My Voice Matters:

Supporting and Engaging Young Women to End Domestic Violence

April 2019 – April 2021

In partnership with YWCA Halifax

Funded by: NS Standing Together to Prevent Domestic Violence - Shift Grant, NS Advisory Council on the Status of Women

Project Summary

The My Voice Matters project was intended to expand and coordinate services to women receiving interest-free micro-loans from the YWCA Halifax’s December 6th Fund. These loans cover certain expenses to enable women to escape an abusive relationship and start anew. The project aimed to test expanded wrap-around services, referrals and coordination with the recipients across the Province. The partnership with Be the Peace Institute (BTPI) allowed the YWCA to find out directly from the women, how the loans impacted their lives, their safety and their perspectives on domestic violence prevention.

The Standing Together Shift Grant is allowed YWCA Halifax to expand the loans to other areas of the Province, identify priority needs of young women survivors, inform violence prevention efforts, and test the provision of wraparound and community-based supports for survivors in their recovery. Survivors come to the program through a variety of referral sources to apply for the loan, but each has a unique pathway to safety. My Voice Matters engaged with loan recipients to provide ongoing in person or phone resources, connect survivors to supports in their communities, and leverage YWCA's extensive program offerings and connections across the province.

The partnership with BTPI offers an arm’s length evaluation of the impact of the loans on women’s lives, the effectiveness of the loan process and the implications for violence prevention and assisting more women to free themselves from abusive situations - in women’s own voices. With permission from loan recipients themselves, we interviewed women who accessed the program to gather their stories on the impact the loan had on their lives, as well as their perspectives on best practices and needed reforms to prevent DV and enhance supports. With their help we brought some of the more complex needs and impacts of intimate partner violence on young women to light. This information will be compiled as aggregate data (completely confidential and anonymous), to assist the YWCA in articulating the effectiveness of the program, enhance understanding of survivors’ experiences and further identify what is most helpful to them, in their own words.

April 2021: Final Project Update

When the My Voice Matters project wrapped, 30 loan recipients had been interviewed by Be the Peace Institute (BTPI) project staff and two interim, and one final, report had been submitted to the YWCA project team.

Findings from accumulated interviews have made clear that the December 6th Fund program of the YWCA Halifax is an invaluable community resource for women leaving situations of gender-based violence (GBV). For a relatively small amount of money, women who access the program express deep impacts of safety and a higher quality of life. The relationship with the YWCA staff, and with the program coordinators specifically, has emerged as an aspect of the program which is equally (and sometimes more) impactful to the interview respondents than the money itself.

There were some repeating themes within participant feedback on central barriers to leaving as well as the key enablers for safe departure. Fear and safety emerged as both the dominant motivators for leaving as well as being key barriers to leaving. A large majority attributed their survival to some form of outside informal or formal support via program, agency or individual while the specific financial aid from the YWCA December 6th loan program was identified by the majority as the primary reason for eventual safe and successful departure from violence. A great majority expressed that their lives were improved since, and as a result of, their participation in the program and with their increased financial and housing security. All women used the fund for re-housing expenses in some form and the majority put it toward a down payment, damage deposit or first month’s rent.

The overall experience of women with the loan program was very positive including during intake and throughout repayment. Modest suggestions for improvement by respondents have all been addressed in some way or mitigated entirely by the YWCA since the submission of both the June and December interim reports. This degree of agility and responsive adaptation on the part of the organization had a very positive impact on loan recipients and shows how human-centred a GBV responding agency can and should be.

There are some interesting findings to date on what services and supports these women accessed, what was helpful, what was not and what was missing. A good majority credited community-based agencies, like the YWCA, transition houses and family/women’s/cultural resource centres as being central to their support network. Shelter and housing insecurity remain key barriers for women due to a shortage of affordable housing and to the stigma, safety or cultural barriers to accessing women’s shelters, particularly when children are involved.

Some formalized services like Child Protection Services, the courts and police were often cited as flashpoints for further harm to women leaving violence. While there were exceptions where women had positive or very positive experiences with these systems, they were in the minority and were as a result of a particular attending case worker , officer or court personnel and as an exception to the overall system response.

