Thanks to the support and participation of so many people – including you – we now have a better understanding of the role that trusted intermediaries play and how to support it.
Trusted Help establishes the critical role that trusted intermediaries play in supporting access to justice. Although they don’t provide legal advice or representation, trusted intermediaries (or frontline workers) serve as trusted and accessible intermediaries between their clients and a complex legal system that many people, particularly vulnerable people, find difficult to navigate. Trusted intermediaries work in many sectors, including settlement, shelters, violence against women, and recreation and support people with a wide variety of legal needs.
The survey that was conducted as part of the research had a substantial response rate. We received a total of 403 completed surveys, including responses from 231 frontline workers. The survey found that, among the participating frontline workers:
· 82% have helped people identify the legal issue they are facing
· 88% have provided basic legal information about rights and procedures
· 93% have referred people to legal service providers
· 63% have helped people complete legal forms and documentation and
· 70% have helped people take steps to resolve a legal problem
The Foundation, which has a history of acting on the research it commissions, has made a commitment to engage in conversations with grantees, stakeholders, and thought leaders to discuss the report and next steps. You can subscribe to the Foundation’s newsletter for updates and information.
Thank you for your participation and support for this research. As we state in the report, we are grateful for the active engagement and candid input from the many people who shared their experiences, ideas, and expertise during interviews, focus groups, and surveys, and in the development of the case studies. This report is much richer because of everyone’s contribution.
The Trusted Help research team:
Karen Cohl
Julie Lassonde
Julie Mathews
Carol Lee Smith
George Thomson
Gathering Evidence for Humanitarian and Compassionate (H&C) Applications: A Toolkit for Advocates Supporting Women Survivors of Gender-Based Violence
2018 Update
The toolkit is designed to help with the gathering of evidence that must be submitted along with H&C applications to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). It has been designed with advocates and service providers in mind. Our goal is to help service providers to help H&C Applicants, by explaining what kind of evidence is necessary, and how to get it. While this toolkit aims specifically to help women affected by violence, it explains what all claimants need for their H&C applications. We have provided a checklist of the kinds of evidence required for women-claimants who have experienced violence. This checklist is in no way exhaustive. Every H&C application is different, and no two applications will have the same exact evidence.
This toolkit was authored by Deepa Mattoo, as a Community Leadership in Justice Fellow, with the assistance of Roopa Mann at Queen's University Faculty of Law and Julia Romano at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. This toolkit was made possible through the partnership with the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto, the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, and the Rights of Non-Status Women's Network.
This toolkit has been written for service providers who assist racialized women living with precarious immigration status in Ontario, Canada. The aim of this project is to build the capacity of settlement workers, lawyers, and students to work with non-status, racialized women who have experienced gender-based violence. This training toolkit will provide information on issues affecting racialized women with precarious immigration status in Canada by exploring the relationship between race, gender, and immigration status.
Femmes et sécurité des animaux familiers : des solutions pour les femmes ayant des animaux domestiques et qui quittent leur conjoint violent
Le lien entre la violence envers les femmes et la violence envers les animaux familiers est connu depuis longtemps. Dans l’intérêt de l’OAITH, des maisons d’hébergement membres de l’Association et de toutes les maisons d’hébergement pour femmes victimes de violence de l’Ontario, il faut savoir que les femmes victimes de violence conjugale ont moins tendance à quitter leur conjoint lorsqu’un animal de compagnie vit à la maison. Parmi les raisons, citons entre autres la crainte pour la sécurité de l’animal, la peur de sévices, de violence ou même pire envers l’animal, ce qui fait souvent l’objet de menaces de la part des abuseurs.
There has long been a connection to violence against women and violence against pets. Further to that, in the interest of OAITH and our member shelters, and all women’s shelters in Ontario, women who experience gender based domestic violence are less likely to leave the violent situation if there is a pet or companion animal in the home. Reasons for this include fear for the animal’s safety; fear of harm, violence or worse perpetrated on the animal, which are often used as threats by abusers.
OAITH has written this document as an information tool with multiple options that shelters may choose and consider, based always on the needs of the women they serve, their internal capacity, and resources.
There is limited existing research examining the prevalence of domestic violence among immigrant and refugee populations. Research reveals that rates of domestic violence within immigrant and refugee populations are not higher than other populations; however, immigrant and refugee women experiencing domestic violence face numerous barriers to disclosing and reporting violence and abuse, accessing support services, and navigating intersecting legal processes and social support systems.1,2 Understanding and preventing domestic violence and homicide within immigrant and refugee populations requires a culturally- informed lens that accounts for intersecting forms of oppression and recognizes the heterogeneity of immigrant and refugee populations.3 To be effective, risk assessment, risk management, and safety planning strategies should be culturally- informed and, where possible, culturally-specific.4
This research was funded by the Canada Firearms Centre and conducted in partnership with all the transition houses in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, Victim Services in Prince Edward Island, the Chief Firearms Officers in both provinces, Victim Services of the Fredericton City Police and Codiac RCMP in New Brunswick, and the RCMP “J” Division. The major goals of the study were to:
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examine from a broad regional perspective, the various dimensions or forms in which firearms serve as instruments of control, intimidation and abuse in family violence situations;
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expand the information base on forms of firearms misuse (e.g. threats to kill the family pet or farm animals, commit suicide, harm others, and so on);
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expand the information base on firearms victimization;
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document service providers’/crisis workers’ perceptions of domestic firearms abuse
and their influence on safety planning and intervention strategies;
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document rural perceptions, norms and values on the relationships between firearms, domestic violence and animal abuse;
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inform policy and program responses to the risk factors of domestic firearms abuse and violence;
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contribute to a communications plan for the benefit of, and use by, service providers who seek to protect women, children and pets from firearms threats, abuse and violence.
Although the experiences of women living with domestic violence have been investigated through many qualitative and quantitative research studies, less is known about the effect of the presence of animals on their decision making. Women, with or without children, face numerous emotional, financial and logistical barriers to safely leaving an abusive situation. Previous anecdotal evidence indicated that concerns about the fate of companion animals or livestock could be an additional barrier to making the decision to leave.
Although there is a growing body of literature documenting the cooccurrence of animal abuse and intimate partner violence (IPV), only a few studies have examined the relationship between animal maltreatment, types of IPV, and abuse severity.
Data were gathered from 86 abused women receiving services from domestic violence shelters across Canada via a structured survey about pet abuse and the level and types of IPV perpetrated by abusive partners.