induced intoxication defence (1995)

The message conveyed by this Bill was that extreme intoxication is not a defence to crimes of violence, including sexual assault and assault. This Bill was introduced into Parliament as a result of a crisis of faith with the justice system brought about by a specific and widely publicized court decision. A man was acquitted of brutally sexually assaulting a woman because he was deemed to be too drunk to get and understand consent. This ruling sparked a huge outrage from all women’s groups and led to a public debate, for the first time ever, about what constitutes consent and what men must get to determine that they have consent. Through this case, our society clarified that silence on the part of a woman does not indicate consent.

Bill-C46: Production of records in sexual offence proceedings (1996)

Review of case law and consultations with women’s groups revealed that 99 percent of sexual-offence complainants are women and children, and defence requests for personal and confidential records occur almost exclusively in sexual offences. The Criminal Code was amended to restrict access to medical, counselling, therapeutic and other personal records of complainants in sexual offence prosecutions.

Firearms legislation

The aspect of this legislation that seems to have helped women the most is the clear direction to police that they can remove firearms from a residence in which an occupant has been charged with threatening or assaulting another member of the household. Some front-line workers believe that, since this legislation has been in place, police and other members of the public have become much more aware of the extent of the use of firearms in wife assault situations.

Section 4 contains further discussion of resources and some of the issues related to justice system responses to woman abuse.

5. More collaborative and intersectoral work

The federal Family Violence Initiative (1991-96) contributed to the overall move to intersectoral collaboration as a result of its emphasis on building partnerships at the community level. Groups submitting project-funding proposals had to show how they planned to include survivors in the planning and delivery of services, and with whom they planned to develop partnerships to build community-based strategies for addressing woman abuse. Many people in the field believe that this emphasis on collaboration and partnerships helped to move the status of the issue from that of a women’s concern to everyone’s responsibility.

Through the 90s, most government initiatives included an emphasis on collaboration at the community level, among professional groups, among levels of government and among departments within governments. Through funding guidelines and the direct help provided to groups by program consultants in government departments such as the Family Violence Prevention Unit of Health Canada, groups were encouraged to think much more broadly and creatively about the people they might involve in the work to address woman abuse. Collaborations that only 10 years ago would have seemed impossible are now a reality in some communities: police departments working with shelters to develop protocols, hospitals working with sexual assault centres to increase access to service, and violence against women services working with child welfare authorities to develop a continuum of services.

The struggle to make collaboration work has not always been easy. When partnerships have worked they have been credited with opening systems and building bridges between sectors to create new possibilities for service, public-education and prevention programs. One of the most exciting changes has been the increased number of corporations willing to become involved in creative ways to find solutions to end woman abuse. (4)

The need for collaboration and building partnerships has become increasingly obvious, as our knowledge of the extent, nature and complexity of woman abuse has grown and the amount of money available for all the needs associated with its impact has dwindled. Everyone agrees that no one group can solve the problem alone. There is no single solution.

Among the people interviewed for this document, some expressed a cautionary note about the use of partnerships and collaboration in relation to woman abuse. They pointed out that there are many front-line workers and advocates who fear that, as woman abuse becomes increasingly a mainstream issue, some trends already begun will continue to the point where woman abuse will eventually be rendered invisible. Two particularly troubling trends that they identified include: an increase in the use of gender-neutral terms, and the elimination of the power analysis that acknowledges women’s oppression within the family structure and the inequality of women in most areas of Canadian society. They believe that, as a result of funders requiring partnerships, feminist groups will have to de-radicalize if they wish to survive. Consequently, they fear that the voice that these groups have always provided to lead the movement to end woman abuse will be lost. (5)

• Wider recognition of the value of action research
  

The establishment of the five Research Centres on Family Violence and Violence Against Women, the National Survey on Violence against Women, and the Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women were three high-profile activities that occurred during the 1990s. All three used methods informed by the feminist action research framework.

Feminist action research theory values quantitative information but insists that the numbers mean nothing if the context and impact of the experience being studied is not also documented. The approach itself is part of the process of promoting the social change required to end woman abuse. This kind of research is influenced by advocates and front-line workers.

In addition to these research-based activities, requirements to include an evaluation component in projects funded through the first two Family Violence Initiatives (1989-92 and 1991-96) helped to raise awareness about the value and necessity of research for the day-to-day work on the front-line. The research on woman abuse that was promoted through the 90s by the federal government was designed to provide information that had practical utility to improve the lives of abused women and their children. Many of the respondents for this document pointed out that the emphasis on practical research and evaluation helped to legitimize feminist action research.

Researchers working through highly respected institutions, such as Statistics Canada, contributed rigour to the collection of information on woman abuse, thereby giving added credibility to the findings. Abused women, reflecting diverse opinions and experience, and their advocates, related their powerful and personally informed stories to shape the context in which to place the numbers. As a result, it has been possible to shape the information collected

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Section 2: What has Changed Since 1989?

into learnings that are rooted in women’s reality. The information and learnings gathered through these research initiatives and evaluation studies have been used to influence funding and policy decisions and to improve services.

More front-line workers and advocates have come to appreciate that there is new information to be gained about woman abuse, and that well-designed research and evaluation projects can make practical contributions to their work. More researchers are employing research designs that utilize the feminist action research framework. In the field of woman abuse, the link between research, evaluation and best practices has been made more visible and accesible to non-researchers.

• Steady decline in women’s services and organizations because of funding cutbacks
  

The economic cutbacks that have shaped every government’s policies for the latter part of the 90s have affected most Canadians. For many abused women and children, the impact of the cuts may be forcing particularly difficult choices.

Among the people interviewed, a number work directly with abused women and their children. As is to be expected, they spoke most urgently about what they are seeing in the shelters and hearing on crisis lines. From their vantage point, a number of the positive changes mentioned above are tempered by the struggles and crises being faced today by abused women and also by agencies that have fewer practical resources and supports to offer abused women.

The following categorizes just a few of the more specific impacts mentioned in the interviews.

• Whole sectors of the safety net are no longer publicly funded, e.g., second-stage housing in Ontario and Nova Scotia.
  
• The loss of significant funding to legal aid has virtually cut off access to legal help for women attempting to sort out custody and access disputes.
  
• There is a trend toward greater use of volunteers without a recognition of the time and money it takes to train and support them to work in this field.
  

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Section 2: What has Changed Since 1989?

• Many isolated communities in the far north continue to be either without any service for abusers or victims or to have minimal support provided by staff who have no access to specialized training. (6)
  
• Front-line organizations lose a great deal of their time just fighting to keep what they have— time that could be used in providing services to individual women.
  
• There have always been high rates of burnout on the front line, but now increasing numbers of experienced women are being lost to this field of work because of lost jobs, overwork and inadequate wages.
  
• There are fewer places where abused women can receive the financial, health and social supports they need to reestablish new lives for themselves and their children.
  
• Women are choosing to stay in or return to abusive situations because they cannot get adequate housing, food, transportation or money to provide even the basics for their children.
  
• Women’s groups increasingly have to work in isolation from one another because money is not available for conferences and other opportunities through which like-minded organizations can share information and resources.
  

Notes:

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Section 2: What has Changed Since 1989?

abuse in their core services. The authors have had a long-term involvement with both of these organizations as they restructured and integrated a continuum of service model into their vision. In both cases, the process and consequences of identifying children who have been exposed to woman abuse as children at risk required additional training for staff.

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Section 2: What has Changed Since 1989?

Copyright. Health Canada (Revised: 09-04-2000 )

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Section 3: Key Milestones

In the last chapter, the authors outlined some of the changes that have occurred over the last few years. In the interviews, people were asked to identify the events or initiatives that they believed contributed most significantly to those changes.

Some interviewees expressed the opinion that, during the last 10 years, the first real inroads were made to move beyond awareness building. In particular, they point to changed laws and an increased emphasis on early intervention as signs that we have moved from awareness building to solution seeking.

Up until the Montreal Massacre, all of the work was aimed at just getting the issue of woman abuse recognized and named. The Massacre changed that.

The equality-seeking women’s groups, and a number of other front-line service providers and advocates pointed to the speed with which supports to abused women have been with-drawn, and the extent to which our society is willing to endorse cutbacks to supports for the most vulnerable in our society, as the most poignant indicator that the change in attitudes and priorities that are required to end woman abuse has not occurred.

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Section 3: Key Milestones

We have succeeded in raising awareness about woman abuse. The move to solutions has been started but will now be much slower due to limited commitment of resources by all levels of governments. As a society, the widespread changes that will reduce inequality of women, and create a safer environment for women and children, have not occurred.

The milestones discussed below are those that were identified most often by the respondents. During discussions of milestones, differences of opinion on the meaning and impact of each milestone consistently arose. The scope of this document does not allow for a full discussion on the different perspectives. To help readers, the authors sought out resources that were specific to each of the milestones. When possible, the authors looked for a variety of resources that give different perspectives of the same event or initiative. Resources were available at the time of writing.

1. The Montreal Massacre

On December 6, 1989, 14 women were gunned down by a male stranger. They were targeted solely because they were women. This event, more than any other before or since, forced people to look beyond this specific crime and see hatred directed at women as a social problem rooted in attitudes, values, laws and social structures that shape Canadian society.

As a result of the ongoing debate that took place in communities, through all forms of media and throughout our institutions, many individuals and groups looked for ways to educate themselves and to take action to end violence against women. The public debate also helped to put the issue of woman abuse to the top of the political agenda for a few years in the early 90s.

The public debates that occurred in the weeks and months following the Massacre also provided a focal point and a very public forum for the antifeminist backlash. The often virulent but articulate nature of the backlash forced feminists to hone their skills and analysis, thus enabling them to continually expand and develop their understanding of the issues.

Since 1989, December 6 has been a focal point for remembrance of the 14 women who were massacred and of all victims of woman abuse. It is also a day when many Canadians renew their commitment to the struggle to end violence against women. In this way, the impact of the Montreal Massacre

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Section 3: Key Milestones

continues to grow.

Resources

Between 1988 and 1996, the federal government devoted $176 million to various initiatives on woman abuse, child abuse and abuse of older Canadians. In 1997, the government reiterated its commitment by announcing permanent funding in the amount of $7 million annually to reduce violence against women, children and older adults. This money—an additional allocation beyond those funds already expended by various federal departments on an ongoing basis to address family violence directly or indirectly— is shared among seven federal departments and agencies and is used to address family violence through existing programs and activities.

The first two Family Violence Initiatives (1988-92 and 1991-96) provided sufficient money to facilitate the explosion that has occurred, in the last 10 years, of new Canadian data on woman abuse, practical resources for public education and awareness building, training manuals, protocols and discussion papers. Innovative partnerships were nurtured to expand the number of sectors involved in the work. Groups of people within communities in every region of Canada were encouraged to develop projects aimed at raising awareness and developing local solutions.

One of the criteria for funding was the requirement that local solutions should be portable to other communities. To help make this happen, many projects included plans for disseminating to other communities the learnings, manuals, training guides and public-education materials that they developed. Local and national symposiums, and Vis-à-vis, the national newsletter on family violence, were used extensively to ensure that communities learned from one another. This emphasis on sharing information helped to create a feeling among people doing the work that they were part of a large movement. They were not alone in trying to address woman abuse.

Funding through the current Initiative continues to provide access, free of

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charge, to a wide range of high quality resources on family violence in French and English, through the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, administered by Health Canada on behalf of all federal partners in the Initiative.

Resources

Statistics Canada conducted the first national survey on violence against women in 1993. Telephone interviews were conducted with 12,300 women 18 years of age or over to establish reliable estimates of the extent and nature of male violence against women in Canada.

The media provided wide coverage of the results. The findings were openly attacked and challenged by antifeminist voices in the academic world and the wider community. However, the fact that this ground-breaking survey was carried out by a highly respected research institution, which had the resources and the expertise to address the backlash and defend the methodology effectively, ensured that the useful results were not buried. The information that was made available to the public continues to be used by many advocates, government officials and service providers.

The National Survey on Violence against Women has been recognized by international experts as a major achievement. The data file continues to be analyzed by governments, academic experts and other researchers, not only in Canada but in a number of other countries throughout the world. Several countries have chosen to replicate this study.

A major factor contributing to the study’s success was the care taken by Statistics Canada during all phases of the project to respect the complexity of the issue, the position of women responding to the Survey and the people asking the questions. The measures taken to address the concerns of many

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women’s groups about safety and support for respondents and researchers demonstrated the seriousness of the government’s commitment to collect reliable information.

The full impact of this Survey will not be known for many years. What it did do in the short term was to provide the data that were required to support what abused women and their advocates had been saying. Both the Survey’s publicized findings and the database itself continue to be used to:

• develop policy,
  
• provide new directions for further research related to woman abuse,
  
• support front-line services lobbying for funds, and
  
• highlight previously hidden aspects of the issue—such as violence during pregnancy, the costs of woman abuse, the impact on children who witness violence in their homes, the links between woman abuse and addictions, and the increased risks for women during and after separation.
  

