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From Awareness to Action
There have been repeated calls for greater public awareness on family violence, as well as better professional training, more resources, and enhanced collaboration between the justice system and community service providers. While considerable work has been done to help family law professionals identify family violence and assess risk, this awareness has not yet been matched with a high level of training on how to go from identifying family violence to understanding its’ impact on survivors and their children and creating and supporting appropriate parenting plans in the context of family violence.
This project, funded by the Department of Justice Canada, supports the continuation of five regional Communities of Practice through the Alliance of Canadian Research Centres on Gender-Based Violence. These Communities of Practice are comprised of survivors of family violence and representatives from the gender-based violence (GBV), health, and family law sectors, and work together to:
- Enhance training opportunities for GBV specialists and Family law specialists to support trauma-informed practice.
- Promote standardized screening tools to enhance the substantive and procedural decision- and recommendation-making by multidisciplinary family law professionals involved in family violence-related child custody matters (including judges, lawyers, and assessors).
- To create a standardized guide for parenting plans where there has been family violence.
The work of Awareness to Action builds on the PHAC grant Supporting the Health of Survivors of Family Violence in Family Law Proceedings.
RESOURCES & WEBINARS
Responding to the Crisis of Intimate Partner Violence and Homicide amongst Older Adults
June 11, 2025 | 2:00pm-3:00pm AST
Atlantic Canada has seen a recent spike in occurrences of intimate partner homicide involving individuals of older age. Frontline service providers are also recognizing an increase in older adults accessing resources and services for intimate partner violence, some for the very first time. While intimate partner violence does not discriminate, older adults may experience distinctive risk factors and forms of abuse. This webinar will address some of the unique challenges faced by this demographic, and information for service providers such as: - Rural complexities - Unique health effects, financial challenges, and forms of isolation - Intersections of elder abuse and intimate partner violence - Screening and assessments for legal counsel - Resources and initiatives.
Hearing Women’s Voices: AB v Henry
May 12, 2025 | Recording Available
Please join us for an upcoming webinar about the recent BC Supreme Court decision in AB v Henry, 2025 BCSC 137. In this case, Madam Justice Gropper confirmed what five sexual assault victims have said for over four decades: that Ivan Henry was the man who sexually assaulted them at knifepoint in Vancouver in the early 1980s. Justice Gropper found that “each plaintiff has met her burden: to establish that Mr. Henry is the man who attacked her, on the balance of probabilities.” She awarded damages to each of them. This was a remarkable finding in an extraordinary case. In this conversation, the lawyers who represented the women plaintiffs in their civil case against Henry will reflect with Professor Emma Cunliffe on what we can learn about the Canadian legal system, the progress of women’s rights to the equal protection and benefit of the law, and truth telling, from the extraordinary course of the Henry case.
Improving Access to Justice Through Safeguards in Parenting Assessments
March 11, 2025 | Recording Available
This webinar explores Improving Access to Justice Through Safeguards in Parenting Assessments, a report on parenting assessments in BC published by Rise Women’s Legal Center. Parenting assessments in BC are often ordered when there are court proceedings about parenting issues, to provide evidence to the court about the views and needs of the children, and the ability and willingness of each parent to meet these needs. The report's co-authors, Gina Addario-Berry and Magal Huberman, discuss their findings and their recommendations under the main themes of evaluators’ training and experience, practice standards, financial barriers, and judicial gatekeeping and oversight.
