Preventing and Addressing Family Violence Investment

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• Knowledge Hub: Maximizing Impact by Connecting Research and Practice in Trauma-Informed Health Promotion

  The Knowledge Hub project, led by the Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children at Western University, continues to connect and enhance the work of intervention research projects funded through the Public Health Agency of Canada's Preventing and Addressing Family Violence: The Health Perspective Investment.

  The Knowledge Hub, in partnership with the Trauma-and Violence-Informed Community of Practice, facilitates collaboration and shared learning, supports knowledge translation and mobilization efforts, and enhances research capacity in the area of trauma-informed health promotion in Canada.

• Hubs of Expressive Arts for Life (HEAL)

  Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services (Access Alliance) is working with diverse partners in Toronto, Ontario to implement HEAL, an arts-based family violence prevention program to reach newcomer populations.

  The Hubs will provide safe, supportive, healing, and resilience-promoting spaces and communities to those who are experiencing, or are at risk of experiencing, family violence.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $800,088 over 4 years to support this project.

• Kids' Club: A health promotion program for children exposed to family violence in New Brunswick

  The Beauséjour Family Crisis Resource Centre is collaborating with its research and community partners to implement and evaluate the evidence-based Kids' Club and Moms' Empowerment programs for children aged 6 to 12 and their mothers who have been exposed to family violence.

  The project is reaching children and mothers from both Fredericton and Beauséjour regions, focussing particularly on rural francophone and newcomer communities. The project findings will be disseminated provincially to share best practices with the aim of increasing positive outcomes for child witnesses of family violence across New Brunswick.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $582,216 over 3 years to support this project.

• Connections for Breaking the Cycle (C-BTC) of Violence

  The Canadian Mothercraft Society (Mothercraft) is working with diverse partners to scale up and continue evaluating their group intervention for mothers and children experiencing violence in relationships in 15 communities across Canada.

  The initiative's goal is to help mothers experiencing family violence learn about its impacts on their parenting and their children's development, while building mothers' self-esteem and improving their positive parenting and healthy relationship skills. The evaluation of C-BTC will help to increase the evidence base for the program and its approaches, confirm its impacts over time, and identify the mechanisms of change observed among pregnant women and mothers who are engaged in the intervention.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $878,010 over 4 years to support this project.

• Leveraging Trauma and Violence-Informed Physical Activity to Support Individuals Who Have Experienced Family Violence: A community-based participatory approach

  The Health and Wellness Equity Research Group from Carleton University is leading a community-based project, which is co-developing, delivering, and evaluating trauma-and violence-informed physical activity (TVIPA) programming to 225 women in three geographically and culturally diverse sites in Ottawa and Toronto, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

  The project will improve access to TVIPA, create opportunities for social connections and community cohesion, and improve overall health and well-being of women and children who have experienced or are experiencing family violence.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $946,859 over 4 years to support this project.

• Tending the Roots

  Central Toronto Youth Services is developing and leading a community of practice called Tending the Roots, for professionals and service providers from diverse organizations across Canada who are doing family-focused work with 2SLGBTQIA+ children and youth.

  Tending the Roots is creating a support network for 2SLGBTQIA+ workers, and allies, who are engaged in this critical work. This includes regular community of practice calls, quarterly webinars, and the creation of resources intended to support advocating for policy and practice changes. Through the community of practice, Tending the Roots will also be identifying opportunities for direct support for front-line projects, with a focus on communities in most need.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $400,000 over 4 years to support this project.

• Prevention of sexual violence among 6 to 12 year olds

  The Centre d'expertise Marie-Vincent is developing and evaluating a program for the prevention of sexual violence and the promotion of healthy relationships for children aged 6 to 12 and their entourage, by adapting the Lantern program.

  The program is developing prevention and training tools for more than 600 community professionals from more than 200 community organizations in various regions of Quebec. The evaluation of the program is helping to identify best practices for trauma-informed prevention of sexual violence.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $853,796 over 4 years to support this project.

• Family Ties: Building Support for 2SLGBTQQIA+ Children and Youth

  The Centre for Sexuality Society is delivering and testing support groups for 180 parents and caregivers of gender creative and sexual minority children and youth. The groups provide parents and caregivers with the knowledge, skills, and tools to build and strengthen healthy family relationships, and affirm and advocate on behalf of their 2SLGBTQQIA+ children.

  This project aims to build the capacity of parents and caregivers with the resources and confidence to support their child's unique needs related to their sexual and/gender minority identity in order to promote their healthy development and wellbeing.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $466,131 over 3 years to support this project.

• Reducing the Impact of Intimate Partner Violence and Substance Use on Women's Health

  The Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health is adapting and testing a virtual self-guided workbook and a social support group model for women who have lived experience of both intimate partner violence and problematic substance use.

  The trauma-informed, gender-equitable, harm reduction-oriented support group is delivered in partnership with anti-violence and substance use services, and is designed to further support women who have accessed such services. Collaboration will initially take place with 2 British-Columbia based anti-violence substance use services and will then expand to include 6 additional services across Canada, through the support of national partners: the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction and YWCA Canada.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $980,392 over 4 years to support this project.

• Yukon First Nations Violence Prevention Program

  The Council of Yukon First Nations (CYFN) is collaborating with the John Howard Society Pacific to adapt, deliver and evaluate the STOP (Stop Taking it Out on your Partner) program, a community-based intimate partner violence intervention program, in order to meet the unique needs of 14 Yukon communities.

  Delivered through a train-the-trainer model, this project enables Yukon First Nations men, or those who identify as Yukon First Nations men, who have used or are at risk of using family violence, to engage in a voluntary violence prevention program in their home community.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $1,186,339 over 4 years to support this project.

• Family Violence Online Programming in Rural and Remote Areas of Atlantic Canada

  Dalhousie University is adapting, implementing and evaluating a 10-week online group family-violence prevention program in rural and remote communities across Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island), addressing an important gap in barriers to accessing effective programs in these communities.

  The project will reach individuals who use violence within their families and aims to build their capacity to develop safer relationships and stronger families. Community members and local organizations will also be engaged to help break down barriers in accessing reliable and useful resources that address family violence.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $634,482 over 4 years to support this project.

• Stories of Strength: A community-led safety planning and action research initiative to address and prevent family violence in immigrant and refugee families

  DIVERSECity Community Resources Society is adapting and evaluating the solution focused safety planning system, Signs of Safety™(SOS™), for use as a multigenerational safety planning program to address and prevent family violence.

  The project is building and promoting the strengths and strategies that diverse cultural communities in Surrey, British Columbia, and surrounding areas use to address and prevent elder abuse, intimate partner violence, and child maltreatment. The program includes delivering the adapted SOS™ with families and individuals; hosting kitchen table dialogues to amplify and promote existing safety behaviors; and, holding Community Narration Workshops to share the Stories of Strengths and culturally responsive toolkits to prevent violence.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $794,423 over 4 years to support this project.

• Gender-Affirming Adults: Parents and Caregivers Supporting Their Kids' Gender Identities

  Egale is adapting and evaluating guidelines and resources for parents and caregivers of 2SLGBTQQIA+ youth on mental health, gender diversity, as well as how to create affirming and supportive spaces.

  The project will reach up to 400 parents and caregivers and will provide practical information and strategies to support children's gender identities and physical and emotional well-being at home, in school, and when accessing care. The aim of the project is to equip parents and caregivers to foster safer, more nurturing relationships with their transgender and gender diverse children.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $372,131 over 3 years to support this project.

• Atii Angutiit: Call Line for Inuit Men

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is providing funding to the Government of Nunavut to support the Atii Angutiit program’s development and implementation of a new support hotline for Inuit men.

  This hotline will give Inuit men in Nunavut a place to call where they know they will find an understanding Inuk male that they can talk to. Counsellors will provide support to men who may be in crisis and feeling that they may harm someone or harm themselves, or who otherwise need personal support.

  Through the Northern Wellness Approach, the Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $600,000 over 3 years to support this project.