Resources

In 1992, the Department of National Health and Welfare (now Health Canada) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded five years of fund-ing to establish five research centres on family violence. The five centres are located in Vancouver, Winnipeg, London, Montreal and Quebec City, and Fredericton. They were created to undertake highly credible research that would continue to push the agenda forward. Partnerships that involved academics and community groups working in the field of woman abuse and other forms of family violence were central to the research centres. Refer to Appendix 2 for a complete list of their addresses.

As the five-year Initiative came to an end in 1997, there was general agreement that the research centres have provided very valuable information and support to both front-line workers and researchers dedicated to advancing the field of knowledge. The Centres have continued to carry out this work with funding from other sources.

As with most major initiatives related to woman abuse, there are conflicting views about the value and real impact of the Research Centres among those working in the field. Some of the people interviewed expressed concerns about the nature and quality of the academic/community partner-ships. For some of these people, the time and energy that has been spent trying to resolve power imbalances and conflicting agendas could have been spent more profitably elsewhere. Others who saw real benefits in the existence of the Research Centres are looking to them for new information that will help to keep the issue alive on the public agenda. Supporters particularly value the emphasis that the Centres have placed on making research practical and results accessible through the use of plain language and user-friendly formats.

Each of the Centres have been working to ensure sustainable funding. As part of their strategy, an Alliance of Five Research Centres on Violence has been established with the vision:

to build community and academic partnerships to carry out research and public education to eliminate violence against women and children, and family violence.

The following list summarizes the contributions made by the Research Centres that have been cited as the most significant to date. The Centres:

• undertook high quality research that produced valuable information previously unavailable,
  
• made academic research-findings accessible,
  
• enhanced the credibility of action research, the feminist alternative to mainstream research methods, and
  
• bolstered a body of learnings on how to make partnerships work.

Some of the benefits to those working in the field include the following.

• Those policy makers, elected officials and skeptics who might be inclined to dismiss the information can not do so quite as easily because of the sound methodologies employed to produce it.
  
• The ongoing release of new information from the Centres has helped to keep the issue alive and moving forward.
  
• The emphasis on making partnerships work has led to new learnings about both the benefits and challenges of requiring sectors with different agendas to work together toward a common goal.
  
• Some front-line groups working directly with women and their children have used materials published by the Centres to hone their own skills, change the ways in which they do their work or strengthen their public education campaigns.
  

Two documents have been prepared on the work of the Research Centres:

Resource

In the Speech from the Throne in May 1991, the Prime Minister announced the creation of a Panel to inquire into the problem of violence against women and to develop solutions. In August 1991, the Minister responsible for the Status of Women announced the members of the Panel. The sheer massiveness of the task assigned to it, coupled with the unrealistic timeframe in which the work was to be completed, made for a very difficult and sometimes controversial process.

The work of the Panel was undertaken in two phases. In Phase 1, it conducted an extensive consultation. Members travelled to all parts of Canada to consult with more than 4,000 people in 139 communities. The Panel took great efforts to ensure that people who had been silenced or never heard before were given the time and environment they needed to talk about their experiences of woman abuse.

Phase 2 of the Panel’s work focussed on considering the enormous quantity of information accumulated during Phase 1. From this process, the National Action Plan was developed. The documents produced from this initiative provided insights and information that had not previously been available.

People working within government systems and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) generally believe that the Panel’s work made several significant contributions over time, and in many cases through behind-the- scenes work, to influence policy. Perhaps the following best sums up this point of view:

The Panel paved the way for wider acceptance of the findings of the National Survey on Violence against Women, which came later. The Panel provided the qualitative information, while the VAW Survey gave us the quantitative information. We have always said we need both.

Contributions of the Canadian Panel on Violence against Women

• The consultation process brought the debate to the national level.
  
• Consultations at the community level brought groups together, often for the first time, and provided an opportunity for them to collaborate.
  
• The findings sensitized the politicians to the reality that violence affects men and women differently. This helped to open the door to serious discussion about gender analysis, a way of assessing the differential outcomes of the impact of violence on men and women that illuminate relevant criminal justice issues.
  
• The report identified and analyzed the link between violence against women and the inequality of women in Canadian society. This has helped to integrate issues under the broader equality perspective, thereby confirming that the federal government does have a responsibility, particularly under the Charter of Rights, to continue to play a leadership role in addressing woman abuse.

• The final report popularized the concept of "zero tolerance" and applied it to violence against women. The term was originally used in the United States as part of the War on Drugs strategy. For the first time in Canada woman abuse was officially acknowledged as something that would not be tolerated. Unfortunately, in some jurisdictions this concept that was supposed to indicate that woman abuse would not be tolerated resulted in countercharging. Women reported abuse to the police, who then charged the men with assault. The men who were charged then reported that the women assaulted them and, because of the "zero tolerance" policy, the police would be obliged to charge the women. Many woman abuse policies based on the concept of zero tolerance have had to be revisited.
  

Resource

• Canadian Panel on Violence against Women, Final report of the Canadian Panel on Violence against Women; Changing the landscape: Ending violence – Achieving equality, (Ottawa; Supply and Services Canada, 1993).
  

6. Justice Canada consultation processes

Justice Canada has been explicitly involved in seeking solutions to woman abuse since the 1980s. The first widely recognized initiative undertaken was the "mandatory charging" directive issued to police chiefs during the 80s. Since that time many people have noted an ongoing awareness-building among Justice Canada personnel and elected decision-makers, as well as some very significant initiatives to make the Criminal Code of Canada more responsive to the realities of woman abuse.

Two consultation processes were identified by respondents as having the potential for a widespread impact on the lives of abused women and their children. One process involved the more radical voice of the violence against women movement; the other involved the slow process of the conservative, main-stream system that is changing itself to better respond to contemporary needs.

The consultation process around Bill C-46 was set up by The Honourable Allan Rock, then Attorney General and Minister of Justice. It involved women representing more than 60 front-line women’s groups and marked an innovative way for the Minister to seek input concerning the development of new laws. For the first time, the Minister of Justice asked women, rather than just legal experts, about sexual assault, the real impact on women’s lives, and how the laws could be changed to better protect women.

Beginning in 1994 Justice Canada organized a consultation process with officials of the Department of Justice and the coalition of equality-seeking women’s groups (primarily, women’ s shelters, sexual-assault crisis centres and women’s centres). The groups invited to be a part of this process believe it to be very important for several reasons:

• A comprehensive document, 99 federal steps: Toward an end to Violence against Women, was developed. This document clearly and unequivocally sets out the steps that the coalition believes the government must take to end the discrimination and violence that women experience. This document continues to provide the framework from which all of these women’s groups work.
  
• Women’s equality-seeking groups were pro-vided the opportunity and means to get together, strategize, build consensus and present a stronger voice to the Minister of Justice.
  
• Face-to-face meetings allowed women to talk directly with the Minister and, through this process, to inform and educate him or her and the ministerial staff, about the experiences of women who have been directly affected by violence.
  
• Groups that have not felt themselves to be equal partners in the violence against women movement in the past (women with disabilities, Aboriginal women, immigrant women and lesbians) looked to this coalition as one in which their voices were heard and acted upon.
  

The other consultation process mentioned by respondents involved the federal government, the provinces and territories. An example of benefits that have been achieved as a result of these jurisdictions working together is the development of the New Guidelines for Child Support (1993). For the first time, all jurisdictions signed on to a standardized set of guide-lines governing child support. In the past, different regulations existed within each of the jurisdictions, causing untold problems for separating couples.

The benefits that can be gained by having a new set of common guidelines are tempered by the fact that access to legal representation and the courts continues to be blocked for most women by severe cuts to legal aid, increased resistance of experienced lawyers to accept legal aid, and the high costs associated with seeking legal solutions. As many advocates said, "with no access to courts, guide-lines are of questionable benefit."

Resource

The 1996 Beijing Conference on Women and the NGO Forum helped to raise the recognition of violence against women as an issue impacting women throughout the world. The link between violence against women and the inequality of women in all spheres of activity was also given a high profile.

Following the Conference, the Canadian government prepared a federal plan for gender equality. This was the government’s plan of action in response to the Platform for action, the official document ratified by participants at the Conference. The process of consultation, education and discussion that went on within federal government bodies before and after the Beijing Conference reinforced the recognition of the need to integrate gender analysis into all government policy and program development.

Canadian NGOs produced their own post-Beijing document, Take action for equality, development and peace, in which key sections from the Platform for action were highlighted, their relevance to Canadian women explained, and possible national and community strategies for action outlined. When the next World Conference on Women takes place, all countries that signed the Platform for action will be asked to demonstrate how they have improved the lives of women. Many Canadian women will be expecting to see concrete measurements indicating that some of the structural barriers to inequality of women—one of the root causes of violence against women—have been removed.

Resources

• Gender-based analysis, Discussion paper, Women’s Bureau, Human Resource Development Canada, 1997.
  
• Take action for equality, development and peace, available through the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women, 1996.
  
• Status of Women, Platform for action, (Ottawa: 1997).

A major part of the work on violence against women in the 90s is represented by the 13 topics discussed in this chapter. Each topic could be, and often has been, the subject of one or more books, research studies and discussion papers. This paper does not attempt to summarize this huge body of work. Instead, it offers readers:

• a brief synopsis of the kind of work that has been done,
  
• examples of learnings and best practices that have emerged, and
  
• practical resources to help further the work on the issue.
  

The resources will provide a comprehensive overview of the issue as well as information on and links to additional relevant resources.

To help readers find the resources they need, Appendix 3 provides contact information on the organizations mentioned in this paper that have provided specific resource material.

The following topics are included in this chapter:

1. Sheltering and the continuum of services

The 434 transition houses and shelters in Canada continue to be at the heart of services for abused women. They offer women and children safety and an intense level of concentrated support and practical resources that are not available elsewhere in the community.

Emergency shelter can be provided for up to six weeks, but many transition houses have to limit stays to three weeks because of funding arrangements. While in the shelter, women and children are provided the information, emotional support and practical resources they require to develop safety plans for them-selves. The shelter environment is intended to be homelike rather than institutional in nature. Women are encouraged to link with other resources in their communities to regain the confidence and skills required to carry out their safety plans.

Second-stage housing provides longer-term accommodation, usually from six months to one year. Women who use second-stage accommodation often have endured serious abuse and require the safety of a secure environment rather than a return to their community. Women usually are referred from a shelter to second-stage housing. Many of the second-stage units are no longer funded publicly. They depend on sponsors and donations.

Safe homes are not widely used in Canada, but they do exist, primarily in rural and isolated communities in British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan. Families provide shelter to abused women for stays of two to five days. The location of safe homes is typically not publicized except to key crisis-workers in a community. In Northern Ontario, 12 family-resource centres provide many of the services usually found in a transition home, including safe shelter in crisis situations.

Culturally sensitive services are provided to Aboriginal clients in about 45 percent of the shelters, according to the Transition Home Survey, 1994-95. A number of shelters have been opened and are operated by Aboriginal communities. They have a unique service model that emphasizes a holistic approach to healing and feature sweat lodges, healing circles and the participation of elders in the teaching of traditional culture.

Provincial associations of transition houses are currently operating in each of the provinces and the Northwest Territories. These associations generally lobby for legislative changes; advocate for funding of services; ensure that shelters are consulted by media, funders and decision makers; conduct research; participate in training of community resource people such as police, lawyers and educators; and ensure that abused women’s experience remains in the public arena. There is no national association representing shelters and transition homes. The document Transition houses and shelters for abused women in Canada provides a complete listing of the provincial and territorial associations.

There have been a number of significant developments in and challenges to the shelter movement over the last few years:

• Funding cutbacks have had a major impact on services. Many feel that the "more for less" philosophy of many governments translates in practice into more work for shelter workers and less service for abused women and children.
  
• The accessibility of shelters—to women with disabilities, lesbians, immigrant women, Aboriginal women—has improved, but there is still a very long way to go.
  
• Worker exhaustion and burnout are identified as serious issues across the country—a result of underfunding, service cuts and internal conflicts.
  
• Increasing institutionalization of the transition houses’ organizational structure has led to better financial accountability, but the increased administrative requirements have taken time away from direct services.
  
• The limited resources available have had to be directed to services for women and children, with very little left for social action and advocacy work.
  
• The increasing emphasis on academic qualifications for shelter staff leaves many to feel there is a devaluing of women’s experiential qualifications and a move away from the political action agenda of the women’s movement.

• Operational dollars for second-stage housing are almost non-existent.
  
• Finding affordable housing in many communities is almost impossible, leaving women feeling that they have no choice but to go back to an abusive partner.
  
