BCIFV home > Newsletter > 1999 Archives > Winter 1999 articles

From the Executive Director

Penny Bain, LLM

The Institute is pleased to announce the completion of the video and handbook "The Person Within." This compelling locally-produced series, designed by Dr. Sally Rogow and a community advisory group, educates caregivers about abuse issues relating to children with disabilities. We are very grateful to a large number of funders, particularly Health Canada, for their support of this project. We will distribute the video and handbook to caregivers through a series of pilot workshops funded by the Ministry of the Attorney General and presented through community organizations that serve children with disabilities. The package will also be available for general sale shortly. For information on workshops and publication sales, please contact Tracey Moropito at the Institute.

A call for presentations for a major risk assessment and family violence conference to be held in Vancouver this November has been issued on behalf of the Institute and the conference planning committee. Further information on the call for presentations may be found elsewhere in this newsletter issue. We are also pleased to co-sponsor with the BC/Yukon Transition House Society the International Conference on Children Exposed to Violence in October. This topic is the theme of our next newsletter and of an updated literature review which will be available in late spring.

The Institute is completing a three-year commitment to evaluate four assaultive men's treatment programs in BC. Dr. Randy Kropp will be preparing a summary of the results of the evaluations which will likely be published in late spring. An additional evaluative effort has been recently completed by a research student working with the Institute. This literature review and analysis of disposition data on sentencing in the context of domestic violence will soon be available for loan or purchase.

Among the Institute's planned new research projects are studies considering the impact of justice system services on victims of family violence and risk assessment and stalking offenders. We are also conducting a needs assessment to determine whether to undertake further research on family-related homocide and suicide.