• Moving On: Digital Empowerment and Literacy Skills for Survivors (MODELSS)

  MediaSmarts is collaborating with diverse family violence prevention organizations across Canada to adapt, deliver, and evaluate a digital literacy program for survivors of family violence living in transitional housing.

  Through a series of workshops, the program empowers survivors by providing important online safety and security information and relevant educational content to respond to and prevent technology-facilitated violence, in addition to enhancing their digital literacy skills. MODELSS is building survivors' resilience and wellbeing by supporting them to develop the confidence and skills to engage as active and informed digital citizens.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $1,005,000 over 4 years to support this project.

• Arts et Contes en Famille

  The Park-Extension Youth Organisation (P.E.Y.O.) is offering and evaluating a community outreach arts intervention service to immigrant families residing in the Park-Extension neighborhood of Montréal, Québec.

  Through a series of workshops based on storytelling and free artistic creation, this program aims to reduce parental stress and improve family dynamics in order to prevent violence. A second part of the project will promote the dissemination of knowledge through the development of an intervention guide and informational videos.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $406,013 over 3 years to support this project.

• Building Opportunities for Women (BOW)

  YWCA Sudbury is delivering and testing their BOW program, which allows groups of 10-15 women to explore the roots of gender-based violence, address their own self-esteem and vulnerabilities, and identify their future education and training needs.

  Implemented in Northern Ontario, the 12 weekly facilitated workshops address topics of interest for women so that they can meet new people, be exposed to relevant and engaging learning opportunities, and eventually achieve greater financial and social stability in their lives.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $589,340 over 4 years to support this project.

• Fostering Violence Prevention and Well-Being for Black Women, Families and Communities

  Together with its partners, the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary is conducting a community-based project that builds on the Alberta Men's Network Training Program to prevent and address domestic violence in Black communities.

  The project is advancing knowledge, promoting community engagement, enhancing leadership capacity, and fostering well-being for Black women, men, families and communities in Calgary, Alberta and Toronto, Ontario. The project also increases the evidence base and best practices that focus on the diverse impacts of domestic violence and community-led prevention and intervention responses for Black individuals and their communities.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $656,035 over 4 years to support this project.

• Changing Contexts: The Art of the Nudge

  Shift: The Project to End Domestic Violence from the University of Calgary is working with the Calgary Police Service in Alberta to implement and evaluate a research initiative designed to cue more gender equitable, anti-violent behaviours in men who work in male-dominated settings.

  This project is supporting the Calgary Policy Service to shift social norms by integrating interventions in the physical, social, and organizational environments, with the aim of mitigating bias, reducing sexual harassment, and increasing inclusion and civility. This project is working with key influencers to change and inform the structures and processes that guide organizational behaviour. The project expects the impact of the intervention to extend beyond the 200 members directly involved to influence over 3000 people across the organization.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $1,026,097 over 4 years to support this project.

• ConnectED Parents: Moving to virtual interventions to engage parents in the prevention of adolescent dating violence

  Shift: The Project to End Domestic Violence from the University of Calgary is implementing, evaluating, and scaling up ConnectED Parents, a health promotion program designed to prevent adolescent dating violence from an approach that includes examining and addressing gender inequities and challenging gender norms.

  ConnectED Parents builds capacity in parents and primary caregivers of adolescents, aged 10 to 20 years old, in Calgary, Alberta, to teach their children the competencies necessary to develop and maintain healthy relationships. The program does this through sending brief educational text messages to build their knowledge and skills to teach their adolescent children about healthy dating relationships; developing capacity to build a healthy social climate where these parents gather; and, building the capacity in groups of parents to provide peer-to-peer supports.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $864,017 over 4 years to support this project.

• We Are Family: Challenging the Roots of 2SLGBTQQIA+ Family Rejection & Violence via Early Parent Intervention on Femmephobia

  Trent University is developing and evaluating an interactive curriculum on femmephobia that will be included in existing parent support/intervention programs, as well as in an online workbook and module for parents/caregivers.

