Projet Status of Women Canada

The project

In a context of constant increase of in the immigrant population in our region, the question of domestic violence made to immigrant women is of particular concern for us. Although domestic violence is not unique to immigrant women,  several factors can create an environment that makes them more at risk such as: language challenge; social and geographic isolation; precarious status and sponsorships; social pressures from their community and the fear of rejection; ignorance of the services, the laws, the role of the police and that of the judicial system.

The goals of the project :

1. Analyze the needs of the community organizations and the immigrant population;
2. Establish consultation and collaboration mechanisms with partners who work with immigrant populations;
3. Identify barriers to intervention, accessibility of services and existing structures;
4. Develop, test and implant collaborative intervention strategies like protocols, service agreements, training, events and others, to ensure the sustainability of the project.

The first year of the project allowed us to observe:

• That the majority of the immigrant women that are housed in shelters are either sponsored or without status. In the majority of cases, they did not attend francization classes, community organizations or services for new immigrants.
• That there is a lack of concertation between the community organizations who work with immigrant populations and the community organizations who work with women. These exchanges between the partners would allow the development of effective strategies as well as the sharing of information and knowledge.
• That immigrant women are unaware of suport resources and are less likely to use these services, for various reasons.
• That many professionals are unfamiliar with the intercultural approach.
• That community organizations have a lack of financial resources, which is a major obstacle in the goal of reaching out to the communities.
• That most of the partners  are running out of time to develop and adapt their services to the immigrant population.

For the rest of the project : We have to focus of concrete solutions, share them with our partners and put in action some strategies. These strategies will enable the sharing of knowledge and changes in current practices aimed at improving the access to services. We decided to present to you the recommandations in four specific themes :

• Protocols with partners;
• Professional trainings;
• Translation;
• Vigil Project.