What's New at the Centre

Helping a Child be a Witness in Court
Alison Cunningham & Lynda Stevens (2011)

This guide is a convenient overview of essential information needed to support a testifying child. It could also be a training tool for people entering the victim-support field or for victim-support workers who have historically worked with adults. The Centre is grateful for funding from the Department of Justice to support the development and distribution of this resource across Canada.

Red Flags for Unhealthy Dating Relationships

Can a woman tell early in a relationship that a man who seems so attentive and charming may turn out to be abusive down the road? If you are worried about yourself, or a friend or family member, review this checklist which is an exceprt from Helping Abused Women in Shelters: 101 Things to Know, Say & Do.

Red Flags in Relationships

Annual General Meeting held June 23, 2010

The Centre partnered with five other children's mental health centres to host an AGM featuring guest speaker Eric Hipple. Eric played for the Detroit Lions and is author of Real Men do Cry: A Quarterback's Inspiring Story of Tackling Depression and Surviving Suicide Loss.

Annual Report 2008/2009

Our year in review annual report is an overview of new developments in our clinical programs, new resources, and the latest research.

Supporting Victims of Crime in Northern Canada

This 90-page guide takes the basic principles of helping children and teenagers testify in court and adapts them for use in Canada's north. Taking into account contextual features of northern justice -- including circuit-court parties travelling to far-flung and isolated communities -- the material is designed for judges, justices of the peace, prosecutors, police, witness coordinators, victim service workers, shelter staff and educators. Also addressed are the needs of witnesses with diagnosed or suspected fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). The document was distributed across northern Canada with funding from the Policy Centre for Victim Issues, Department of Justice.

Director Emeritus Appointed to Order of Canada

On July 1, 2009, the Governor General of Canada Michaëlle Jean announced that Peter Jaffe, the Centre's Director Emeritus, was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of his lifetime of achievement and merit in service to Canada. Dr. Jaffe was recognized for his influential work and extensive voluntarism in improving the response of Canada's legal, educational and social service systems to family violence and the abuse of women and children. He was the Executive Director of the London Family Court Clinic until 2002 when he accepted a professorship with the Faculty of Education at the University of Western Ontario. He was the founding Chair of the London Co-ordinating Committee to End Woman Abuse and, between 1991 and 1993, was a member of the Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women. He currently is the Academic Director of the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children. Way to go Pete!

Youth Mental Health Conference

On April 24, 2009, about 300 participants gathered at the London Convention Centre to learn about recent initiatives in prevention and helping teens who hace mental health challenges. Highlights were the opening words of support by Attorney General Chris Bentley, a humourous and thought-provoking key note by psychiatrist Dr. Jean Clinton on the adolescent brain as a work in progress, an empassioned plea by the Mind Your Mind team on the importance of shaping timely and relevant messages for youth, an informative description and update on London's mental health court on the occasion of its first anniversary, the delivery of the 2009 Margaret McCain Lecture by Ben Barry, and the public premiere of a forum theatre production called "Lifelines," about youth suicide. Equally informative was a panel presentation by five innovators in collaborative responses to youth mental health struggles and the sincere thanks to people on the front lines delivered as a closing to the day by the Minister of Children and Youth Services, Deb Matthews.

Ben Barry delivered this year's Margaret McCain Lecture on April 24, 2009. Ben is the first ever male recipient of the Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case and is author of Fashioning Reality: A New Generation of Entrepreneurship. He is busy completing his doctorate at Cambridge University. As a teenager, he founded the first modelling agency in the world to represent models of all ages, sizes, backgrounds and abilities, challening the status-quo beauty ideal. His lecture was a feature event in a one-day conference at the London Convention Centre called Our Time * Their Space: Changing Messages & Modalities to Promote Youth Mental Health, recognizing innovative approaches in delivering messages and services to young people who struggle with mental health challenges.

Much of our material has been translated into other languages by non-profit organizations. But no translated versions have been as visually engaging as these produced by the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation in Taiwan.