Anti-racist, trauma-informed and GBV training are seen as being in urgent need within the justice sector. The court system in particular was seen as confusing, biased toward the perpetrator and often re-traumatizing. Jurisdictional confusion and a lack of communication and information as well as limited to no navigation of the justice system were notable issues within justice response.

Mental health support, whether clinical or via supportive counseling, was identified as a key tool for health and wellbeing as well as future success and resiliency for women while access and wait times remain problematic barriers to support. The informal support received from program coordinators at the YWCA was often the only emotional support for women and was truly appreciated.

Key services altogether missing mentioned by interview respondents were formalized navigational support and advocacy services as well as more options for group or individual support tailored to the needs of women who have experienced GBV. As well, culturally diverse and proficient services on the whole are few in number. Overall, it is very clear that multi-sector investment in further training and in efforts to develop the expertise in GBV is needed in all sectors.

Research findings did link increased financial security generally and microloan programs in other parts of the world to a reduction in vulnerability for women and improvement in socio-economic status. And while there is no clear evidence to date directly linking the potential impact microloan programs have on prevention of repeat or a return to violence, there were strong correlations between financial dependence to a lack of secure housing which therefore serve as additional barriers to leaving (along with stigma, fear, shame, a lack of support and many other known factors). Given that the sole purpose of the December 6th program is to support re-housing expenses for women leaving violence, it can therefore be strongly linked to a reduction in barriers to leaving (financial and housing support) and potentially further reinforces women’s tendencies to not return to violence.

More importantly, the other less formal functions of the December 6th program of providing general support, information, referrals and a trained and compassionate human to talk to at this most vulnerable time, are key factors in feelings of success, happiness and safety articulated by interview respondents. This is underscored via research in best practices in responding to women who are impacted by GBV.

Interactions with the December 6th personnel proved to be as important as the money itself. For some women, their relationship with staff was valued as being key to their survival. No matter what atrocities interview respondents had been through they were so happy to share their feelings about program staff, affirming that the qualities and expertise that they embody need to be resourced, sustained and replicated in order to continue this valuable source of support to those affected by GBV.

Another aspect of the My Voice Matters project was to delineate key ‘best/promising practices’ demonstrated by the December 6th Fund in order for program replication and appropriate resourcing. Observable patterns of program response, based on interviews with loan recipients and backed by research into ‘best/promising practices’ for responding to GBV generally and wherever possible within a financial capacity, resulted in four key opportunities for successful program delivery.

The December 6th Fund is:

EVIDENCE-BASED, in an understanding of how intersecting forms of oppression (including financial abuse) are central to a woman’s economic vulnerability and to her ability to escape to safety,
is staffed by those with a certain degree of SPECIALIZED EXPERTISE (in the dynamics of GBV; intersectionality and the importance of cultural proficiency; trauma; resources and supports in navigating escape; and challenges of re-housing),
it facilitates much-needed AUTONOMY AND INDEPENDENCE for women leaving violence,
and it is RESPONSIVE – program staff are nimble and adapt their approach and program process itself to the changing circumstances and needs of the women it serves. These key aspects of program delivery could be explored further and used for potential replication elsewhere.

Other project activities included compiling a list of known organizations and agencies that support re-housing in a number of ways (financial aid for rent or bill arrears, emergency moving, pet kennelling, furniture banks etc.…) as well as outreach to agencies and organizations across the province to ensure that they can confidently refer their clients and the women they work with to this provincially available resource.

In sum, the deep and far-reaching impacts of a seemingly small sum of money for participants in this program are notable. It is obvious that the care and competence administered by staff at the YWCA have significantly contributed to this result for very vulnerable women at an even more vulnerable time. There are so many barriers to leaving and to accessing help – we are fortunate to have organizations like the YWCA and programs like December 6th and for people who work everyday to help make the path a little more human.

BTPI has been honoured to hear how these women’s lives intersect with this valuable program and those who oversee it.