• More shelters are standing publicly, identifying themselves in their communities and working collaboratively with private and public sector partners.
  

As the above challenges continue to impact shelter services, shelter workers and other workers in community-based services for abused women have come together to look for creative ways to maintain quality services and advocate for social change. Transition homes have expanded their services to meet the needs of residents that can not be met during their short stay in the shelter. Follow-up pro-grams, drop-in services, crisis lines, support groups for women and support groups for children exposed to family violence, as well as thrift shops, employment programs and, in a few cases, programs for batterers, are some of the additional programs that many shelters provide. Core funding seldom covers the cost of these supports, so transition houses and shelters are always struggling to find funding from alternative sources to make it all possible.

In recent years more and more shelters have been working in collaboration with other service providers to ensure that women receive the longer-term support they need to build new lives. Collaboration is more possible now because there are more well-informed and skilled people within other systems who are willing and able to support abused women and their children in a non-blaming manner.

Some of the critical issues that shelters are working on today include the following:

• the development of working relationships and protocols with child-welfare authorities that make it possible for them to work together for the best interests of mothers and children;
  
• an increase in accessibility for under-represented groups of women, e.g., older women and women with disabilities;
  
• the acquisition of adequate funding for programs for children exposed to woman abuse;

• the advancement of organizational structures and processes that support accountability but maintain feminist, non-hierarchical structures; and
  
• the search for innovative ways to reduce worker burnout and exhaustion while more effectively meeting the higher demand for service.
  

Learnings/best practices for providing effective services for abused women and their children:

• Ensure that the services are woman-focussed and centred on meeting the needs of abused women and their children, ensuring safety, building on strengths, and valuing diversity.
  
• Promote autonomy, mutual support and the strengthening of natural helping systems.
  
• Provide co-ordinated and consistent support to women over time.
  
• Offer a continuum of service delivery from prevention to intervention.
  
• Include advocacy, social action and leader-ship development as essential parts of the work.
  
• Follow a proactive approach to building partnerships of equality.
  
• Ensure accountability—to women using the service, providers of service, the community and the funders.
  
• Involve women using the service in its design, review and delivery.
  
• Have minimal infrastructure and bureaucracy.
  

Resources

• A place to call home: Abused women and the search for housing, Vis-à-vis, Fall 1994, Vol. 12, No. 2. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  
• A time for reflection: Changes and challenges, Vis-à-vis, Spring 1995, Vol. 12, No. 4. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.

Research over the past 10 years has confirmed that children who have been exposed to their mothers being emotionally abused and physically beaten are at high risk of developing significant behavioural, mental health, social and academic problems. The Statistics Canada National Survey on Violence against Women provided data that identified the high number of children who were exposed to violence and the offender’s link to an abusive family of origin.

Shelters and community-based services for abused women, in spite of limited funding, have developed a variety of good programming resources, group models and services for children who have been exposed to violence. These services are now seen as essential parts of the continuum of intervention services for women.

Training. Providing training for service providers working with children who are witnessing or may have witnessed woman abuse is essential. The British Columbia/ Yukon Society of Transition Houses, using a curriculum developed by the Justice Institute of British Columbia, sponsors a training program that provides orientation and skill development to children’s counsellors working in a community-based service context, as well as for child-care workers within a shelter. The training, which is offered in two parts, includes 11 full days of classroom training. (See Appendix 3 for contact information.) Ontario is developing a joint training package for the Children’s Aid Society and VAW workers to improve services for children who are exposed to violence.

Custody and access. Concern about custody and access issues for children, particularly children whose mothers have been abused, has heightened over the last few years. Decisions about custody and access are founded in a commitment to "the best interests of the child" and a provision in the Divorce Act known as the "friendly parent" rule. It is felt by many that the justice system often does not recognize, understand or take into account the abuse—overt or covert—that may be going on in the family. The increasing power of fathers’ rights activists, coupled with the assumption of gender neutrality (the assumption that, upon divorce, women and men are similarly situated and have equal parenting ability), mean that an ever-increasing number of men are getting custody, joint custody or generous access, even when they have been abusive.

Early intervention/prevention with childrenis an approach in

which many people see some hope for future change. School-based programs offering non-violent alternatives to problem-solving are being developed and offered across the country. Healthy relations is a violence-prevention curriculum for junior high school students. It was developed by Men for Change, a Halifax, Nova Scotia men’s group formed after the Montreal Massacre. This curriculum has been recommended for secondary school students by the Centre for Research on Violence against Women and Children in London, Ontario.

A.S.A.P.: a school-based anti-violence program is another

excellent resource. Recognizing the importance of early intervention/prevention programs and keeping them on the political and funding agenda will be a major challenge.

Learnings/best practices for providing services that are helpful to children who have been exposed to violence:

• Provide training on risk assessment and referral to appropriate services for all people working with children (child-care providers, educators and physicians).
  
• Start age-specific support groups for children/youth who witness woman abuse.

• Establish parenting groups for mothers who are survivors that build on their strengths, are non-blaming, and develop skills that support pro-social growth in their children.
  
• Launch prevention/education programs for children and youth in community-based settings (e.g., schools, day-care centres and libraries).
  
• Supply consulting services to other care-givers in the community who either ask for help or identify children who may have been exposed to family violence and are demonstrating patterns of behaviour that are of concern.
  
• Establish partnerships and collaboration among key service-providers who work with children and families to improve access to a continuum of high quality services for children who have been exposed to woman abuse.
  
• Undertake public education initiatives that raise awareness of the impact of children’s exposure to woman abuse and that con-tribute to reducing violence in the home.
  

Learnings about services that are not helpful to abused women and their children:

• They weaken rather than strengthen the natural bonds between mothers and children.
  
• They use a woman or mother-blaming, problem-focussed approach.
  
• They insist on including abusive male partners in the counselling.
  
• They fail to consider the real danger that may exist in women’s and children’s lives.
  

Resources

• Wife abuse – The impact on children, Overview Paper. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  
• Child abuse, custody and access -Who’s looking out for the children? Vis-à-vis, Winter 1993, Vol. 10, No. 3. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.

• A.S.A.P.: A school-based anti-violence pro-gram. M. Suderman, P. Jaffe, E. Schieck. 1993, London Family Court Clinic, London.
  
• Families working together, A group program for women and their children who have experienced violence. Prince Edward Island Transition House Association.
  
• Healthy relations. Men for Change, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
  

3. Woman Abuse and Women’s Health

In the 90s violence has increasingly come to be seen as a health issue, given:

• The recognition of the major impact of violence on women’s health,
  
• the increased knowledge of the extent to which women who are abused use the health system, and
  
• new information about the costs of violence to the health system.
  

Education of health professionals has been an important part of the work done in this period, and the related resource development has been immense. The challenge has been to find ways to move the thinking and practice from the medical model, with its emphasis on the health-care professional as the expert, to an approach that is closer to a feminist model, which sees the woman as expert and acknowledges the societal roots of violence and the need for social as well as individual change.

The following is a list of health related issues regarding which innovative work has been done. It also identifies key resources that can be used to understand the issue and to link to other work on the topic.

Violence against women and the use of alcohol and

drugs.Understanding the links between violence against women and the use of drugs and alcohol (either by the offender or by the woman who is being abused) is a critical first step in being able to provide services, training programs and awareness sessions that meet the needs of women.

Resources

• LINK, an educational package on violence against women and the use of alcohol and drugs is available through the Addiction Research

Foundation. The kit includes a trainer’s manual and video.

• Family violence and substance abuse, Overview Paper. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  

Women, violence and HIV. In an abusive relationship, a woman can’t practice safe living, never mind safe sex. Isolation reduces her access to good health care and basic health information. Asking a partner to wear a condom (the main theme of most HIV/AIDS prevention work) is not a realistic option. Understanding the power dynamics that underlie abusive relationships is even more important when one or both of the partners has HIV.

Resource

• Double jeopardy: Women, violence and HIV, Vis-à-vis, Spring 1996. Provides a good overview of some of the innovative community programs and educational tools that are beginning to be developed. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  

Health costs of violence. Ground-breaking work on the health costs of violence against women began in the 90s. Tanis Day’s research in 1995 found that the total measurable costs relating to health and well-being alone amounts to $1,539,650,387 per year, an amount she refers to as just the "tip of the iceberg."

The work in this field:

• challenged the belief that violence occurs in a "cost-neutral environment",
  
• forced awareness of the importance of prevention work on many sectors of society that previously had not seen VAW as an issue of concern to them, and
  
• reinforced the importance of having health-care professionals sensitive to, and well-trained to meet the needs of women who are abused.
  

Resources

• The health-related costs of Violence against Women – The tip of the iceberg. Tanis Day, Ph.D. London: Centre for Research on Violence Against Women, 1995.

Training of health-care professionals.Women who are abused

more often turn to health services for help than to any other type of service (Statistics Canada VAW Survey, 1993). It is essential that the health professionals to whom they turn understand the dynamics of violence against women, recognize the indicators of abuse, and provide effective interventions and referrals to community services for abused women.

Resources

• Violence issues: An interdisciplinary curriculum guide for health professionals. Lee Ann Hoff, Ph.D. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, 1994.
  
• Domestic violence intervention by emergency department staff, Handbook and video. Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre, British Columbia.
  
• Family violence: Clinical guidelines for nurses. Canadian Nurses Association. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, 1992.
  
• Best practice guidelines for health-care providers working with women who have been abused. Toronto: Metro Woman Abuse Council, 1997.
  

The role of the dental care community. Members of the dental

care community— practitioners, academics, leaders of professional associations—are now acknowledging that they can take a proactive role in the prevention of violence. Their particular skills, ongoing relationships with patients, and inter-actions with all age groups, make it possible for members of the dental team—office receptionists, dental assistants, dental hygienists, dental therapists and dentists—to provide concrete assistance to patients who are being abused.

Resource

• Family violence handbook for the dental community, 1994. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  

Learnings/best practice principles and values for health-care providers working with abused women:

• Ensure mutual respect between health-care providers and consumers.
  
• Commit to enhanced quality of care through more accessible and more appropriate services.
  
• Appreciate individual differences, recognize the complexity of women’s lives, and understand diversity, rather than providing assistance in a formulaic fashion.
  
• Recognize the importance of self-directed healing and the resiliency of women who have been abused, along with bio-medical intervention, within a holistic response framework.
  
• Recognize the importance of empowerment and the woman’s decision-making role, rather than simply allow the formal system to direct and define the healing process.
  
• Recognize both the mental health needs of vulnerable individuals and the impact of violence on women with pre-existing mental disorders or suicidal tendencies.
  

Adapted from Joining together against violence: An agenda for collaborative action. 1996. Available through the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Note:

The development of a health promotion model based on a population health strategy has been an important concept in the development of solutions to violence against women. Linda MacLeod, in the paper Taking the next step to stop woman abuse: From violence prevention to individual, family, community and societal health (1996), provides a detailed examination of the population health promotion model and its link to work in the woman abuse field. Readers are encouraged to refer to this paper. It is available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.

4. Woman abuse as a workplace issue

One of the significant changes in the VAW movement in the 90s has been the increasing recognition of the impact that woman abuse has on the workplace. Woman abuse has always been a workplace issue, but one that was never acknowledged or dealt with openly because of the commonly accepted belief that it was a private family matter. With the increased awareness of the pervasiveness of violence against women and of its emotional and physical impact, some organizations have begun to look at their role both in supporting the abused women who are their colleagues and employees, and in creating work environments that promote equality and non-violence.

The work is still in its infancy and, in many workplaces, abused women remain invisible. For some women, this is their choice, as work is their refuge and the secrecy with which they surround their abuse is essential in maintaining their sense of worth. For other women the situation is different. Their ability to do their job may be hampered by frequent absences, preoccupation with domestic problems, threatening personal phone calls, or a limited attention span. The problem is compounded when the workplace itself is a hostile environment. While employers rarely condone any form of physical violence, they often encourage and reward the attitudes and behaviours that are prerequisites for violence.

The potential is enormous for workplaces to be important players in the movement to end violence.

A 1995 study done by the Nova Scotia Justice Department on intimate partner homicide found that the workplace is one of the most frequently identified places where women who were murdered had talked about the abuse and their fears of being killed.

Women’s committees within unions of all kinds are working on the issue and pushing for action. For example, Education Wife Assault, in partnership with the Steelworkers Union, is developing training materials for management and supervisors.

Workplaces can provide:

• information on emergency numbers and community resources for abused women that are accessible to all women without them having to self-identify

• workplace awareness sessions on woman abuse for all employees
  
• policies and procedures that recognize the needs of abused women for flexibility and support in the workplace
  
• trained supervisors who recognize the indicators and know how to make referrals to appropriate resources and
  
• trained employee-assistance counsellors and human resource officers who under-stand the dynamics of woman abuse.
  