  The project will reach up to 600 parents, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and educators both online and in-person at Peterborough – Oshawa – Belleville region locations in Ontario. The overall aim of the project is to promote healthy environments for 2SLGBTQQIA+ children and youth by reducing the associated prejudices and harms created by femmephobia within families and communities.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $403,741 over 3 years to support this project.

• Project Initiative Espace Parents: An intervention aimed at promoting parenting skills and preventing family violence against children among newcomers.

  The University of Montreal and its partners are implementing and evaluating the Initiative Espace Parents Program (in French only), which is promoting parenting skills to prevent child maltreatment among newly arrived immigrant families.

  This two-pronged intervention, composed of group sessions, and individual sessions for more difficult-to-reach populations, aims to reach over 300 parents from 8 partner community organizations in the Greater Montreal region.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $1,175,875 over 4 years to support this project.

• Increasing Research Capacity to Address Evidence Gaps on Child Maltreatment and Child Welfare in Canada

  The University of Manitoba is developing and delivering a national research training platform for more than 60 public health and child maltreatment/welfare trainees, knowledge users and scientific experts.

  This project is increasing the research capacity of these audiences through knowledge and skill development in quantitative epidemiological research methods. The overall aim of this project is to create a collaborative and sustainable network that leads to developing impactful research and advancing the field of child maltreatment, child welfare and family violence in Canada.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $899,249 over 3 years to support this project.

• The implementation of an advocacy intervention for diverse women in midlife and older experiencing intimate partner violence: Effectiveness and experiences of participants and community-based researchers

  The Abuse and Neglect of Older Adults Research Team of the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research from the University of New Brunswick is adapting and evaluating a 12-week advocacy intervention for women in midlife and older who experience intimate partner violence.

  The project will reach up to 60 older women in three Atlantic provinces- Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. The project provides tailored interventions to 60 women through a program that assists in the development of a safety plan adapted for older women; providing information about cycles of violence, community, and legal resources; and developing goals and strategies for the future.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $598,272 over 3 years to support this project.

• Kaskinomatasowin Project: Sexual violence prevention and awareness

  The University of Quebec in Chicoutimi is implementing and evaluating the Kaskinomatasowin program, a sexual abuse prevention and healthy relationship promotion program for children and youth.

  The project, which is an extension of the Lantern|Awacic prevention program tailored to the needs of the Atikamekw culture, is developing a culturally adapted, parent specific module to increase parental skills and prevent child sexual violence. The program is targeting over 200 parents from 3 Atikamekw Indigenous communities in Quebec.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $786,287 over 4 years to support this project.

• STEP Project: A prenatal program for survivors of complex trauma aiming to prevent family violence and to promote maternal and child health

  The University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières is scaling up, adapting, and evaluating the Supporting the Transition to and Engagement in Parenthood (STEP) program in 4 regions in the province of Quebec.

  This trauma-informed prenatal program for survivors of complex trauma will promote maternal health and support the health and development of their children. The project is also being adapted to respond to the needs of populations that are disproportionally affected by family violence: Indigenous communities, cultural minorities, and individuals with a psychiatric disorder.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $1,368,726 over 4 years to support this project.

• Effectiveness of Internet-Based Multicomponent Intervention for Family Caregivers and Community Organizations in Preventing and Addressing Older Adult Mistreatment

  The Université de Sherbrooke's (in French only) Research Chair on the Mistreatment of Older adults is developing and testing a multi-component capacity-building internet-based educational program for caregivers, community organization workers and volunteers on how to recognize and safely respond to older adult mistreatment in the context of family caregiving.

  The program includes an organizational tool for community workers and volunteers to support the development of policies, procedures, and partnerships for the management of suspected situations of older adult mistreatment. In total, the project will reach up to 240 family caregivers aged 50 years and older from 16 community organizations across the province of Quebec. Moreover, this project seeks to facilitate help seeking for caregivers, improve identification and reporting of mistreatment, as well as improve caregivers social support, health, and wellbeing.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $734,924 over 3 years to support this project.

• Implementing and Testing RISE: Addressing a Gap in Community-Based Elder Abuse Response Intervention

  The Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work of the University of Toronto is implementing and evaluating a community-based elder abuse prevention and response intervention, RISE, which works with older adults who are at risk of or experiencing some form of mistreatment. The RISE model integrates various therapeutic approaches (motivational interviewing, restorative justice, teaming, supported decision making) and operates at Relational, Individual, Social, and Environmental levels to work with both older adult victims and others, including alleged harmers and family members. It strengthens the social supports toward more sustainable prevention of re-victimization.

  The project will reach up to 160 older adults from diverse communities across Ontario. Through its randomized-control research design, the project has the potential to advance the evidence base of what works to prevent elder abuse and for whom and under what circumstances it demonstrates the greatest effects.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $799,971 over 3 years to support this project.

• An Evidence-Based Health Promotion Intervention (iHEAL) for Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence: Implementation in diverse contexts, evaluation and scale up

  The University of Western Ontario is implementing and evaluating the iHEAL program, a trauma-informed health-promotion intervention for women who have experienced intimate partner violence, in collaboration with researchers from 2 Canadian universities.

  iHEAL educated registered nurses offer the 6-month program in inclusive and contextually relevant ways within 3 diverse community health settings in British Columbia, Ontario, and New Brunswick. Evaluation of the program focuses on how it can maintain its benefits for women, be sustainable for organizations, and support scale up beyond the initial partner organizations.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $2,032,148 over 3.5 years to support this project.

• Developing a Canadian Health and Safety Mobile App for Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence

  In partnership with the University of British Columbia and the University of New Brunswick, the University of Western Ontario is creating and launching a free mobile app to support Canadian women who have experienced intimate partner violence.

  Made and hosted in Canada, the app is an interactive, evidence-based resource available in English and French developed with input from experts and women with lived experience. The app allows women to access support on their own terms by sharing links to relevant resources (national and in their province or territory) and providing women with personalized information to support them in taking steps to deal with the impacts of abuse on their health and wellbeing.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $101,929 over 3 years to support this project.

• Cross-Sectoral Solutions: Strengthening community capacity to address the 'parallel pandemic' of intimate partner violence-related brain injury through a survivor-led support intervention

  The Women's Centre for Social Justice (WomenatthecentrE) and the Acquired Brain Injury Research Lab, in collaboration with diverse community partners, are adapting, piloting, and evaluating an evidence-based, trauma informed, multi-sectoral intervention for persons who self-identify as women survivors of intimate partner violence with resultant brain injury (IPV-TBI).

  This project is creating a national "blueprint" for coordinated, evidence-based IPV-TBI services sensitive to a variety of intersectional identities and geographical contexts. The project is being piloted in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec and is building bridges between traditional silos, increasing community capacity, and establishing pathways for ongoing multi-sectoral care referral, thereby readying the intervention for sustainable scale up and distribution.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $1,391,644 over 3 years to support this project.

• Sharing in the Healing Journey

  YWCA Toronto is implementing and evaluating two 11-week expressive-arts based programs (Here to Help and Warrior's Journey) with children ages 4-16 years and their mothers who have experienced intimate partner violence.

  Implemented in the Scarborough neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, this project empowers caregivers and their children to better manage their emotions, strengthen their resilience, and develop new ways to cope with the impact of their exposure to domestic violence while reducing the risk of re-traumatization. Through their interaction with the arts, participants are able to safely explore their experiences by fostering self-awareness, communication, and connection to skills, abilities and values that support healing and wellness.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $451,962 over 3 years to support this project.

• Supporting the Health of Survivors of Family Violence in Family Law Proceedings

  This project is led by the University of Western Ontario. It is building the capacity of up to 15,000 practitioners and professionals from the health, violence prevention and family law sectors. Through the development of training and cross-sectoral collaboration opportunities, this project is contributing to the goal of protecting the health and safety of survivors of family violence and those at risk.

  The Public Health Agency of Canada is contributing $1,185,270 over 3 years to support this project.