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Vancouver & Lower Mainland Multicultural Family Support
Services Society
The Vancouver & Lower Mainland Multicultural Family Support
Services Society is a non-profit organization. The goal of
the Society is to provide culturally sensitive services to
immigrant and visible minority women and their families who
are facing family violence. Services are provided by bi-lingual/bi-cultural
workers from various minority cultures in Hindi, Punjabi,
Gajarati, Vietnamese, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Persian
(Farsi), Amharic, Tigrania, Arabic, Tagalog, Korean and many
other languages.
Our aims are to provide the following services:
- Individual and/or group counselling support to women in
situations of family violence prior to, during and after
their stay in a transition house.
- Supportive services to women from situations of family
violence, in their interactions with the legal and social
systems.
- Individual and/or group counselling support to children
who witness violence.
- Volunteer training program to develop organizing and leadership
skills for women who have experienced violence.
- Educational programs within the multicultural communities
regarding the dynamics of family violence and alternative
models of treatment.
- Consultation and educational programs to professionals
working with immigrant and visible minority women in situations
of family violence.
One of the strongest fears that immigrant women experience,
and that is a barrier to their leaving a violent situation,
is the fear of the dominant white anglo-saxon culture. This
is compounded by the fact that if they do leave their homes
and go to the transition houses, they will not be understood.
Rather than creating separate ethno-specific or multicultural
transition homes, and thereby creating ghettos, the model
developed by Vancouver & Lower Mainland Multicultural Family
Support Services Society deals with women's fear of the dominant
culture as they interact with transition home workers. This
interaction is facilitated by our bi-lingual/bi-cultural counsellors,
who work with the transition house workers and the women to
make their stay comfortable. This also helps women to remain
in the areas they are familiar with, rather than relocating
them to a completely new area. Children can, at the same time,
continue schooling without major disruption.
Multicultural counsellors will also facilitate support groups
to empower women. These groups will be ethno-specific to create
an environment of comfort. Groups will also be conducted with
intercultural participation in order to provide an opportunity
for women to cope with the multicultural reality of Canada
and to learn about other cultural groups.
It is often argued that at a time of crisis it is important
for women to be comfortable in their own ethno-specific environments.
We feel that at this very crucial time in their lives, women
need to know about all the resources and support which may
not be part of their own communities. Exposure to service
providers from the dominant culture and opportunities to form
intercultural relationships serve to deal with a number of
underlying issues that were barriers to women leaving violent
homes. The multicultural counsellors continue to work with
the women after they leave transition homes by providing on-going
support, counselling, advocacy and referrals to appropriate
skill learning programs.
The educational programs provided by our organization create
awareness of the issue of violence and how to deal with it
within multicultural communities. Cultural sensitization workshops
to professionals help also to bridge the gap between immigrant
women and the existing service providers.
Confidentiality is strictly maintained in all cases. The
Vancouver & Lower Mainland Multicultural Family Support Services
Society receives funding from the Ministries of Women's Equality,
Social Services and Education.
Vancouver & Lower Mainland Multicultural
Family Support Services Society
5000 Kingsway Plaza - Phase III
#306 - 4980 Kingsway
Vancouver, B.C. V5H 4K7
Tel: (604) 436-1025 Fax: (604) 436-3267
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