Canadian Domestic Violence Conference 4: Connecting the grassroots movement from across the country

The Canadian Domestic Violence conference 4 will showcase the grassroots initiatives that are happening across the country to address intimate partner violence. The presentations will be made by community-based groups as well as academics and government agencies. Some of these organizations include women’s shelters, Partner Abuse Response (PAR) programs, probation offices, victim services offices, counselling centres, children mental health workers, child protection workers, addiction counsellors, private practitioners. The focus of the conference will be on both helping individuals dealing with domestic violence and challenging the social determinants of domestic violence.

The Conference is designed to foster effective conversations with women, men, and children about domestic violence in these various professional contexts. While emphasizing men’s violence against women, the Conference will also provide the opportunity to focus on conversations that are often on the margins of the field: violence in same-sex relationships, violence with people with disabilities, in aboriginal relationships, first generation immigrant relationships, and straight women’s perpetration of abuse. To address the diversity among women, for example, the Conference will explore conversations with women who want to leave, women who are ambivalent about their relationships and other women who know they want to stay. This broad range of conversations includes individual, couple, family and group conversations.

Along with exploring how to have helpful conversations with individuals dealing with domestic violence, the Conference will also highlight community initiatives designed to challenge the social determinants of domestic violence. While primarily challenging sexism, the Conference will also focus on how the field is challenging issues of racism, poverty, homophobia, and ableism.

To move the field forward, the purpose of this Conference is for participants and presenters to highlight and share the innovative approaches that are developing in the various communities across Canada.

Tod Augusta-Scott

On behalf of the Conference Committee

Who will be there?

While centering primarily on men’s violence against women, the conference will also provide the opportunity to highlight conversations that are often on the margins of the domestic violence field:

violence in same-sex relationships,
violence with people with disabilities,
in aboriginal relationships,
first generation immigrant relationships,
and straight women’s perpetration of abuse.

We’re proud to offer presentations by:

women’s shelters,
Partner Abuse Response (PAR) programs,
probation offices,
victim services offices,
counselling centres,
private practice,
academics and government agencies

Come for stimulating discussions on:

The important distinctions being made among cases based on the level of risk and nature of the abuse – including high risk, moderate and low risk cases of domestic violence

And, in the context of men’s violence against women, conversations with: