Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale

Published purpose

This 30-month project will develop and implement a promising practice designed to improve the legal process and address systemic barriers in order to address the root causes of gender-based violence, specifically in relation to underrepresented women groups. The Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale (RMFVVC) will achieve this goal by focusing on the impacts of coercive control in the lives of women victims of domestic violence who are living on low incomes, refugees, immigrants, out-of-status or newcomers. Stakeholders will be engaged through a committee of partners equipped with solid expertise and influence in their respective communities. A toolkit on coercive control will be developed after identifying and analyzing best practices that incorporate the concept of coercive control into the practices of various players of Canadian and foreign justice systems. Three training modules on the different forms of coercive control and their impacts will be developed and delivered to workers in the 43 member houses of the RMFVVC to enhance their ability to guide and support women. Conferences, regional seminars and follow-up meetings with the various players involved in the judicial system will also 1) enhance their knowledge of the concept of coercive control, 2) introduce them to the tools developed to address coercive control, and 3) clarify the impact of these tools on advocacy for women victims of domestic violence among the underrepresented target groups. Word about the promising practice will be spread by engaging members of the RMFVVC through familiarization sessions held to strengthen their ability to influence the practices of key players in their respective regions. By the end of the project, the organization will have raised awareness, trained and engaged its members, regional judicial system players (criminal, family and immigration law) and provincial authorities in different sectors (e.g. prison, police) about the concept of coercive control. Through this, they will be able to effectively detect the various signs of domestic violence and develop more appropriate practices to improve the safety of victims, especially women in the targeted subgroups. The sustainability of the promising practice will be assured by a web page used to promote and continuously disseminate the tools and training developed under the project in an effort to have the judicial practices of targeted multi-sector stakeholders more effectively account for the concept of coercive control. Sustainability will also be secured through a description of these tools in the educational programs of the Barreau du Québec, the École nationale de police du Québec and the School for Prosecutors, which offers training to Quebec prosecutors.