30 Minute Resource Guide Utilization Webinar Transcript

all right well welcome everyone I want to take this opportunity to to welcome everyone who's joining us for this intimate partner violence and rap centers in Ontario this is the resource guide utilization webinar and so you're likely here because you are um direct service provider perhaps you're a manager coordinator of a center there so welcome my name is Carol sorus and I am the project coordinator for this particular project and I have been contracted as a consultant through Rexdale Women's Center I have a background in working in the violence against women Community online uh program development and a number of other things so it's been my pleasure to be on this project and then I have a co- facilitator today my name is asra Milani and I'm a research assistant at the center for research and educ on violence against women and children and it is a great pleasure to co- facilitate this resource guide utilization webinar with my colleague yeah thank you so uh this project has been a collaborative initiative with partner agencies including rexil women Center the Ontario Council of agency serving immigrants okasi as well as the center for research and education on violence against women and children and this project has been funded by ircc Canada immigration refuges and citizenship Canada so why don't we just talk a little bit about the purpose of this webinar and so with this uh project itself there are three primary deliverables or outcomes including this webinar that uh are coming out of this um initiative and one would be the resource guide and so we thought after the resource guide was developed that it might be helpful for those who are using the guide to you know to introduce them to the um the guide itself because we know that it's uh can be quite lengthy and so this is an opportunity to highlight the rationale and importance of this issue the um the opportunity to be introduced to the guide itself and to outline the primary components that you will find within the guide and just a little bit about the guidelines for this webinar itself go ahead and if you haven't already download the guide it is available in a PDF form along with and it complements our training that we'll talk a little bit more about later also encourage you to download the utilization worksheet which is um accompanying this webinar so if you don't have that please go ahead and do that and we will be going through that worksheet and how you can best use that in your practice want you to also consider how you'll apply this to your work of course it's really important that you're not only here to take in this information and learn but that you can then integrate it into the work that you're doing on a day-to-day basis of course that's our goal and then to take this a little bit further and discuss maybe existing or the need for new agency policies and guidelines so you can expect that uh this webinar will be about 60 minutes or so perhaps just slightly under and we'll be reviewing the resource guide within this um webinar and it will provide an overview of the document itself and it won't necessarily represent a training um so to speak we do have an online training that complements the resource guide uh is very much aligned with the content of the resource guide but this itself should not be considered to be a training so why the need why the need for this initiative and of course this resource guide so it has become apparent given the arrival of more than 25,000 and growing government assisted refugees in Canada that a clear need has arisen to better understand and respond to incidents of violence that women refugees are experiencing and just some statistics um that we've highlighted in the resource guide itself but just make it that much more relevant to why we're here and and why this project came to be so women experience serious violence three times more than men women are five times more likely to require medical attention and hospitalization and women are five times more likely to fear for their lives and these are all statistics uh Canada um quotes and and statistics and so these are um some of the the statistics that we've highlighted in the guide but there are so many more that um support the existence and the impact of various forms of abuse and violence and so at the beginning of this project we started with a focus group survey and we surveyed uh the 11 rap centers in Ontario and just to share a little bit about what the outcome and and the data revealed so nearly half of the respondents indicated that violence against women was identified or reported in the course of their work at least once per month and we know that unfortunately that this is underreported and quite often unrecognized in many cases so the majority of respondents reported that they do not have a specific process in place for responding to intimate partner violence and perhaps not surprisingly most of the respondents who did not feel adequately equipped to deal with Witness or disclosed violence against women also did not have a specific process in place and just in terms of the needs that were identified and came out of that focus group survey here are some quotes from some of the respondents so one respondent said we need more material around cultural differences and how to approach situations with a cultural lens another said in terms of needs resources and responding to men who have used abuse in their partner relationships and many of the respondents also reported that vulnerabilities and special considerations of refugee women who've experienced woman abuse as well as the warning signs recognizing them are their top areas of training and support needs or interests and so we were able to you know use that information and make sure that it informed much of the work that um we have been doing throughout this project and throughout that survey we also heard from many of you who um are in the rap centers who are providing the direct service about the unique needs and barriers and within the resource guide you know we've we talk about a little bit more but here's what some of you said while the incidence obviously of intimate partner violence in Refugee communities is comparable to other communities and we like to sort of make sure that that information is out there but what is unique is obviously the predisposing factors and intersecting issues of violence including these barriers that women face when attempting to address the issue and so here's what some of the rap workers reported that government assisted Refugee women face problems such as a fear of being deported because they're not clear about their status in Canada a lack of information about the rights of women in Canada a lack of access to information regarding their legal rights and Canadian laws a lack of access to Social Services and support networks an experience of Social and physical isolation of course language barriers and then this fear of bringing shame to one's family so you probably could identify that there's more and we have gone into that a little bit more in the