Learnings/best practices for making woman abuse a workplace issue:

• Develop a comprehensive strategy that will identify the supports, resources and information that you need to make changes. Ensure that the process is ongoing (one-time events do not work), and include everyone within the organization in the education and action for change. Keep the discussion about woman abuse constructive, inclusive and non-confrontational. Don’t work alone.
  

Build a core group of colleagues to help you get started and keep going. Build management and union support, because, while one or two individuals can make a significant contribution, in the long run it is necessary to get management and union support to maintain the momentum for your workplace initiatives on woman abuse.

• Integrate consideration of the concepts of power and control into all training, because such discussion provides the unifying theme to links to the issues of violence, racism and sexism.
  
• Link the issue of woman abuse to other workplace initiatives such as stress, the balance between work and family responsibilities, employment equity, sexual harassment, anti-racism training, leadership development and workplace safety. These are all workplace issues that should include a discussion on woman abuse.
  
• Make the link between abuse and decreased productivity. Living in an abusive relation-ship has an impact on a woman’s work performance over time. For a man who is an abuser, the impact on work performance is often similar; loss of concentration, fatigue and emotional instability all contribute to decreased productivity. The cost to the organization is real and substantial, yet hidden. It is in the organization’s best interest that the workplace provide the resources needed to end the violence in its workers’ lives, so that they can regain their effectiveness and productivity.

• Provide practical ideas on what men can do to get involved in the work to end violence against women.
  

Resources

• Wife abuse: A workplace issue – A guide for change. Denham and Gillespie, 1992. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  
• Workplace learnings about woman abuse – A guide for change 2. Denham, Gillespie and Cottrell, 1994. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  
• Taking action: A union guide to ending violence against women. Vancouver: Women’s Research Centre, 1992.
  

5. Role of men

Two main challenges in this area were identified through the interviews and through the research: how to deal effectively with offenders and how to involve non-abusive men in the work to end violence.

Interventions with men who abuse.Through-out the 80s, there

was much discussion and controversy about the effectiveness of different treatment models for men who abuse their partners. While there is still no single treatment model that is universally accepted across the country, a lot of work has been done in the 90s to define standards, guidelines and evaluation strategies for work with men who abuse. Ensuring the safety of the partner of the abuser, and ensuring accountability to the abused partner and the broader VAW community, are key components being addressed.

• Best practice principles for intervention with abusive men have been developed by Metro Woman Abuse Council, Toronto. See outline below.
  
• British Columbia has developed standards and guidelines to which all provincially funded programs must adhere. Contact the Council for Abusive Men at the Victoria Family Violence Project for more information.

• Ontario has developed accountability and accessibility requirements for male batterer’s groups. There must be compliance to these requirements if funding is to be received.
  
• Education Wife Assault has produced "For men to think about...You may be becoming or already are an abusive man," 1997. This illustrated booklet is available in six languages. It identifies the characteristics of abusive men and reinforces the need for them to change violent or controlling behaviour and to seek help. Contact
  Education Wife Assault for more information.
  

Involving men as part of the solution. There are several ways in which men can be included:

• Prevention campaignscan encourage men to examine their own behaviour as individuals and members of a community, can hold other men accountable for their abuse, and can confront sexist beliefs and statements. These steps are more likely to be effective than those that indiscriminately blame all men for the violence. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ "Violence, you can make a difference" prevention campaign is a good example.
  
• Male friends and relatives of woman abuserscan have
  a major impact on an abuser’s behaviour by confronting the abuse directly and defining it as unacceptable.
  
• Men as fathers can play an essential role with their children through teaching and demonstrating respect and non-violence.
  
• Men as coachesin sports need to under-stand the power imbalances inherent in any coaching relationship and to use their power positively by practicing values that support equality, non-violence and non-sexist behaviour.
  

Learnings/best practices for interventions with abusive

men(taken from the Toronto Metro Woman Abuse Council Best Practice guidelines):

• All interventions with men who abuse must regard the safety and protection of potential victims as the highest priority.

• The victim never causes the violence. Intervention programs for men who abuse must emphasize that these men are entirely responsible for their violence.
  
• Intervention approaches must recognize that, while violence toward women is socially constructed, it is also individually willed. Political, historical and cultural factors may create a context for violent behaviour and influence the form violence takes. These factors do not in any way excuse violent behaviour.
  
• Intervention strategies with men who abuse should focus primarily on the abusive behaviour. Regardless of any treatment or relationship issues, intervention must focus on the way in which the man victimizes and controls his partner.
  
• In working with men who abuse, the physical safety and psychological and emotional well-being of potential victims must take priority over the abuser’s rights to confidentiality.
  
• Interventions with men who abuse must recognize the detrimental impact and inter-generational effect of abuse on all women, children, extended family and the community as a whole.
  
• Intervention strategies for men who abuse should undertake ongoing evaluation or program effectiveness, given that ineffective intervention may do more harm than good and may jeopardize the safety of women.
  

Resources

• Standards and intervention guidelines for men who abuse: Best practice guidelines, Metro Woman Abuse Council, Toronto.
  
• Stopping violence against women: Men can be part of the solution, Vis-à-vis, Spring, 1994. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  
• Canada’s treatment programs for men who abuse their female partners, 1994. Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  

6. Laws and woman abuse

The federal government is responsible for the Divorce Act and the Criminal Code. The laws and policies that govern child custody and access fall within the federal Divorce Act and provincial and territorial jurisdiction. The division of property, and legal aid fall within provincial and territorial jurisdiction, and therefore differ from one area of Canada to another. Women seeking legal recourse to the problem of woman abuse often end up having to deal with both jurisdictions. For many women, this experience has been difficult, exhausting and disempowering, and especially so for women who are members of minority groups, Aboriginal, immigrants, refugees, and women who have differing abilities.

To help abused women access legal and justice systems, front-line workers in communities across the country have identified a need for:

• ongoing training for front-line counsellors, advocates and shelter workers, so they are aware of changes to policies and the implications of these changes for the abused women that they counsel;
  
• the provision of practical legal information in plain language, in different languages and in user-friendly formats to help women make informed decisions; and
  
• financial assistance to support abused women to obtain the legal support they need. Recent changes to legal aid policies in many jurisdictions have limited the number of women who can gain access to courts through this route.
  

During the 90s, there have been a number of innovative experiments with court systems that demonstrate the move toward adapting justice responses to better address the needs of abused women. The initiatives described below illustrate the kinds of efforts that are under way.

Domestic Violence Courts Project, Toronto.This project was

designed to address a number of long-standing problems that abused women were having when dealing with the justice system. One of the critical issues, identified in the 1996 Toronto Star series Hitting home: Spousal abuse, was that, while police are laying more and more charges, an equally increasing number of cases are being withdrawn through the prosecution phase. Two different specialized courts are being tested in an effort to create a more effective response.

The major components of the two pilot project models include the following:

• a special arrangement for first offenders who plead guilty to offences in which there are no significant or visible injuries to the person abused;
  
• a specialized and integrated approach to the prosecution of all domestic violence cases by police and crown attorneys who work together to collect additional evidence beyond the statement of the person abused;
  
• the provision of counselling for offenders mandated by the pilot courts. (these programs are provided by community agencies that demonstrate a commitment to accountability standards and guidelines approved by the Metro Woman Abuse Council); and
  
• a commitment on the part of both pilot projects to work with others in the community who are responding to woman abuse, through a coordinated and collaborative process.
  

The Saskatchewan Victims of Domestic Violence Act,

1995. This Act was designed to help the justice system meet the immediate and longer-term needs of victims of domestic violence. Three types of remedies are in place:

To enhance the likelihood of success, training teams, made up of shelter workers and police, conducted specialized training for all police in the province. Also, community groups helped policy makers to develop a recruitment process for special justices of the peace to ensure that those chosen demonstrated an understanding of the dynamics of family violence.

The Cultural Interpretation Program for Victims of

Violence, Ontario. Nine training sites in Ontario have been established to prepare interpreters to work with police and in the courts. The training program has evolved into a language-competency-based curriculum. Interpreters are trained to take statements, provide accurate interpretation, accept a clearly defined role and understand the laws related to domestic violence. A train-ing curriculum is being finalized.

The Winnipeg family violence court, Manitoba.

This specialized court was set up in 1990 to deal exclusively with cases of spousal, child and elder abuse. Early results indicate that it has achieved two of its original goals: expeditious court processing and more appropriate sentencing. Some progress has been made toward its third goal of reducing case attrition prior to sentencing.

Resources

• Hitting home: Spousal abuse. Toronto Star, 1996.
  
• The Winnipeg family violence court. E. Jane Ursel, 1994. Available from Statistics Canada.
  
• Abuse is wrong in any language, pamphlet and handbook for service providers. Available from Justice Canada Communications.
  
• A place to start, video for women going to court. Available from the British Columbia Institute against Family Violence.
  

7. Collaboration and partnership

Working collaboratively and in partnership has become an important criterion for woman abuse projects in the 90s. There is a strong rationale for this approach to finding solutions to violence against women. It has the potential to build community ownership, reduce fragmentation of services, improve client accessibility and identify new approaches. Practicing collaboration and working in partnership has created new opportunities, but it has also created some real challenges for groups. Some of the successful partnership projects identified by people interviewed for this paper are identified below:

• The New Brunswick Community Partner-ship Project brought together community organizations and government representatives to plan and implement a co-ordinated community approach to finding solutions to family violence. Resources include a community development handbook, a media guide and a video, Reaching in, reaching out. Contact the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Foundation in Fredericton, New Brunswick for information.

• The Interdisciplinary Project on Domestic Violence is co-sponsored by eight national professional associations. An excellent multimedia resource kit, The mountain and beyond, contains a video, a user’s guide, a work book and fact sheets to encourage collaborative approaches. Contact the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence for details on how to access material.
  
• Fire in the Rose was developed through a three-year national pilot project involving seven religious communities. The project helped churches to move from an initial denial or fear of family violence to awareness, commitment and action. For information on the Fire in the rose resource kit, contact the Church Council on Justice and Corrections.
  

Challenges to partnerships are many and varied:

• Ownership expectations and a "win-lose" philosophy can lead to situations in which some participants are pressured to act against their wishes.
  
• Finding common ground and shared solutions, when there are extremely divergent political analyses and interests, can be non-productive, can sometimes be impossible, and can take away from the time with women.
  
• Finding the middle ground may lead to a compromise on political action.
  

Resources

• Breaking the pattern: How communities can help, 1994. This resource provides good practical ideas on building community alliances. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  
• Listening to the thunder – Advocates talk about the battered women’s movement, 1995. Vancouver: Women’s Research Centre. This provides a comprehensive analysis of the challenges to women’s front-line groups inherent in partnerships and the potential loss of the feminist agenda.

Learnings/best practices on partnerships and collaborative work to end woman abuse(a compilation of ideas

from the interviews and research):

• Develop a shared set of values and beliefs to guide the work. This shared value system should incorporate a power analysis of woman abuse that works to empower women and to challenge and change the systemic power inequities that result from sexism, racism, classism and homophobia. Work done up-front to discuss values and to find ways to practice them within the partnership is an important first step.
  
• Incorporate a gender analysis into all aspects of the work. Work in the VAW field that uses gender-neutral thinking and language is not effective.
  
• Recognize and work to minimize power differentials within and between systems. These differentials can be created by race, culture, language, education, disability, age and sexual orientation. Openly acknowledging that these power imbalances exist in every setting and working together to find ways to address them is the first, albeit very difficult step, in any successful partnership.
  
• Take the time to build a process that allows constructive, solution-focussed discussions on contentious issues. Agreeing to disagree may be the best solution in some partner-ship situations because of the very different systems and mandates that people represent. Finding the areas where there is agreement, and a possibility of constructive action and change, is more useful than getting stuck in differences. Deal with conflict up-front.
  
• Choose who participates in partnerships. Creativity, flexibility, patience, acceptance of differences, being change-oriented and personally committed to ending violence against women—these are some of the personal characteristics identified as making partnerships work. While the type of partnerships are often specified by funders, it is important to create opportunities to choose participants from within the various systems who possess some of the above characteristics.
  
• Avoid tokenism in representation. Being inclusive does not mean including a single member of a marginalized group. A seat at the table does not translate into a voice in the discussion. The women’s movement has been the leader in ensuring that women’s voices from all groups are heard, and their learnings and practices need to be duplicated to pro-vide direction to partnership work.

8. Prevention and public education

One of the primary objectives of the federal Family Violence Initiative (1991-96), was to increase public awareness and community involvement in preventive action against violence and in the promotion of social values that support equal rights and security for women, children and seniors.

Understanding and charting our progress toward the prevention of woman abuse, by Linda MacLeod, 1994, explores the contribution to prevention made by the many projects funded by the Family Violence Prevention Unit, Health Canada. This resource, an outcome of the Health Canada Policy Circle on Woman Abuse, explores some of the dilemmas relating to prevention, analyzes the different approaches, and provides useful ideas on what works. It is available through the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.