Understanding the Effects of Domestic Violence: A Handbook for Early Childhood Eductors (in Chinese)

Understanding the Effects of Domestic Violence: A Trainer's Manual for Early Childhood Educators (in Chinese)

We are delighted when agencies want to translate our work for use with families and ask only that you write for permission, acknowledge the Centre as the author and copyright holder, promise that no profit will be made by the sale of our work, and send us a copy of the final product.

The Role of Therapeutic Relationship

Due to the volume of requests, we are posting here the PowerPoint presentation Linda Baker delivered at the CMHO conference in November of 2008. The title of her presentations was "Necessary but Insuffucient: Evidence Supporting the Important Role of Therapeutic Relationship." Therapeutic relationship is also known as therapeutic alliance or working alliance. The learning objectives of the presentation were to understand better the role of 2 common factors in child and youth mental health treatment, to describe the empirical support for pre-treatment client expectations and therapeutic relationship, and to discuss implications for practice and future research. The conference, called From Implementation to Outcome: Making it Happen, was held in Toronto and hosted by Children's Mental Health Ontario.

Helping Abused Women in Shelters: 101 Things to Know, Say and Do
Alison Cunningham & Linda Baker (2008)

This is the second "Helping Hands" Guide on Skill Building and Tools for Helpers and Healers. Helping women in a residential program such as a shelter, refuge or transition house is a unique opportunity to provide intensive support at a time of crisis and transition. Building on the material in the "Helping Hands" guide called Helping an Abused Woman: 101 Things to Know, Say and Do, this second guide is written specifically for those who work in shelters, refuges, transition houses, safe houses and second-stage housing, grounded in an understanding of the unique context and the needs expressed by women. You'll find concrete "tool box ideas" for interventions with women, reference to the latest research, ideas for discussion as a staff team, and handouts to supplement your one-on-one or group work with women.

Helping an Abused Woman: 101 Things to Know, Say and Do
Linda Baker & Alison Cunningham (2008)

This resource, the first "Helping Hands" Guide on Skill Building and Tools for Helpers and Healers, can be used by anyone who supports women. Topics addressed give the reader insight into how abuse affects women and gives them concrete ideas to apply in their work. You'll find 10 assumptions about abuse of women in intimate relationships, the reasons all helping professionals should understand abuse dynamics, 10 principles informing work with an abused woman, the 5 paradoxes of abuse, 10 features of listening to abuse disclosures, 10 common control tactics used by abusive men, 10 points about rationalizations for abuse and the messages they send, 5 common characteristics of controling men, 10 points about coping with abuse, 10 thoughts and feelings blocking emotional leaving, and 10 promises not to make to women.

Sustainable Strategies for Safe Schools

Just released, this CD and companion Administator's Resource is now available for download or viewing on the Internet. This project was funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation and is designed for board and school leaders to use as an individual staff development tool or as a discussion platform with a variety of audiences. It contains a Stages of Change School Assessment Checklist to determine your school's score and identify your school's stage of change profile. You can then develop and implement a safe school plan. For more information, contact lardila@uwo.ca

ADR-LINK

The Centre is pleased to announce the introduction of ADR-LINK, a brokerage service connecting children's aid societies in the South West Region of Ontario to ADR practitioners able to take cases in this geographic area. ADR-LINK is funded by the Ministry of Children & Youth Services. There are three types of ADR prescribed for use in this region of Ontario: child protection mediation, family group conferencing, and ADR designed by First Nations communities. See the ADR-LINK web pages for more information, including referral forms for CASs and a registration form for the ADR-LINK rosters.

