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From the Executive Director

Penny Bain, LLM

I am pleased to provide this report about the activities of the Institute in the first three months of my term as Executive Director.

In the area of new research, the Institute is continuing projects to evaluate men's treatment programs for Ministry of Health Forensic Psychiatric Services and Ministry of Attorney General Corrections Branch. The Institute has received a grant from Corrections Canada to evaluate the use of a spousal assault risk assessment tool (SARA) and a grant from Ministry of Attorney General Victims Services Branch to study stalking offenders. The Institute now has an instrument for sexual assault risk assessment (SVR20) available for sale. We are researching and updating literature reviews on family violence and sentencing, children who witness violence and custody and access.

As you will note elsewhere in the Newsletter, the Institute is planning a major conference on risk assessment and family violence to be held in November 1999. And we have raised significant funding and are now developing a video and handbook for caregivers on abuse issues relating to children with disabilities. We have also received a grant from Ministry of Attorney General Victim Services to develop and implement eight pilot training workshops using the video and handbook.

We are very excited about the development of a proposed project to co-ordinate specialized libraries interested in violence prevention issues in the BC Safety Net Project. We will be meeting with interested partners in October to develop the proposal.

Finally we are hoping to enhance our services to BC school teachers by identifying appropriate family violence curriculum materials for use in the classroom and making those materials more accessible to teachers. We plan to work with the BC Safe Schools Program to increase support for violence prevention programs for young people.