In the interviews with respondents across the country, many talked with excitement about their work in public education prevention campaigns at the local, provincial or national level. Listed below are a few examples:

• The YWCA Week Without Violence national campaign, which is held worldwide in 17 countries and across Canada, challenges every Canadian to live for one week in October without perpetrating, participating in or observing violence. Activities focus on a different issue each day of the week: A day of remembrance; Protecting our youth; Making our schools safer; Confronting violence against women, Confronting violence among men; Eliminating racism and hate crimes; and Replacing violence with sports and culture.
  
• The YWCA also sponsors the December 6th commemorative rose button as part of its campaign to stop the violence against women. As part of its prevention work, the YWCA has produced prevention materials for specific cultural groups. For further information and resources on this and other prevention programs offered through the YWCA, contact their national office or your local Y.
  
• The Violence, You Can Make a Difference national media campaign was launched in 1996 by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters in partnership with the federal government. It used radio and television spots that were backed up by a series of user-friendly printed Tips for action against violence that expanded on the broadcast messages. Material is available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.

• Stop Violence Against Women materials have been produced by the Body Shop of Canada in partnership with the Canadian Women’s Foundation and the YWCA of Canada. T-shirts, bookmarks, newsletters and facts sheets are just some of the prevention tools that have been distributed through their stores across the country. Some of the material is sold to raise money for the Canadian Women’s Foundation, and some is distributed free. Refer to Appendix 3 for contact information.
  
• You Never Hurt the One You Love by The Nova Scotia Family Violence Prevention Initiative co-ordinates a province-wide media awareness campaign and other activities in co-operation with community-based agencies across the province. The campaign runs each year in the week of February that includes Valentine’s Day. Each day of the week focusses on selected issues: woman abuse; child abuse; abuse of older persons; abuse of persons with disabilities; and abuse in ethno-cultural communities. Refer to Appendix 3 for contact information.
  

Learnings/best practices for developing education

materials: The following information is based on the work done by the Centre on Violence Against Women and Children (London, Ontario) in their Educating for Change Project.

• Clearly depict who is perpetrating the violence, because, even though it is clear that most violence against women and children is perpetrated by men, many education materials use gender-neutral terms such as "family violence."
  
• Make links to the societal inequality of women.
  
• Identify the impact of racism and other forms of discrimination, as most prevention materials contain little or no anti-racist perspectives.
  
• Aim preventive materials at men, as many educational materials promote the idea that women should be responsible for preventing men’s violence.
  
• Incorporate an acknowledgment of diversity in educational material for women, as most educational materials are aimed at a narrow population of women (white, English-speaking, young, urban, able and heterosexual).

• Critically examine and revise materials regularly.
  
• Challenge all manifestations and practices of violence, as ignoring the global links among all forms of violence against women and children detracts from comprehensive social change.
  
• Advance social change as the best solution, as failing to appropriately assign responsibility for change leads to the perpetuation of violence.
  

Education Wife Assault in Toronto was identified by many people as an example of an organization that produces educational resources that always reflect these principles. For contact information, see Appendix 3.

Resources

• Educating for change, recommended materials on violence against women. Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children.
  
• Understanding and charting our progress toward the prevention of woman abuse, Linda MacLeod. National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  

9. Diversity issues

The work to end violence against women must encompass all forms of violence rooted in both sexism and racism. Racism is embedded in all the institutions and systems that make up Canadian society. Women from minority cultures have challenged everyone to recognize that inequality and power imbalances can not only be part of the status quo but also of agendas for change, governments, service providers and advocates (De Keseredy, MacLeod, 1997: 192).

Organizations dedicated to ending violence against women share this reality. Throughout the 90s many of them have made a commitment to anti-racism work. The struggles continue, but from them and from the experiences of immigrant and visible-minority women and women of colour, have come some excellent resources and models to assist in the work.

One of the areas in which there has been increased knowledge and understanding of service needs is that of cultural interpretation. Ontario has shifted from interpreters of language and explainers of culture to a language- competency-based training complete with tools to test competency and to provide specialized training on violence. Nine training sites have been established, and the curriculum was to be available in 1998.

While there has been some progress, barriers still exist that make the experience of abuse for immigrant and visible-minority women even more difficult than for mainstream women:

• Cultural barriersrefer to factors associated with the belief and cultural systems of the country of origin (e.g., fear of divorce, fear of going to "outsiders" for help, fear of losing the children, and abuse as part of other violence).
  
• Informational and language barriersrefer to factors
  associated with access to information about the legal system and social services, including a lack of language skills (e.g., an inability to speak English or French can make an abused woman dependent on the abusive family member for all day-to-day activities).
  
• Institutional barriersrefer to factors rooted in the institutions of the host country (e.g., sponsorship breakdown, fear of deportation and fear of the police).
  

The resource handbook Abuse is wrong in any language identifies these barriers and provides clear, practical suggestions on how service providers can help women to overcome them. It also provides excellent information on cross-cultural communication, a range of available legal remedies, and where to get appropriate resource material.

Learnings/best practices for finding an interpreter (Fully

trained cultural interpreters who understand violence issues are unfortunately not readily available. The ideas listed below, taken from Abuse is wrong in any language, may help to identify interpreters who can fill the gap.)

• Try to find agencies with specialized services that have staff who speak the woman’s language.
  
• Try to find a volunteer in the community who can act as interpreter. When you look for an interpreter, there are several issues to keep in mind. You must be able to guarantee confidentiality. You must be able to carefully select someone who does not make your client uneasy.

People who speak the same language may have significant differences, such as dialect, class, ethnic group, religion and caste, that create barriers.

• Try to assess the sensitivity of the interpreter to issues such as family violence. Has she intervened in such situations before? If the interpreter’s tone, attitude or choice of words is inappropriate, the abused woman will get the wrong messages, no matter how supportive the service provider is attemp-ting to be.
  
• Try not to use the immigrant woman’s children as interpreters. If her abuser has sexually assaulted her, for example, she will likely not mention it if she has to rely on her children to translate.
  
• Be aware of gender relations in the country of origin or in the ethnic community. Would your client be uncomfortable with a male interpreter?
  
• Be aware of the personal relationships between the abused woman and the interpreter. Do not use a friend of either the woman or her husband to act as the interpreter. He or she may be biased and may attempt to influence your client one way or the other. Many ethnic communities are small, and the abused woman may know the interpreter socially and not want to discuss her personal problems with him or her.
  
• Ask the woman if the interpreter is accept-able before you make the arrangements. Make it clear that if she is not satisfied, you will find someone else.
  

Resources

• Abuse is wrong in any language: A handbook for service providers who work with immigrant women, 1996. Department of Justice.
  
• When racism meets sexism, Vis-à-vis, Summer 1994. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  
• Isolated, afraid and forgotten: The service delivery needs and realities of immigrant and refugee women who are battered, 1990. Linda MacLeod and Maria Shin. National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  

10. Disability issues

Studies done by and for women with disabilities point out that women with disabilities are at much greater risk of being abused in their lifetime than are women without disabilities. The isolation and economic insecurity suffered by many women with disabilities makes them more dependent on their families and care-givers. Not only does this isolation and dependence place them at greater risk for abuse, it also makes them more afraid of threatening their support system by reaching outside the system for help.

Women with disabilities must often depend on a variety of people to provide them with assistance in carrying out their everyday lives. For this reason, their "family" is understood to include not only parents, husbands, boyfriends and other relatives, but also friends, neighbours and caregivers. Caregivers can include attendants, interpreters, home-makers, drivers, doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers, psychiatrists, therapists, counsellors, and workers in hospitals and other institutions. This large number of people, and the intimate physical and emotional contact they provide, greatly increases the risk of abuse for persons with disabilities.

Women who live in institutional settings, and women who are multiply or profoundly disabled, are most vulnerable to abuse, because they are more dependent upon even larger numbers of people and less able to get away.

The Roeher Institute study, Harm’s way: The many faces of violence and abuse against persons with disabilities, 1995, pointed out that people with disabilities are less likely than women without disabilities to be aware of their rights, to know how to identify abuse and to know what to do in the event of harm.

Understanding the barriers—physical, attitudinal and economic—that women with disabilities face is the first step. Some excellent resources have been produced, many with federal Family Violence Initiative funding, to help with this task. Training service providers, service funders, politicians and bureaucrats is the second step, and some of this work is under-way. The challenge now is how to continue the work in this next period, when resources for education and training are almost non-existent.

Using an inclusive process in the work for change is essential, but it is a process that takes time, patience and determination. The Coalition of Equality-Seeking Groups has, over the past five years, demonstrated a successful model of inclusion, so that women with disabilities are equal partners in the process. Voices are heard as women’s voices first, not as those of disabled women.

Learnings/best practices for meeting the needs of women with disabilities who have been abused:

• Watch the video, Double Jeopardy, as this is an excellent awareness-raising video and is available, with a discussion guide, through the Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres, Ottawa.
  
• Read Meeting our needs, An access manual for transition houses, written by Shirley Masuda with Jillian Ridington for DAWN Canada: DisAbled Women’s Network Canada, 1990. This Manual outlines the nature of abuse in the lives of women with disabilities, teaches about the different types of disabilities, investigates the level of accessibility of crisis-support services and makes detailed recommendations for improved access in a "how-to" section.
  
• Train VAW service providers, board members and community groups. Work with women with disabilities in your community and the resources listed below to develop a training program that raises awareness about women living with disabilities, develops an action plan for integrating the knowledge into service changes and develops a plan for social action that continues to keep the issue on the political and funding agenda. Responding to family violence and abuse (listed below) is a resource that provides practical training ideas.
  
• Use the Access Checklist, which was produced by DAWN Ontario and provides a comprehensive to-do list to use in ensuring that programs and events are accessible. To order, contact DAWN Ontario.
  

Resources

• Family violence against women with disabilities, Fact sheet. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  
• Responding to family violence and abuse: An independent living approach, 1995, and the video Double jeopardy. Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres, Ottawa, Ontario.
  
• Women who experienced woman abuse and child sexual abuse: Deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, late deafened and oral deaf... A resource manual for service providers. Klinic Community Health Centre, Winnipeg.
  
• Harm’s way: The many faces of violence and abuse against persons with disabilities, 1995. The Roeher Institute, North York, Ontario.

• Don’t tell me to take a hot bath: Resource manual for crisis workers, 1995. Available from DAWN, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
  

11. Violence in lesbian relationships

Homophobia and heterosexism in our society has kept violence in lesbian relationships behind very tightly closed doors until recently. The research that is now being done on this issue is forcing a re-examination of how women’s violence is defined within a feminist framework of male power and control. Women’s groups, and shelters in particular, have been in the forefront of opening up this discussion and expanding knowledge and understanding.

There is a huge amount of work to be done in removing the barriers that lesbians face in finding services and resources to meet their needs. Combatting homophobia, exploring the effects of internalized homophobia and misogyny on lesbian relationships, and educating social, medical and legal services on violence in lesbian relationships, need to be integrated into all violence against women work.

The following excerpt from Training and education project for responding to abuse in lesbian relationships captures the many challenges and dilemmas surrounding the issue.

Acknowledging and responding to lesbian abuse raises many issues for lesbians and heterosexuals alike. It raises questions about the similarities and differences between lesbian abuse, gay male-partner abuse and heterosexual abuse; it asks us to consider whether we can continue to respond to violence against women in one general way and raises new questions about the connections between various forms of abuse by women; it causes us to recognize that violence is not limited to male perpetrators; that the sexism so strong in our society can fuel violence between women, not only against women by men; that the social effects of heterosexism and homophobia can be played out within lesbian relationships, not just against them; and finally it reminds us that our shared goal of eradicating all forms of violence can only be achieved through working across difference.

Learnings/best practices for service providers who are responding to lesbian abuse:

• Provide ongoing training on homophobia and heterosexism for staff, volunteers and board members.
  
• Rewrite all policies (service mandates and staff benefits) and written materials (intake forms, service brochures, etc.), using inclusive language, so that lesbians know they are welcome.
  
• Have books, posters, and other resources inside your organization that convey a welcoming and positive attitude toward lesbians.
  
• Create a safe and supportive atmosphere for lesbian staff and lesbian service-users.
  

Learnings/best practices for lesbian commun-ities who are responding to lesbian abuse:

• Organize educational forums for your communities about lesbian abuse.
  
• Organize support groups for lesbian abuse survivors and separate groups for batterers.
  
• Respond supportively to lesbians who have experienced abuse. Urge abusers to take responsibility for their actions and seek help, so that they might change.
  
• Create a list of lesbian-positive social services, counsellors, lawyers, etc., and distribute it for your community.
  