A Full and Candid Account: Using Special Accommodations and Testimonial Aids to Facilitate the Testimony of Children
Alison Cunningham & Pamela Hurley (2007)

Seven concise resources to help prosecutors, victim-support workers, judges, police and others understand and meet the needs of children who testify in court. The goal of these efforts is to help the witness provide complete and accurate evidence, or "a full and candid account." Topics covered are: overview of issues related to child testimony, testifying outside the courtroom (e.g., via CCTV), witness screens, video-recorded evidence, designated support person, hearsay evidence and children, and children and teenagers who testify in domestic violence cases. This is an initiative of the Child Witness Project undertaken with funding from the Department of Justice Canada.

Little Eyes, Little Ears: How Violence Against a Mother Shapes Children as they Grow
Alison Cunningham & Linda Baker (2007)

A resource developed with funding from the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence. We combined the most popular information from our most popular resources, included some new material, and added reference to the newest sources of information and updated statistics. Topics addressed include facts & figures, ten ways a child can be changed by living with violence at home, and some myths about woman abuse and children. This is a concise source of information for anyone wanting to understand how children experience violence against their mothers and how those experiences may shape them as they grow, from infancy to adolescence. This resource is also available in French.

Staying on for an extra week after the conference, a delegation of six social workers from Hong Kong toured local agencies to bring back information on our domestic violence and sexual assault services. They were Agnes Ng of the Christian Family Service Centre, Jeff Wong of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, Bridget Yu of Po Leung Kuk, Rosanna Ho of the Caritas Project for Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse, and Phyllis Lee and Moon-shing Chan both of the Social Welfare Department. Thanks to our sister agencies who welcomed the delegation for site visits: School of Social Work at King's University College, Women's Rural Resource Centre of Strathroy and Area, Changing Ways, Vanier Children's Services, Children's Aid Society of London & Middlesex, Sexual Assault Centre London, Sexual Assault / Domestic Violence Treatment Centre of St. Joseph's Health Care London, London Abused Women's Centre, and Merrymount Children's Centre. On the left is a picture of the delegation's visit to the Women's Rural Resource Centre of Strathroy and Area.

Third International Conference on Children Exposed to Domestic Violence

May 9 to 11, 2007 in London, Ontario, Canada.

Almost 1,000 people from over 20 countries converged on the London Convention Centre for our long-awaited third international conference on the topic of children living with domestic violence. The highlight had to be the great line-up of plenary speakers including Arun Gandhi as the Margaret McCain Lecture speaker, Cindy Blackstock of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, Aldijana Sisic of Amnesty International, and Jackson Katz. This conference was co-hosted by the Centre for Children and Families in the Justice System, the Centre for Research & Education on Violence against Women and Children, and the CAMH Centre for Prevention Science.

Check out the conference page for a gallery of photographs from the conference.

The 2007 Margaret Norrie McCain Lecture was delivered by Mr. Arun Gandhi on May 10, 2007 at the London Convention Centre. The title was "We Must Be the Change We Wish to See in the World." Mr. Gandhi is the fifth grandson of India's legendary leader, Mohandas K. "Mahatma" Gandhi. With his wife Sunanda, he founded the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in 1991. The lecture was part of the Third International Conference on Children Exposed to Domestic Violence.

Mr. Gandhi is pictured with Jack Little, Chair of the Centre's Board of Directors, Margaret McCain, and Linda Baker, the Centre's Executive Director.

Centre Recognized in International Collaborative Competition

From among 243 entries from 46 countries, a panel of judges selected 15 finalists in the No Private Matter! Ending Abuse in Intimate Relations Changemakers collaborative competition. We are pleased to report that the Centre's work on supporting abused women as mothers was chosen as a finalist. The Centre's entry was called Helping Children Thrive: Supporting the Mothering of Woman Abuse Survivors. Four judges, representing the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Family Violence Prevention Fund, and the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention, said the finalists reflected "outstanding demonstration of innovation, social impact, and sustainability." On their web site, you will find descriptions of the three winners, the 15 finalists and all 243 original submissions. A lot of good work is going on all over the world and this is a great opportunity to learn about it!

For more information on the body of work that garnered this honour, see Helping Children Thrive.