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From the Executive Director

Penny Bain, LLM

Recently, staff and Board members of the Institute wrote to BC Premier Gordon Campbell to indicate our concern about proposed funding cuts of 30 to 40% to services that assist families to prevent and to respond to family violence. The Ministry of Community, Aboriginal, and Women's Services has proposed cuts to services such as women's centres, transition houses, and stopping the violence and children who witness violence counselling programs. The Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General and Ministry of Attorney General are considering cuts to Crown counsel, legal aid, family justice counsellors, victim services and programs that oversee the enforcement of protection orders, child custody assessments, and treatment of abusive men. The Ministry for Children and Family Development has also proposed deep cuts to services that support families in BC communities. These grim warnings come at a time when families struggling to cope with threats to their safety are already being turned away from needed assistance due to long waiting lists for social services.

This winter, the Institute is offering two sets of workshops for service providers throughout the province. The first type of these will be offered in collaboration with Vancouver Custody and Access Support Association to advocates who work with women leaving abusive relationships and who may be dealing with child custody and access issues. Presentations were recently made in the Queen Charlotte Islands and Surrey and a workshop is planned for Nanaimo in the new year. We are also offering workshops to service providers who assist abused women without current landed immigrant status. These women potentially face deportation when they leave abusive relationships. For more information about workshops, contact Tracey Moropito in our office.

The Institute recently completed a report, literature review and inventory for Vancouver Richmond Health Board regarding the continuum of services available in that region for women and children who experience violence (discussed on page 18). We continue to meet with Ministry of Children and Families child protection policy staff to develop policies and staff guidelines relating to working with women and children experiencing family violence. We are also assisting members of the Abusive Men's Counselling Association to write a best practices guide for professionals working in assaultive partner treatment programs. Research efforts are ongoing in the areas of femicides in BC, risk assessment and stalking, and risk assessment and victim safety planning.

We wish you a pleasant holiday season, and thank you for your contributions to our shared work!