resource guy those were some of the main uh you know components information issues that uh were reported through our focus group survey so just to go back a little bit and and share more of the background of this project how it came to be and so this project began in August of 2016 will'll be completing in March 2017 and it came from a need identified and a discussion regarding one particular in incident it was an incident that happened at one of the uh settlement agencies where a woman um apparently had experienced uh some form of abuse and I believe it was uh physical it was witnessed by a a staff and the response um I believe was just not one that was the most effective and and dealt with safety issues at that time and so while that one incident um you know was something that stimulated and initiated this project we know that it's simply something that raised awareness to to an issue that has been ongoing and is something that you know you're reporting and we know the women and and families are experiencing as you're seeing them so the lead contract manager for the project is Rexdale Women's Center and I uh started off by telling you who our partner agencies are we also have an active advisory committee of about uh 11 members I believe 10 or 11 representing different uh resettlement assistant women's organizations um different organizations that really are bringing their expertise and their experience to the table to address this and make sure that we are just providing the best possible tools for this sector so our mission is to advance the current capacity of resettlement assistance programs in Ontario as they are responding to incidents of abuse within the context of their existing Service delivery and our hope for you through this project is to expand your existing knowledge base and to strengthen capacity on an individual on an agency and of course on a sector-wide basis so we know that you as a service provider or coordinator manager are offer ing a very valuable level of support at a critical and somewhat vulnerable time for families and it's also a key contact stage for identifying crucial and potentially lifethreatening concurrent or coexisting issues and so our hope for for you and for your agency and for the sector is to broaden the lens from which you see and serve these families and of course this is for the women this is for the children for families for communities and ultimately for our

country all right so let's get into some of the resource guide components and so what you will find within the guide itself is a you know a list of some of the key relevant definitions for this issue and and for the sector itself you'll find Theory analysis knowledgebase that will support your understanding your education and of course you'll also find assessments and checklists which will allow you to just integrate um a way to identify to respond to and to assess um things such as uh safety and we'll go into that a little bit more and you'll also find resources you'll find some primary resources we'll encourage you to look at um more unique resources to your specific Community but those are the main uh components of the resource guide that you will find and so this guide as well as the training has been sort of developed around a framework of three guiding principles and that includes recognize so recognizing the um you know the existence at all uh responding to anything that might be witnessed or disclosed and then of course ER is the third and so going into each one of those principles the first one being recognize So within the guide you will find information regarding warning signs and so those warning signs are really key to prevention and early intervention related to intimate partner violence you will find also a high risk assessment in there and so signs of high risk obviously are factor that have been found to escalate the level of threat or risk in any given situation you'll also find um primary secondary and victim focused intimate partner violence risk factors and you'll find those all within the um the subject matter of recognize and then related to respond and so respond is um really looking at once it's kind of been identified or witness then what are you doing about this and I think that we've kind of framed it in a way of um you know what leads to um a person's ability to increase their response or ability to respond in any given situation and so talking a little bit in the resource guide about overcoming your apprehension and so previously we discussed the barriers that the refugee women might be facing but we also need to acknowledge that you might also be contributing to the service delivery process in ways that perhaps you had not even considered for example there are a few things that um we want you to consider first being how comfortable are you with this issue second one is do you have a personal history that contributes to challenges in responding to this issue we know that unfortunately intimate partner violence the violence against women has touched the lives of many and so maybe that's something that could impact your ability to you know to see and respond to these issues do you see families only from the lens of their settlement needs and of course that's the primary presenting issue that's the the really why they are coming to see you in a a resettlement um assistance program but sometimes when we see things just from that lens we miss an opportunity to really support that client in that family in a way that's most effective do you feel uncomfortable addressing the issue due to concerns about the partners response and we heard within the focus group surveys that some of the uh service providers are not comfortable they don't know what to say they don't know how to address it with a partner and so perhaps that's something that that you need to consider as well does your agency lack a clear policy or guidelines related to violence occurring in these families and sometimes when there isn't a stepbystep you know policy or a way of responding then sometimes individuals may be reluctant to to kind of go it on their own and and respond in a way that they feel is effective when they're not necessarily supported by um you know a protocol that's in place do you believe in these situations a woman should leave or do you believe that she should stay and I think that sometimes based on our own experiences again our own belief systems that we we may be coming in with some preconceived not intentional biases or perspectives that could influence you know your ability and your you know your your your ability Your Capacity to um respond to these situations so many of these are you know they're not intentional blocks or barriers but they are important for you to consider and without that knowledge you might be less likely to recognize or respond to these issues so that's just to highlight what you might be bringing to any given situation all right so in the section related to responding you'll also see the see it name it check it framework for conversations you will find uh information about reporting documenting uh information incidents and uh details about anything that is witnessed or disclosed and you'll also find information around safety