• Be willing to work with service providers as resources to help them address barriers to services.
  

The above ideas are taken from Training and education project for responding to abuse in lesbian relationships.

Resources

• Training and education project for responding to abuse in lesbian relationships. Angie Balan, Rhonda Chorney and Janice Ristock, 1995. Women’s Studies Program, University of Manitoba.

• Abuse in lesbian relationships – A handbook of information and resources. Laurie Chesley, Donna MacAulay, Janice L. Ristock, 1992. Toronto Counselling Centre for Lesbians and Gays, Toronto, Ontario.
  

12. Aboriginal issues

Aboriginal people seek holistic responses to woman abuse that recognize their need for spiritual and psychological healing, not just their need for physical safety and the healing of physical wounds. They have rejected an understanding of violence that concentrates primarily on gender-based power inequities. They see their people as victims of power inequities based on racism and classism that have contributed to the loss of Aboriginal culture and tradition. Many want the healing focus to be on keeping families together. They do not see escaping to shelters as an appropriate solution, because it involves leaving their communities and the support, familiarity and cultural traditions that these communities represent.

As people concerned with woman abuse begin to focus more on the solutions, the healing perspective of Aboriginal peoples is becoming a guide for change. Aboriginal peoples emphasize the importance of working not just with individuals but with all members of families, with communities and with nations. Aboriginal writings underscore the basic message that the process of helping someone change cannot involve coercion, power or control, because these are what caused the problem in the first place (DeKeseredy, MacLeod, 1997: p. 192).

The Aboriginal perspective does not embrace blaming and punishing but values strengthening the community and the individual’s bonds to the community, thereby increasing feelings of self-esteem and self-worth.

This perspective has been an extremely useful one as First Nation and Métis people struggle to deal with the impact of the abuse they suffered in the residential school system. Over the last 10 years, the extent and the effects of this abuse are finally being recognized. Physically, sexually, emotionally and spiritually abusive behaviours were learned and often internalized as a result of residential school experiences and this contributed to the break-down of family life and traditional ways. Solutions must acknowledge this impact and the need for healing from past abuse.

Aboriginal people in Canada have often led the way in terms of mobilizing the community for prevention of woman abuse. The Mid-island Tribal

Council Family Development Program, listed in the resources section below, encourages the community to accept responsibility for abuse as a community problem and also to participate actively in the recovery process. The process promotes individual and family health as well as community health.

Ideas for developing a family violence pro-gram for

Aboriginal people: (from the staff of the Native Counselling Services of Alberta, as printed in Vis-à-vis, Spring 1993):

• Combine the community’s traditional healing methods and values with Western practices.
  
• Begin with personal awareness.
  
• Be content with the little changes people make at first.
  
• Keep the program personal and flexible.
  
• Train community members as support staff for clinical counselling.
  
• Heal the healers first.
  

Learnings/best practices for healing (adapted from Family

violence in Aboriginal communities: An Aboriginal perspective):

• Ensure that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people alike understand that family violence is not part of traditional Aboriginal culture and is unacceptable.
  
• Find holistic solutions.
  
• Allow solutions to be community-driven.
  
• Have all programs and organizations that are designing and delivering programs and services acknowledge the impact of the past, and the need for healing individuals, families and communities.
  
• Stress that everyone has a responsibility for eliminating family violence in Aboriginal communities.
  
• Help existing Aboriginal governments to develop innovative, culturally appropriate solutions, rather than adapting existing programs and services that may not address the underlying causes of family violence in Aboriginal communities.

• Heal existing program and service-delivery agents, caregivers, Elders, healers and service providers, before they are to heal others.
  
• Underline that Aboriginal organizations and governments must embrace the urgent need to heal communities and to rid them of family violence, alcoholism, suicide and other such forms of social malaise.
  
• Respect the uniqueness of each individual and of each community.
  
• Know that the centre of Aboriginal communities is the family; consequently, Aboriginal people may seek treatment for the whole family in the case of family violence.
  

Resources

• Family violence in Aboriginal communities: An Aboriginal perspective, Overview Paper, 1997. National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  
• Mid-island tribal council family-development program, Project manual. J. Major and L. Carrier, 1995, Chemainus, British Columbia.
  
• A resource guide on family violence issues for Aboriginal communities. D. McTimoney, 1993. National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  
• From dark to light: Regaining a caring community. Also available in Inuktutut and French. 1995. Advisory Council on the Status of Women, Yellowknife, North West Territories.
  

13. Dating violence/youth violence

The issue of violence in young people’s relationships has received considerable attention in recent years. Dating violence prevention programs are being implemented in high schools across the country. Some excellent print resources and media messages specifically directed at young women and men have been developed. The discussion paper Violence and its impact on youth and youth sexuality – Implications for programs and services, produced by the Mental Health Unit, Health Canada, provides a good overview of many of these programs and key resources.

While much work has been done, much still needs to be done, and many of the people interviewed for this paper identified specific concerns and issues that still need to be addressed.

Ideas for strengthening violence prevention materials for youth include the following:

• More creativity is needed in the delivery of violence prevention messages. There is too much reliance on the printed word and not enough use of theatre, multimedia and electronic communication technology.
  
• The Internet offers a real opportunity to raise awareness, provide resource information specific to each community and offer support to young women. For example, in Prince Edward Island every student in the school system has an e-mail address and Internet access.
  
• More social marketing, such as the Body Shop VAW campaign, which reaches the young female consumer with messages about violence, is needed.
  
• Much of the dating violence material is inappropriate for many groups of immigrant youth who don’t date. New culturally appropriate information on violence in relationships should be developed.
  
• Prevention material that is most effective is that which has been developed with young people—not for them by adults. For example, Education Wife Assault initiated a very successful project that involved students from three schools, a local shelter and Mediacom. The young people drew posters on Violence Against Women, with the winning poster being displayed in bus shelters.
  
• T here is a real need for material directed at young people that discusses violence in same-sex relationships.
  

Parent abuse. One of the issues of youth violence that is just beginning to be explored is parent abuse. The current attitudes toward parent abuse are very similar to the attitudes toward wife abuse 15 or 20 years ago. At that time, the dynamics of woman abuse were not well-understood. It was thought to occur rarely, the victims were blamed, and few supports were available. Similarly, there is currently a dearth of information about parent abuse. We do not know how often it occurs, the victim feels blamed and isolated, and there is a severe lack of resources and supports. This is certainly one of the areas where more information and resources are required. Some young people who are abusive to their parents have themselves been physically, sexually or emotionally abused, or have witnessed their mother being abused. They become abusive as a way to regain some of their lost power and control. Unfortunately, the teens often do not focus their retaliation on the perpetrator; instead, they abuse their non-abusive parent, usually the mother.

Learnings/best practices for preventing dating violence

(adapted from the Canadian Broadcaster’s violence prevention campaign):

As an individual:

As a person active in your community:

• Tell advertisers or representatives of the media that the portrayal of violence is not acceptable.
  
• Encourage your local schools to include programs that promote the building of self-esteem and the nurturing of positive ways of relating to people.

• Dating violence, Fact sheet. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
  
• The abuse of parents by their teenage children. Captain William Spry Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
  
• Making the decision to care: Guys and sexual assault. Available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.

Many themes have been highlighted through-out this paper, the most common of which is captured by its title, Two steps forward, one step back. A huge amount of work on woman abuse has been accomplished in the last 10 years. New resources, innovative partnerships, expanded understanding of the complexity of the issue of woman abuse, practical research studies – all have contributed to the two steps forward that have been taken in the work to end violence against women. Economic cut-backs, unexpected outcomes and polarized thinking have contributed to the one step back. The important message overall is that a great deal of excellent work has been done that builds on and further develops the learnings from the 1980s. This final section summarizes some of the key learnings, unexpected out-comes and challenges still to be faced, as we move ahead.

Key learnings and best practices from the last 10 years

Reflecting upon what have been the most salient learnings since 1989, many of the people interviewed expressed hopefulness tinged with discouragement. The hopefulness most often focussed on the resilience of women, men and children who had experienced abuse and were determined to move through and beyond their personal tragedies to build a new life. Overall, many believe that we have learned, over these years, to move beyond awareness-building to seeking solutions. The discouragement was most often centred around the climate of cuts to services that is part of political agendas across the country, and the loss of the radical voice that was responsible for beginning the whole movement to end violence against women in Canada.

• The diverse voices of women who have experienced abuse and their advocates continue to provide the best source of information on the nature and impact of violence on themselves and their children. They are also the first to realize and name the impact of policies, changed laws and cuts to the social safety net.

• Government leadership in the form of funding is essential if communities of people are going to take the issue seriously
  
• Early intervention/prevention programs with children hold out the greatest hope for long-term solutions to violence.
  
• The recognition of violence as a health issue and the important contribution of the health sector are essential parts in the development of solutions to woman abuse.
  
• Communities that create visible and wide-spread ways of supporting women who are abused, and take action to hold abusive men accountable for their abuse, will help abusive men to see that the community does not condone such behaviours. This is a basic change that will eventually lead to longer-term solutions.
  
• Anti-racism work must be an integral part of the work to end violence against women.
  
• The feminist analysis of woman abuse must continue to evolve and expand if women with very different beliefs and experiences are to be helped to end the abuse in their lives.
  
• Participatory evaluation models and action research are an important component of the work to end violence against women.
  
• Collaboration and partnerships can work to expand the collective understanding of woman abuse. They can create new opportunities for solutions that could not exist if groups worked in isolation.
  
• However, an imperative requirement that groups with divergent political analyses and interests come to agreement and work in partnership on solutions can sometimes waste resources that could be spent sup-porting abused women.
  

Unexpected outcomes

A number of unexpected outcomes in the work to end violence were identified through the interviews. These issues have been discussed throughout the previous sections. They are summarized here again, as they will influence the work that still needs to be done to end woman abuse in the years ahead. The unexpected outcomes fell within five main themes.

• The number and diversity of groups, including the corporate sector, who have become involved in the issue. The work that has been done to frame the violence against women issue in economic terms seems to have been a big factor in leading more men and private sector organizations to get involved in the issue.
  
• The extent of the backlash. Many of the people interviewed commented on how taken aback they were with the strength and destructiveness of the backlash movement, e.g., the appropriation of the feminist power analysis by men’s rights groups as a tool to attack women; and the use by right-wing antifeminist organizations of research into lesbian abuse to show how women are as abusive as men.
  
• Division and polarized thinking within the women’s movement.
  Within some organizations, people have been unable to let go of or to share power, turning some women’s organizations into political battlegrounds, and taking away time and energy from services.
  
• The impact of the cuts to funding on women trying to leave abusive relation-ships. The lack of a strong political commitment to adequate levels of funding for VAW services has led to increased risk for women and children, increased worker burnout, and disillusionment and discouragement for many service providers and advocates.
  
• The negative impact on women of some of the legal and judicial changes that were originally designed to help women who are abused. For example, women seeking help for mental-health problems related to abuse are increasingly finding this used against them in custody and access cases; mandatory charging has put some women in an impossible position—particularly immigrant women, women with disabilities, and isolated women who depend on abusive partners for essential support such as child care while they work.

Are women safer?

This is the question that is the most difficult to answer and yet is the reason most people believe the work to be so important. Woman abuse kills and maims. It is a costly social and health issue for all Canadians. Has all of the work that has been put into raising awareness, developing policies, changing laws, and creating responsive services and systems, made women and their children safer?

Generally, the response to this question by the people interviewed was that women have been provided with more choices, but these expanded choices have not necessarily increased their safety. By having more choices, some individual women can better plan to protect themselves.

Some events have been helpful in making women safer:

• Advocates and service providers have opened up more escape routes, choices and options for women who have been or are being abused.
  
• Increased awareness among professionals of the extent and severity of violence against women has meant that there is a better chance that women will be believed and will be taken seriously when they turn to police, the courts, medical personnel and social service systems for help.
  
• The recognition of violence as a health issue in women’ s lives and the increased understanding and contribution of health professionals has widened the network of supports for women who are abused.
  
• Women are more aware of the services in their communities.
  
• Women have been made more aware of risks that they face in intimate relationships. They have been given the language with which to label abuse directed at them and have learned that they do not need to accept abuse.
  
• The legal framework to protect victims of violence has been strengthened.
  
• The understanding of the links between woman abuse and many other issues, e.g., poverty, disabilities, mental health, addictions and social supports, has increased. This increases the number of systems and people that can be trained to "ask the right question" to help women who are being abused to self-identify.
  

Some events have not been helpful:

• Women continue to be discriminated against in many ways. The fundamental power differences between men and women continue to exist, thereby making women vulnerable to men’s control.
  
• Women continue to be stalked and killed. Women continue to have to change their identities, move across the country, and wear police-monitored alarm devices to protect themselves from ex-partners.
  
