Elder Abuse Scope
About the Program
About our Partners
About the Issue
Best Practices
Legal Issues
Weaving the Web Conference report
Resources
Related links
FAQ's
Bibliographies
Resources on Elder Abuse in general
Recent Research
Definitions
EWA Newsletter on Older Woman Abuse
What the Older Woman Abuse program can offer you!
In response to community-identified needs Education Wife Assault (EWA) and our community partners set up this program to bring together the best approaches and practices of both the Violence Against Women (VAW) and Seniors' sectors in Ontario .
Our community partners in the Older Women Abuse Project are Family Service Association of Toronto (FSA), Circle of Care (COC), the Ontario Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (ONPEA) and the Toronto Police Service(TPS).
This program is designed to meet the needs of a range of service providers including managers, counselors, shelter and crisis workers, victim service workers, police, health care providers and advocates in the health, social service, and justice sectors.
We build on your group/organizations strengths to create a more effective and appropriate response for staff, board, clients and volunteers.
We offer:
* community capacity building through exploration of effective ways to improve access to women's and seniors' services for older women who have experienced violence at the hands of caregivers, intimate partners, children and grandchildren (including modification of policies, practices and procedures)
* an understanding of the implications for your service of recent and pending legislation (mandated reporting, etc.) http://www.advocacycentreelderly.org/
* training on how to work with older women who have been abused including case-based training opportunities with our training/consultation team
* follow-up support in making change in your group/organization
* networking/partnership opportunities with others doing innovative work in the area working to improve access for all women
* a tailor-made training/consultation geared to your group/organization's needs.
NOTE: See our page on Deaf and Disability issues to ensure an inclusive approach to this issue.
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Program Goals:
Both the Senior's and Violence Against Women (VAW) networks and services in Toronto bring strengths to capacity building on the issue of Older Woman Abuse. However, more cross-training and transdisciplinary collaborative efforts between the two are needed. While attending/presenting at the ONPEA provincial conference on elder abuse in March 2004 it was again reinforced that a gender analysis and connections with the VAW movement is missing from the mainstream and culturally specific response to abuse of older persons. Feedback from the Weaving the Web conference sponsored by EWA and Family Service Association of Toronto held on January 29 th , 2003 (attended by 180 participants) clearly states the need for further cross-training, coordination and information sharing between sectors. When surveyed after the conference, the majority of respondents reported that awareness was raised but further in-depth training and networking was required in both communities and that creating new approaches for working with older women who are abused is necessary to bridge the current gaps. Little is known by each about work and issues of the other sector.
While both men and women are abused, it is estimated that 2/3 of victims of abuse in later years are women, even when this is corrected for by the fact that there are more older women in the population. Most abusers are adult children/grandchildren and intimate partners. This project focuses on the needs of diverse older women who are abused. We will build partnerships for community-based prevention efforts and develop and test new training models to enhance the community response to intimate violence against older women. It will also develop new resources for those efforts. We will develop and distribute educational materials; conduct an environmental scan/community mapping of what is going on in both sectors; institute a transdisciplinary Specialized Training and Consultation Team to do case-based training and consultation, train the trainer and community trainings; and, continue to develop and pilot a model peer education program.
We will:
*Develop and distribute new educational materials and adapt existing ones for abused older women from diverse communities
* Develop, adapt and link service providers to resource materials for on-going counseling issues, legal, prevention and support issues for older women who have experienced violence;
*Provide comprehensive training to diverse older women leader/trainees so that they can provide workshops and consult with service providers on the topic of violence against older women in their own cultural and community context
*Provide comprehensive training to service providers on the topic of violence against older women in diverse cultural and various community contexts. This training will take place within a feminist, anti-oppression framework which includes a strong gender analysis and a focus on abuse across the lifespan (including the impact of previous trauma on women's lives and later experiences of violence)
Training and workshop topics include:
* General information and statistics on violence against older women (with an emphasis on marginalized communities of women: immigrant and refugee women, newcomers, LGBT women, women with disabilities and Deaf women, etc.)
* Incidence of violence;
* Types of violence;
* The rights of older women in the health, education and legal systems, etc.
*Consult with seniors, immigrant, newcomer and other groups/organizations who wish to do their own violence prevention work in a manner consistent with their cultural and linguistic needs
* Participate in networking /partnership opportunities with others across sectors and communities to work to improve access for all older women to options and services.
* Attend community events and participate in community committees that build an enhanced community response to abused older women in our communities.
back to the top Why is EWA doing this work?
Since 1998 Education Wife Assault (EWA) has had a successful history of working in partnership with women in many communities across the province with the goal of providing information, training and resources to enhance access to services for women who experience violence and abuse.
We recognize that there are gaps in our programs regarding inclusion of older women's issues. We recognize that the violence against women (VAW) sector in Ontario has a wealth of knowledge and experience to bring to seniors communities to tackle this issue and that the Seniors' sector has practices and approaches that the VAW sector can learn from. Together we need to develop new and innovative approaches that will address the needs of this particular community.
Since holding the Weaving the Web Conference in January 2003 in Toronto we have been concerned about the barriers older women can encounter to even the most basic forms of support in our communities. Our goal is to increase awareness, skills and community capacity as it relates to older women who are abused or at risk of abuse. We conduct these efforts within a framework of partnership and collaboration .
Many groups experience differential responses from both the violence against women (VAW) and elder abuse agencies for many reasons (lack of resources, lack of community specific knowledge, inadequate funding resources, racist, ableist and ageist assumptions and beliefs, etc.). This project aims to increase the capacity of the community to respond effectively to marginalized women in these groups. Education Wife Assault and Family Service Association, because of our connections to diverse communities, are uniquely positioned to ensure issues for marginalized women are appropriately addressed over the course of this project.
We address this issue on two fronts: we work with diverse older women to increase their access to services and build their communities' capacity to respond to older woman abuse; and concurrently, we facilitate the work of mainstream, seniors and women's services in Toronto to improve their response to abused older women.
Contact Information:
Program Manager
Older Woman Abuse Program
Education Wife Assault
Suite 220 , 215 Spadina Avenue
Toronto , Ontario , Canada
M5T 2C7
Tel: 416-968-3422
TTY: 416-968-7335
Fax: 416-968-2026
Email: info@womanabuseprevention.com
Lisa Manuel
Manager, Seniors and Caregivers Support Service
Manager, Violence Against Woman Program
Family Service Association of Toronto
747 Warden Avenue
Scarborough , ON
Phone: 416 755 5565 ext. 422
email: lisama@fsatoronto.com
Web site: www.fsatoronto.com
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