planning and then the section related to referring and so we've talked quite a bit about uh working with community services and so we've um outlined a few primary ones like the assaulted women's health line uh local shelters and women's organizations we talk about the legal system so legal remedies and options for for women we um included some information on talking to men so strategies and services and potentially some challenges and and also possibilities for um responding in terms of and referring men in these situations and then we talk about collaboration and we really see collaboration and Service delivery in a holistic sort of way and so when we're collaborating we're we're working in a way that reduces the risk we improve outcomes and the quality of service that's available to you know any person or family and then we talk about developing organizational priorities policies and evaluations and so outlining perhaps in your agency what are the goals related to intimate partner violence what are the roles what's the current knowledge base that's existing and maybe knowledge gaps that might be all so relevant um it's important to maybe have uniform practices so that you know that yourself and your colleague is responding to any incident of intimate partner violence in a in a similar way although we do also talk about each individual being unique uh within your policies or your protocol you might talk about supervision or consultation processes you might talk about evaluation so how are we doing as an agency related to intimate partner violence and so these are some of the the areas for you to consider related to referring within the um the resource guide itself and so we were going to move on to the cultural context okay so cultural context to make the content of this resource guide more culturally competent we added a chapter specifically for understanding the cultural context although we know that intimate partner violence is a global issue and it affects people from all ages races ethnicities different backgrounds this chapter specifically explore how cultural background and significant life events such as forced migration uh would shape women's abuse experiences we focused on migration and how pre migration traumatization of war and torture and po migration stress of all types impact women's experiences their access to services and their options to leave or to mitigate the impact of abuse on themselves and their children we also included immigr immigrants power and control will to represent immigration related abusive behaviors that is happening in a migration context there is also a discussion about cultural norms and rules in Canada and immigrant's cultural norms and rules for example a collectivist culture and individualist culture and how these kind of cultural orientation impact women's experiences there's also a section on barriers whether there are individual barriers or organizational barriers or more systemic barriers that women may experience such as language or cultural barriers system navigation or their lack of understanding of the rights and the social

services guiding principles so you will find uh in section four the guiding principles in a more details recognize respond and refer you will find it in page 25 that there is a visual representations of the principles which is a stepbystep action plan for a RP worker to take in ipv situation in their organization having said that that this process is not a linear process per se for example you can be in a referral stage with a woman and you may need to go back again and recognize some risk factors some warning signs that you haven't identified earlier so it's lots of it involves lots of going back and forth throughout this process recognize means identifying early warning signs of of abuse and as well as some risk factors respond refers to the model that you can have in order to provide support we included a model that is called C it name it check it designed for a conversation with the Survivor as well as some an overview of a safety planning that you can utilize when you're working with the Survivor refer which is the third component of this principle you will learn about the agencies that you can refer a woman or the agencies that you can use for your own knowledge for your

consultation okay there are also tools and assessments throughout the guide that I I encourage you to print and use as a quick reference that you can use in any given situation you learn about the guiding principles in page 25 there is also a full list of warning signs you will find it in page 26 in a table you see the signs to be abused or the signs to be abuser but also you can observe the and assess the relationship as an abusive or not the signs of high risk you will find it again in page 26 and to assess a situation as high risk that you can that you should put the red flag on it and it requires a quick action from you and from your own organization and you may ask yourself a list of questions to assess a situation as high high risk primary secondary and victim focused risk factors in page 27 is a risk assessment tools that you can identify primary risk factors when the abuse has already occurred for example the abuser has has already threatened the the abused woman to kill her or to harm her or hurt her or uh the issue is has been escalating it is getting worse and worse secondary refers to the situation that increased the risk for example you know that the partners are in custody battle which we know that this increased the risks of ipv and you know The lethality of violence wtim for are the factors related to the victim for example you know the victim is in a very vulnerable situation she has no language whatsoever or she's socially isolated or she's in living in a remote area which she doesn't have access to services or she doesn't have you know uh access to Social Network see it name check it framework is a a framework that you can use to structure a conversation that you can have with a Survivor and you will find it in page 29 in page 32 to 34 you will find uh a safety planning a safety planning depending on a victim's stage if she's leaving the abuser or while getting ready to leave the abuser or after leaving so I would highly encourage you to print out those tools and assessments and so it could be much easier for you to utilize it in a day-to-day Service delivery frequently ask questions you will find it in page 40 we listed a number of common questions that you might have as a RP worker and that's kind of a quick reference for you when you witness or receive a disclosure of intimate partner violence as you're interacting or supporting a Survivor so you can have a look and see what those common questions could be

