BCIFV home > Newsletter > 2002 Archives > Summer 2002 articles

From the Executive Director

Penny Bain, LLM

The Provincial cuts to social services - such as social assistance, legal aid, and counseling for women who experience violence - have had a significant impact on those dealing with the consequences of family violence. The Institute is participating in the BC Coalition Against Provincial Cuts Affecting Women and their Children Who Experience Violence to investigate the impact of the cuts on adult and child victims of family violence. This research will assist organizations to predict impacts, analyze actual outcomes, and take appropriate action, including making recommendations to policy makers, legislators and service providers. Fact sheets concerning these cuts are available on our website at www.bcifv.org.

Institute staff and contractors continue to conduct research on victim risk assessment and safety planning, stalking risk assessment and femicide reviews. And we have just published a research paper entitled "Children Exposed to Partner Violence: An Overview of Key Issues". For a downloadable copy, see our website. We will also soon be publishing research conducted with the Vancouver Police Department on the Ministry of Attorney General pro-charge (VAWIR) policy in cases of violence against women in relationships.

Our current education projects include: completion of the video for ESL teachers and new immigrant parents on child discipline and child abuse; preparation of a final report on the custody and access workshops for service providers; a booklet and workshops on immigrant women who are abused by their sponsors; development of resources for the Canadian Health Network Violence Prevention website; and presentation of workshops on emotional abuse of children with disabilities.

Earlier this year, we commissioned two external contractors to conduct an organizational needs assessment with our key stakeholders to identify our strengths and weaknesses in performing the work we do, and suggest possible future directions we might take. Out Board of Directors will undertake a planning process based on the findings of the assessment at a special meeting this September. One popular recommendation was to make our newsletter more accessible to a wider readership by placing the full contents online. We are currently in the process of making this transition, and expect to publish newsletter issues in both html and pdf formats from now on. We would appreciate your help in this process - please take a moment to complete the reader survey questionnaire enclosed in this issue so that we can update our newsletter mailing list, and ensure you receive timely email notification when future issues become available online.

Finally, our wonderful editor and researcher, Kai-Lee Klymchuk, is leaving us to pursue PhD studies in psychology on a Commonwealth Scholarship in London, England. Good luck, Kai-Lee!

Penny Bain