• Shelter, counselling and crisis services remain inaccessible to some women, when they do decide to seek help. This is especially true for women who face additional risk factors, e.g., Aboriginal women, women with disabilities, immigrant and visible-minority women and women who are geographically isolated.

• Social housing, financial assistance, legal aid and longer-term counselling supports are no longer available to some women because of changed criteria. If they are available, they do not offer adequate support to help women build new lives, or they have waiting lists so long that women are forced to return to abusive situations to survive.
  
• The pressure on shelters, sexual-assault centres and other front-line women’s organizations to become integrated into the social service delivery system has under-mined their potential to advocate for the fundamental changes that are required to end violence against women.
  
• Backlash, gender neutrality and father’s rights groups make women very vulnerable by downplaying the true consequences and causes of male violence and by forcing women to have contact with their abusers.
  

Looking ahead

The authors asked the interviewees to identify the major challenges for the movement to end woman abuse over the next few years. There was overall agreement that this is a critical point in the evolution of our understanding of woman abuse. The first 20 years could be described as the years of raising awareness, naming the issue, experimenting with different solutions and building a knowledge base of what works. We have achieved a level of collective understanding as to what will be required to end woman abuse in our homes, places of work and spheres of recreation. We have come to the point of recognizing the profound changes to our social structures, and our ways of living and working together, that must occur if the problem of woman abuse is to be reduced.

The struggle to keep people focussed on pushing for the necessary structural change is going to be much more difficult because of the economic downturn and the resulting "more for less" trend that is impacting on all levels of government in Canada. There is very real concern that, whatever resources are made available may be used to further institutional-ize the responses to woman abuse. Better co-ordination among all the systems that need to be involved will be stressed. Social workers, medical personnel, judges and lawyers will continue to be trained to more effectively respond to individual cases. There will be an expectation of better trained police and more development of protocols. All of this is important. The responses to woman abuse will hopefully continue to improve. The challenge will be to maintain the level of interest and commitment to change the structures that perpetuate woman abuse while insisting on creating more effective responses from all systems to those already hurt by the problem.

The challenges

The difficult struggle of reducing woman abuse continues. The interviewees were asked what needed to be done (at the national, provincial and local level) to ensure that ending violence against women is a societal priority. From their responses, six themes were identified:

• Fund and support political action and advocacy groups at the grass-roots levels, so that they can continue to provide challenging insights on woman abuse to the public debate.
  
• Provide adequate and appropriate funding for shelters, women’s health centres, crisis services, legal aid and social assistance, the practical supports that abused women must have, if they are to have a choice for them-selves and their children.
  
• Promote high quality action research that produces the data and information required to respond in an informed manner to the deluge of popular material that promotes men’s rights and gender symmetry in the analysis of and response to family violence.
  
• Carry out national, well-funded, systematic, high quality, co-ordinated evaluation studies on the work that has been done to date, and clearly identify best practices and outcomes. Ensure that findings are widely disseminated in a user-friendly, practical format. Then establish another family violence initiative with significant funding available to communities that are prepared to use the evaluation results to strengthen what they are already doing.
  
• Keep funding new, high-profile public-education campaigns using all forms of mass media. Ensure that appropriate information is targeted at First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities. Create a comprehensive, mandated, education process for all immigrant people that results in knowledge of Canadian laws related to sexual assault and woman abuse.

• Fund national processes that promote the sharing of information among different communities and organizations that are addressing issues related to woman abuse.

Listed below are the guides, manuals, books and reports referred to in this paper, and the contact information for the organizations producing them.

The National Clearinghouse on Family Violence provides many of these documents free of charge in both English and French.

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence
Family Violence Prevention Unit
Health Issues Division
Public Health Agency of Canada
Health Canada
Address Locator: 1909D1 9th Floor,
Jeanne Mance Building,
Tunney’s Pasture Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1B4
Tel: (613) 957-2938
Toll-free: 1-800-267-1291 Fax: (613) 941-8930
FaxLink: (613) 941-7285
Toll-free faxlink: 1-888-267-1223
TTY/TTD users: (613) 952-6396 or Toll-free 1-800-561-5643

Web site: www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/nc-cn

Abuse in lesbian relationships: A handbook of information and resources

Laurie C. Chesley, Donna MacAuley and Janice L. Ristock, 1992

Toronto Counselling Centre for Lesbians and Gays 308 517 College Street Toronto, ON, M6G 4A2

Abuse is wrong in any language

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence,

Health Canada, and Department of Justice Canada, 1995 Justice Canada Communications 284 Wellington Street Ottawa, ON, K1A 0H8 Tel: (613) 957-4222 Fax: (613) 954-0811

Access checklist

DAWN Ontario

180 Dundas Street West, Suite 210 Toronto, ON, M5G 1Z8

After the Montreal Massacre (Video)

National Film Board of Canada, 1990 Sales and Customer Services P.O. Box 6100, Station Centre-ville Montreal, QC, H3C 3H5 Tel: 1-800-267-7710 Fax: (514) 283-7564

Annotated Inventory of Research Reports Completed Through the Five Research Centres on Family Violence and Violence Against Women and Children

Alliance of Five Research Centres on Violence (Contact information), and National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, 1998 Health Canada Ottawa, ON

A.S.A.P.: A school-based anti-violence program

Suderman, Jaffe, Schiek, 1993 London Family Court Clinic 254 Pall Mall Street, Suite 200 London, ON, N6A 5P6 Tel: (519) 679-7250 Fax: (519) 675-7772

Best practice guidelines for health-care providers working with women who have been abused

Metro Woman Abuse Council, 1997 Station 1092, 9th Floor, Metro Hall 55 John Street Toronto, ON, M5V 3C6 Tel: (416) 392-5882 Fax: (416) 392-3707

Breaking the pattern: How communities can help

Alberta Office for the Prevention of Family Violence, 1994 National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Building the platform for action: CACSW proposals

Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women, 1994 Ottawa, ON

Canada’s treatment programs for men who abuse their female partners

Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 1993 National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Changing the landscape: Ending violence – Achieving equality

Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women, 1993 Ministry of Supply and Services Ottawa, ON

Child abuse, custody and access

Vis-à-vis, Winter 1993, Vol. 10, No. 3. National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Children of battered women

Peter Jaffe, David Wolfe and Susan Kaye Wilson, 1990 Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications 2455 Teller Road Thousands Oaks, CA 91320-2218

Community action through federal dollars: Some highlights of the federal Family Violence Initiative

Vis-à-vis, Winter 95/96, Vol. 13, No.1. National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Dating violence-Fact sheet

Katherine Kelley, 1995

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Democratizing Excellence: The Experience of the Research Centres on Family Violence and Violence Against Women

Alliance of Five Research Centres on Violence (contact information), and National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, 1998 Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Domestic-violence intervention by emergency department staff (handbook and video)

D. Hotch, A Grunfeld, K Mackay, L.Cowan, 1995 Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre Emergency Department 855 West 12th Avenue Vancouver, BC, V5Z 1M9 Tel: (604) 875-4924 Fax: (604) 875-4872

Don’t tell me to take a hot bath: Resource manual for crisis workers

Shirley Masuda, 1995

DAWN Canada: DisAbled Women’s Network, Vancouver, BC

Double jeopardy: Women, violence and HIV

Vis-à-vis, Spring 1996, Vol. 13, No. 3. Canadian Council on Social Development National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Educating for change: Recommended materials on violence against women

Centre for Research on Violence against Women and Children, 1995 University College, Room 101 London, ON, N6A 3K7 Tel: (519) 661-4040 Fax: (519) 661-3491

Families working together: a group program for women and their children who have experienced violence

PEI Transition House Association 81 Prince Street Charlottetown, PE, C1A 4R3 Tel: (902) 894-3354 Fax: (902) 368-7180

Family violence: Aboriginal perspectives

Vis-à-vis, Spring 1993, Vol. 10, No. 4. Canadian Council on Social Development National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Family violence and substance abuse – Fact sheet

Colin Campbell and Julie Devon Dodd, 1994 National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Family violence against women with disabilities-Fact sheet

Bridget Rivers-Moore, 1993

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Family violence: Clinical guidelines for nurses

Canadian Nurses Association, 1992

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

The family violence court of Winnipeg

Jane Ursel, 1992 University of Manitoba Winnipeg, MB

Family violence handbook for the dental community

D. Denham and J. Gillespie, 1994

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Family violence in Aboriginal communities: An Aboriginal perspective – Fact sheet

Karen Green, 1996

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Fire in the rose: Churches exploring abuse and healing: Final report

Church Council on Justice and Corrections, 1995 507 Bank Street Ottawa, ON, K2P 1Z5 Tel: (613) 563-1688 Fax: (613) 237-6129

A framework for services for abused women in Canada

Gloucester Centre for Community Resources, 1993 Beacon Hill Shopping Centre 2339 Ogilvie Road, 2nd Floor Ottawa, ON, K1J 8M6

For men to think about…You may be becoming or already are an abusive man

Education Wife Assault Toronto, ON Tel: (416) 968-3422 Fax: (416) 968-2026

From dark to light: Regaining a caring community: Final activity report

Katherine R. Koski and Diane Mahoney, 1995 Yellowknife Status of Women Council Yellowknife, NT

Gender-based analysis: A guide for policy making

Status of Women Canada, 1996 Ottawa, ON

Harm’s way: The many faces of violence and abuse against persons with disabilities

G. Allan Roeher Institute, 1995 Roeher Institute North York, ON

The health-care sector’s response to woman abuse

Lousie Hanvey and Dianne Kinnon, 1993 National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Health-related costs of violence against women:The tip of the iceberg

Tannis Day, Ph.D., 1995

Centre for Research on Violence against Women and Children University College, Room 101 London, ON, N6A 3K7 Tel: (519) 661-4040 Fax: (519) 661-3491

Healthy relationships: A violence-prevention curriculum (3 volumes)

Andrew Safer, 1994 Men for Change P.0. Box 33005 Halifax, NS, B3L 4T6 Tel: (902) 422-8476 e-mail: health@fox.nstn.ca

Hitting back at spousal abuse: A solution

Toronto Star

March 9, 1996 pg A1, A4 March 9, 1996 pg B1, B4+ March 13, 1996 pg A17 March 14, 1996 pg A21 March 15, 1996 pg A19 March 16, 1996 pg A1, A32 March 16, 1996, pg C1, C4+

The impact of violence on mental health: A guide to the literature

Janice Ristock, 1995

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Isolated, afraid and forgotten: The service delivery needs and realities of immigrant and refugee women who are battered

Linda MacLeod, 1990

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Joining together against violence, An agenda for collaborative action

Janice L. Ristock and Lois Grieger, 1996 Canadian Mental Health Association, National Office 2160 Yonge Street, 3rd Floor Toronto, ON, M4S 2Z3 Tel: (416) 484-7750 Fax: (416) 484-4617

Juristat service bulletin

Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics Statistics Canada Tunney’s Pasture Ottawa, ON

Tel: 1-800-387-2231

Fax: (613) 951-6615

LINK: An educational package on violence against women and the use of alcohol and drugs

Addiction Research Foundation, 1995 ARF Public Affairs 33 Russell Street Toronto, ON, M5S 2S1

Listening to the thunder – Advocates talk about the battered women’ s movement

Leslie Timmons, 1995 Women’s Research Centre 101-2245 West Broadway Vancouver, BC, V6K 2E4 Tel: (604) 734-0485 Fax: (604) 734-0484

Making the decision to care: Guys and sexual assault

F. Mathews, 1993

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Meeting our needs: An access manual for transition houses

Shirley Masuda and Jillian Ridington, 1990 DAWN Canada: DisAbled Women’s Network Canada Vancouver, BC

Mid-island tribal council family-development project, Project manual

Jackie Major and Luce Carrier, 1995 Mid-island Tribal Council P.O. Box 270 Chemainus, BC, V0R 1K0 Tel: (604) 246-2729

The Montreal Massacre

Louise Malette and Marie Chalouh, Eds., 1991 Charlottetown, PE: Gynergy Books.

The mountain and beyond: Resources for a collaborative approach to domestic violence [kit]

Interdisciplinary Project on Domestic Violence, 1993 The National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

99 federal steps: Toward an end to violence against women

Lee Lakeman, Johannah Pilot, and Bonnie Agnew

National Action Committee on the Status of Women, 1993 234 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 204 Toronto, ON, M4P 1K5 Tel: (416) 932-1718 Fax: (416) 932-0646

Parent abuse: The abuse of parents by their teenage children

Captain William Spry Community Centre, 1996 10 Kitiston Road Halifax, NS, B3R 2I7 Tel: (902) 479-4487 Fax: (902) 479-1177

Paying for violence: Some of the costs of violence against women in B.C.