in page 42 to 44 you see a list of community Agency contact information for making referrals or consultation when helping women there are also several safety planning tools that has been included uh on those page and you can use it some of them are in a specific language for example as we getting Syrian refugees a high number of Syrian refugees we included a safety planning in Arabic language so a Survivor can relate to the content of that safety planning and it makes sense to them to summarize this resource guide is a comprehensive document but it doesn't mean that it replace the online training we are in the process of developing an online training which is an extension of this document and it it has an interactive engaging comp components that you will find it exciting this resource guide was to develop uh was developed to provide RP centers with the information that they need to recognize and address the issue of intimate part violence it includes Theory it includes strategies best practices assessments safety planning tools as well as resources in terms of what is next I would encourage you to go through the document the entire document once and how highlight the important points and print the quick reference and response tools that I mentioned when you do that you don't need to go through the entire resource guide if you need an immediate tool in a particular situation you can just refer back to those checklists also we develop a utilization checklist plan that you can complete it when you're learning about the material if you have download this uh checklist plan form I will walk you through the different questions that has been included the first question is my main goal related to identifying and responding to intimate partner violance is so think about your main goal your main goal could be getting a general understanding of the dynamic of intimate partner violence could be your uh skills in assessing risks and warning signs it could be anything so think about your your personal goal regarding ipv my biggest challenge will be so think about your biggest challenge when you're addressing ipv in your organization it could be um a lack of comfort to have to initiate a conversation with a Survivor about you know abusive relationship I will address this challenge just by so think about your your techniques and strategies to address these challenge so if lack of comfort comes from the fact that you don't have you don't know what is appropriate to say or what is inappropriate to do in this kind of situations then find out those information and learn about the skills the strategies that you can use to increase your comfort level when you're interacting with the Survivor how I will use this guide in my service delivery so think about your your tree ways of utilizing effectively utilizing that document in Your Service delivery it could be going through this document one time at least one time or having a conversation with your colleagues about the content of this resource guides or it could be forwarding this document to other RP workers who are interested in this subject and who are unaware of this document how I will evaluate my Effectiveness related to intimate partner balance so think about your own evaluation when you're at now and when you where you want to be within the next few months so think about your your personal evaluation about this issue my agency guidelines think about your your a gen's protocol and policies about ipv how your agencies is tackling the issue how you're addressing this issue in your own sector Community Resources Referral List so imagine that ipv is happening in your organization can you think of three at least three Community Resources that you can refer the woman to those agencies or to gather information about ipv for further consultation so think about Tre organization that you can approach immediately when ipv is suspected in your organization so this onepage checklist really gives you a framework on how to utilize this resource in your day-to-day Service delivery and I would highly encourage you to complete it um in your in in a convenient time uh and think about your own goal about that okay so in terms of what is next um reading through the guide or taking a specific training is not something that happens one time it needs a consistency to maintain our attention and and awareness of the topic and see it as a priority to address that making yourself familiar with the resources available to you and you can refer to as it's needed and it's accessible to you immediately also ipv can be a team or organizational discussion on how to address this issue in your organization what do you have in place what needs to be strengthened or expand it what there are some areas for improvement in your or agency and finally share this resource with others as I already mentioned that spread the word let other people know that there's something developed uh to address ipv and um have a conversation with your colleagues about that what is next in terms of the project we are developing a comprehensive online training that will be prepared in March 2017 and it's interactive it has videos it has a lot of engaging components that you will find it uh an enjoyable learning experience so uh this online training will be an extension of this resource guide and I and we will keep you informed when it is available and ready for you to go through this interactive online training okay uh and finally I just want to thank you very much for joining us today and thank you for participating uh and making this as a priority uh and I would encourage you to read through the god ones and support this project we would really appreciate your support and taking this back to your organizations also this document that we have developed is a live document and we would appreciate any comments or feedback you might have for growth or for advancement of this guide thank you a lot for joining us today I will leave you with my colleague Carol she's here and she will continue with you in terms of the followup thank you very much azra and yes I just want to reiterate that thank you thank you for you know you tuning in tells us that this is important to you whether you know it's something that was supported by a manager or a coordinator it really takes your your openness and your willingness to to look at this as an issue and look at this as a priority for your agency and the work that you do because as you are providing this valuable service for families and individuals as they settle or resettle in Ontario and Canada that you know the support you are providing is so valuable and so just adding this lens to see and address intimate partner violence is just going to enhance what the sector is you know able to provide to these families and to these women so thank you again for for joining us and so in terms of ongoing contact because this project is um officially ending the end of March the consistent contact Best Contact would be to contact Rexdale Women's Center and so feel free to reach out if you have those comments questions updates that for some reason you aren't receiving you can also still uh reach out to myself as well C Suarez s o a r e s Rexdale women.org so we want to thank you again it's been a pleasure to have you with us and look forward to the ongoing continued great work that you're doing within the sector bye for now