This report on the Pan-Canadian Focus Groups gathers information on women with disabilities and Deaf women's access to abused women's services. The report documents women's experiences in two key areas: types of violence experienced by women; and the impact of this abuse. The results are reported by looking at how women left abusive situations, what did not help and what did, and what women need.
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This Dicussion Guide is designed to accompany the video Safe for All, which explores the value of using a harm reduction approach for substance use. The Discussion Guide explains the Harm Reduction model and its purpose, explores why it is important for VAW shelters to adopt a Harm Reduction model, identifies common barriers to services for women who use drugs or alcohol, and provides techniques for shelter workers to use when working with women who use substances.
The focus of this report is to identify the risk assessment practices and tools that feminist anti-violence shelters and second stage houses use in order to assess rixk, barriers, and potential for harm, as well as to identify how this information is put to use once it is collected. The report aims to contribute to a broadened understanding of "harm" and "risk"; start to collate anecdotal information from shelter workers into data that can be analyzed; and develop a violence against women conceptual momdel of risk assessment that encompasses a more holistic vidw of risk, vulnerability, and assessment processes. Includes samples of tools used in shelters in Ontario.
This report provides a summary of the second day of the Knowledge Exchange held February 24th to 25th, 2016 on the intersections of system navigation for Domestic Violence(DV) and Sexual Violence (SV) services for women. OAITH worked in partnership with the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC) and the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children (CREVAWC). The report summarizes outcomes of discussions among representatives of Sexual Assault Centres (SACs), Domestic Violence shelters, and community partners on key questions relating to mapping where DV and SV services intersect and diverge, communication and coordination between SV and DV sectors, and supports needed for frontline workers. Recommendations for how the two sectors can work together to serve women's needs are offered, including coordination of OCRCC and OAITH provinvial lobbying activities, funding coordination, and public education to increase visibility on services the sectors offer.
Diversity in Governance: A Toolkit for Nonprofit Boards is a comprehensive toolkit for use by CEOs, board chairs, heads of board governance committees and independent consultants when working with boards on issues around diversity and governance. It covers understanding diversity in your organization, developing board policy, outreach and recuitment, effective board orientation, mentoring and governance, and monitoring and evaluating progress. It is a companion to the Maytree publication Diversity Matters which focuses on public agencies, boards and commissions.
OAITH began formally documenting Intimate Partner Femicide (IPF) in Ontario as it was reported in the media since 1995 and has the names of women and children who have lost their lives to violence since 1990. This report analyzes those 25 years of data to help increase our understanding of media reporting trends over time, identify gaps and limitations in how Femicide is reported in the media, create resources to bring increased attention to systemic issues, and spread the message that women and children losing their lives to violence is preventable. Looking at victim characteristics such as age, gender, relationship status, cause of death, and geography, the report highlights key findings about the occurrence of IPF over time.
The Learning Network, an initaitive of the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children, undertook an evaluation of the effectiveness of OAITH's online training course "Foundations in VAW". Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses, the report shows the findings of course participants' perceived and actual learning from the course. Overall, the findings were that the course has a positive impact across the range of different participants, regardless of factors such as number of years worked in the sector, age, or prior education. As well as documenting the effectiveness of Foundations of VAW as a training tool, the methodology used provides the basis for a model of training evaluation that can be used for professional training more broadly.
Though Intimate Partner Sexual Violence (IPSV) is receiviing greater attention in the past, it remains a largely hiddne problem. On February 24, 2016, CREVAWC, in partnership with the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC) and the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH), organized a knowledge exchange to bring together researchers, pracitioners from Sexual Assault Centres (SACs) and Women's Shelters, and community partners to bring the issues out into open and explore the topic further. The issues of exploration were based on presentations: Survivor Voices; Patterns of Service Utilization (researcher: Janice Du Mont); Reportoductive Coercion (researcher: Wendy Norman); and Role of Shelters in System Navigation (researcher: Nadine Wathen). The report presents summaries of the latest research and questions, issues, and concerns raised in the dicussion by paricipants. Key themes were: Language used to talk about violence; Survivor Experiences; System-level considerations; Barriers to Collaboration; Training and Education; and Intersectional Experiences and Anti-Oppression Approaches to service provision.