Richard Kerr, 1996

Ministry of Women’s Equality Victoria, BC

A place to call home: Abused women and the search for housing

Vis-à-vis, Fall 1994, Vol. 12, No. 2. Canadian Council on Social Development National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

A place to start (video)

B.C. Institute against Family Violence Suite 551 – 409 Granville Street Vancouver, BC

Tel: (604) 669-7055 Fax: (604) 669-7054

e-mail: bcifv@direct.ca

Policy on the criminal justice system response to violence against women and children, Part 1

Ministry of the Attorney General, 1993 Queen’s Printer Victoria, BC

Publications available from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, 1998, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Reaching in, Reaching out

Muriel McQueen Fergusson Foundation Centre for Family Violence Research P.O. Box 4400 Fredericton, NB, E3B 6C2

Resistance to change: Exploring the dynamics of backlash

Olena Hankivisky, M.A., 1996

Centre for Research on Violence against Women and Children University College, Room 101 London, ON, N6A 3K7 Tel: (519) 661-4040 Fax: (519) 661-3491

Responding to family violence and abuse: An independent living approach

Debra Tomlinson, 1995

Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres 350 Sparks Street, Suite 1004 Ottawa, ON, K1R 7S8 Tel: (613) 563-2581 Fax: (613) 235-4497

A resource guide on family violence issues for Aboriginal communities

D. McTimoney, 1993

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Response to allegations made about the National Survey on Violence against Women

Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 1995 Statistics Canada Tunney’s Pasture Ottawa, ON

Tel: 1-800-387-2231 Fax: (613) 951-6615

Selected estimates on the costs of violence against women

Lorraine Greaves, Olena Hankivisky, Jo Ann Kingston-Riechers, 1995 Centre for Research on Violence against Women and Children University College, Room 101 London, ON, N6A 3K7 Tel: (519) 661-4040 Fax: (519) 661-3491

Standards and intervention guidelines for men who abuse: Best practice guidelines

Metro Woman Abuse Council, 1996 Station 1092, 9th Floor, Metro Hall 55 John Street, Toronto, ON, M5V 3C6 Tel: (416) 392-5882 Fax: (416) 392-3707

Stop violence against women campaign

Body Shop of Canada 33 Kern Road Don Mills, ON, M3B 1S9 1-800-387-4592

Stopping violence against women: Men can be part of the solution

Vis-à-vis, Spring 1994, Vol. 11, No.4 National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada

Ottawa, ON

Take action for equality, development and peace

Canadian Research Institute on the Advancement of Women 151 Slater St., Suite 408 Ottawa, ON, K1P 5H3 Tel: (613) 563-0681 Fax: (613) 563-0682 e-mail: criaw@sympatico.ca

Web site: http://www.criaw-icref.ca/

Taking action: A union guide to ending violence against women

Deborah Prieur and Mary Rowles, 1992 Canadian Federation of Labour Burnaby, BC

A time of reflection: Changes and challenges

Vis-à-vis, Spring 1995, Vol. 12, No. 4. Canadian Council on Social Development National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Training and education project for responding to abuse in lesbian relationships: Final report

Balan, Chorney and Ristock, 1995 Women’s Studies Program 330 Fletcher Argue Building University of Manitoba Winnipeg, MB, R3T 5V5 Tel: (204) 474-9108 Fax: (204) 474-7601 e-mail: ristock@cc.umanitoba.ca

Training social workers in a feminist approach to conjugal violence: Summary of an action research

Ann Paquet-Deehy, Maryse Rinfret-Raynor and Ginette Larouche, 1992 Université de Montréal Montréal, QC

Transition Home Survey 1992-1993: Facts to consider

Statistics Canada, 1995 Tunney’s Pasture, Ottawa, ON

Tel: 1-800-387-2231 Fax: (613) 951-6615

Transition houses and shelters for abused women in Canada

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada, 1998 Ottawa, ON

Understanding and charting our progress toward the prevention of woman abuse

Linda MacLeod, 1994

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Violence and its impact on youth and youth sexuality: Implications for programs and services Lousie Hanvey, 1995 Mental Health Unit Health Care and Issues Division Systems for Health Directorate Health Canada Ottawa, ON

National Survey on Violence against Women: Survey highlights

Statistics Canada, 1993 Tunney’s Pasture Ottawa, ON

Tel: 1-800-387-2231 Fax: (613) 951-6615

Violence issues: An interdisciplinary curriculum guide for health professionals

Lee Ann Hoff, Ph.D., 1994

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Violence, you can make a difference [video and audio]

Canadian Association of Broadcasters, 1996 Red Motel Pictures Corp.

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Vis-à-vis

National newsletter on family violence Canadian Council on Social Development National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Week without violence campaign

YWCA National Office

590 Jarvis Street, 5th Floor Toronto, ON, M4Y 2J4 Web site: www.ywcacanada.ca

When racism meets sexism

Vis-à-vis, Summer 1994, Vol. 12, No. 1 Canadian Council on Social Development National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Wife battering and the web of hope: Progress, dilemmas and visions of prevention

Linda MacLeod, 1988

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Woman abuse: A sociological story

Walter S. DeKeseredy and Linda MacLeod, 1997 Harcourt Brace Toronto, ON

Wife abuse: A workplace issue – A guide for change

Donna Denham and Joan Gillespie, 1993 Canadian Council on Social Development National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Wife abuse: The impact on children – Fact sheet

London Family Court Clinic, 1996

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Wife assault: The findings of a national survey

Karen Rodgers, 1994

Industry, Science and Technology Canada, Statistics Canada National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Women who experienced woman abuse and child sexual abuse: Deaf, hard of hearing, deaf blind, late deafened and oral deaf… A resource manual for service providers

Amethya Weaver, 1995

Klinic Community Health Centre Winnipeg, MB

Workplace learnings about woman abuse – A guide for change 2

Donna Denham, Joan Gillespie and Barbara Cottrell, 1994 Crime Prevention Society of Nova Scotia Halifax, NS

You never hurt the one you love campaign

Nova Scotia Family Violence Prevention Initiative 5th Floor, Johnston Building 5182 Prince Street P.O. Box 696 Halifax, NS, B3J 2T7

Copyright. Health Canada (Revised: 13-05-2000 )

Appendix 2

Alliance of Five Research Centres on Violence

British Columbia/Yukon Feminist Research, Education, Development and Action Centre (FREDA)

British Columbia

Simon Fraser University at Harbour Centre

515 West Hastings Street Vancouver, BC, V6B 5K3 Tel: (604) 291-5197 Fax: (604) 291-5189 e-mail: freda@sfu.ca

Web site: http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/freda

Research and Education for Solutions to Violence and Abuse (RESOLVE)

Manitoba

University of Manitoba

108 Isbister building Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2 Tel: (204) 474-8965 Fax: (204) 474-7686 e-mail: resolve@umanitoba.ca

Web site: http://www.umanitoba.ca/academic/centres/resolve/links/index.shtml

Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children

Ontario

University of Western Ontario

University College, Room 101 London, ON, N6A 3K7 Tel: (519) 661-4040 Fax: (519) 661-3491 e-mail: nshanaha@julian.uwo.ca

Web site: http://www.uwo.ca/violence/index.html

Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la violence familiale et la violence faite aux femmes (CRI-VIFF)

Québec

Université Laval

Pavillon Ernest-Lemieux 2 e étage 2336 Chemin St. Foy Sainte-Foy, QC, G1K 7P4 Tel: (418) 656-3286 Fax: (418) 656-3309 e-mail: criviff@fss.ulaval.ca

Web site: http://www.ulaval.ca/vrr/rech/Regr/00136.html

École de service social

Université de Montréal

B.P. 6128, succursale Centre-Ville Montréal, QC, H3C 3J7 Tel: (514) 343-6111 poste 3757 Fax: (514) 343-2493 e-mail: gravels@magellan.umontreal.ca

Web site: http://www.umontreal.ca

Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence

New Brunswick

University of New Brunswick

P.O. Box 4400 676 Windsor Street Fredericton, NB, E3B 5A3 Tel: (506) 453-3595 Fax: (506) 453-4788 e-mail: fvrc@unb.ca

Web site: http://www.unb.ca/arts/CFVR

The following people were interviewed for this project. We thank all of them for their time, their ideas and their strong commitment to the work to end violence against women. Without their information, support and encouragement, we could not have written this paper.

Diane Abraham

Senior Consultant

VAW Prevention Initiative

Citizenship, Culture and Recreation Toronto, ON

Rina Arsenault

Associate Director

Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research Moncton, NB

Jan Barnsley

Women’s Research Centre Vancouver, BC

Lorraine Berzins

Church Council on Justice and Corrections Ottawa, ON

Michele Bourque

Health Co-ordinator

Native Women’s Association

appendix_1.htm (1 of 7)

Appendix 1: People Interviewed for the Discussion Paper

Ottawa, ON

Marion Boyd, MLA NDP Caucus Toronto, ON

Solange Cantin

Coordinatrice V.I.C.T.O.I.R.E Université de Montréal École de service social Montréal, QC

Barbara Cottrell

Administrative Director

Alice Housing, Second-stage Housing Halifax, NS

Tanis Day

Researcher

Kitchener-Waterloo, ON

Dominique Damant

Directrice int., CRI-VIFF Université Laval Ste-Foy, QC

Martha Duncan

Kaushee’s Place Whitehorse, YT

Helene Dwyer-Renaud formerly with Women’s Bureau Human Resources Development Canada Ottawa, ON

Deanna Elias-Henry

Executive Director, YWCA Regina, SK

Jane Gauthier

Executive Director (Acting)

Women’s Shelter and Support Services

appendix_1.htm (2 of 7)

Appendix 1: People Interviewed for the Discussion Paper

Pembroke, ON

Lorraine Greaves

Executive Director,

Centre of Excellence for Womens’ Health B.C. Women’s Hospital Vancouver, BC

Joan Gullen

Social Activist, Ottawa-Carleton Ottawa, ON

Olena Hankivsky formerly with Centre for Research on Violence against Women and Children UWO Research Park London, ON

Jill Hightower

Executive Director

B.C. Institute against Family Violence Vancouver, BC

Judy Hughes

New Glasgow, NS

Debbie Kastdorff

Victim Witness Co-ordinator Victim Witness Assistance Program Office of the Crown Attorney Pembroke, ON

Vera Lagasse

National Crime Prevention Council Secretariat Ottawa, ON

Lee Lakeman

Spokesperson

Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres Vancouver, BC

appendix_1.htm (3 of 7)

Appendix 1: People Interviewed for the Discussion Paper

Jill Lightwood

Health Promotion Consultant

Health Promotion and Protection Division Health and Social Services Deptartment Charlottetown, PE

Linda MacLeod

RCMP Headquarters Ottawa, ON

Diane Mahoney

CLSC of Puvirnituq Puvirnituq, QC

Caroline Marshall

Family Violence Consultant Halifax, NS

Shirley Masuda

Senior Researcher DAWN Canada Vancouver, BC

Karen Mihorean

Program Manager, Family Violence CCJS, Statistics Canada Ottawa, ON

Helen Murphy

Provincial Association against Violence St. John’s, NF

Ruth Naylor

Gender Equality Analyst Department of Justice Ottawa, ON

Denise Podovinnikoff

Hoshizaki House Dryden, ON

appendix_1.htm (4 of 7)

Appendix 1: People Interviewed for the Discussion Paper

Susanne Point

Xolhemet Society Chilliwack, BC

Diane Ponée

Director, Policy Analysis and Planning Women’s Health Bureau Health Canada Ottawa, ON

Barbara Preston

Department of Canadian Heritage Ottawa, ON

Janice Ristock,

Associate Professor, Women’s Studies University of Manitoba Winnipeg, MB

Patricia Rossi

Le Parados Women’s Shelter Lachine, QC

Fiona Samson

Education Consultant METRAC

Toronto, ON

Elaine Scott

Regional Director

Public Health Agency of Canada Health Canada Vancouver, BC

Marsha Sfeir
Staff person for education and training Education Wife Assault Toronto, ON

Elizabeth Sheehy
Faculty of Law University of Ottawa
Ottawa, ON

Deborah Sinclair
VAW Counsellor/Consultant Toronto, ON

Greta Smith
Executive Director
B.C. Yukon Society of Transition Houses Vancouver, BC

Lucya Spencer
Executive Director
Ottawa-Carleton Immigrant and Visible Minority Women Against Abuse Ottawa, ON

Camille St-Denis
Directrice générale S.O.S. Conjugale Montréal, QC

Sara Taguna
Director
Tungasuvvik Women’s Shelter Kuujjuaq, Quebec

Elaine Teofilovici
Chief Executive Officer YWCA of Canada Toronto, ON

Jane Ursel
Research and Education for Solutions to Violence and Abuse (RESOLVE) University of Manitoba Winnipeg, MB

Traci Walters
National Director
Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres

Copyright. Health Canada (Revised: 09-04-2000 )