Hooking in, Activating and Extending: An Institutional Ethnography of the Family Violence Project of the Waterloo Region

Domestic violence (DV) is a significant social issue requiring a thoughtful and dedicated response. At present, many social service agencies and governmental bodies have a responsibility to provide a response to DV. Increasingly, innovative service delivery models are being used to construct more coherent responses to the violence. One such model, originates from the United States is entitled the Family Justice Centre model. This model of service delivery consists of the agencies responding to DV residing within the same building. The goal of this model is to improve the access to service for victims and to improve collaborative efforts between organizations in response to DV. In Ontario, Canada, the Family Violence Project of the Waterloo Region (FVP) is the first co-located DV model of service delivery. Comprised of twelve partners from the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and the non-profit sector, the FVP was initially designed to streamline services to victims and provide one-stop service provision. A growing body of research suggests that victims benefit from receiving service from the FVP model of service delivery. However, little is known about how the work is accomplished within these co-located models. Using Institutional Ethnography (IE), as developed by Dorothy Smith (1999), this research explores the textually-mediated landscape of the FVP to understand work processes and social relations. By using IE as a method of inquiry, a model of a community-based response to DV is revealed that establishes the powerful role of the CJS in identifying and assessing risk using risk assessing tools. The sharing of risk documents by the core CJS agencies activates other non-core CJS partners and extends the overall response to non-CJS partners in the community. The overall effect is the creation of a web of surveillance where the CJS is provided with information regarding families by various FVP partner agencies at various stages of intervention. The recommendations arising from this research include expanding the research on the use of multi-agency, co-located service delivery models in Canada in response to DV. Future research should also include an examination into the experiences of DV victims accessing service from these co-located models. Finally, future research is needed to understand the pathways to service of men who use violence in their relationships to improve their visibility within these service response models

Book Review: Lehmann, P., & Simmons, C. (2009). Strength-based batterer intervention: A new paradigm in ending family violence. New York: Springer Publishing Company.

Working with men who use violence against their partners is difficult and challenging work. As a field of practice, working with this population is growing and expanding on a continual basis. Historically, the mindset regarding working with men who abuse was quite narrow and there was little hope for change. The medical model would suggest that the prognosis for change was poor. For a long time, and some would suggest this pattern still continues, groups for men who abuse their partners were run along very narrow lines as well. For the past 20 years the primary model of ‘batterer intervention program’ (BIP) was the model developed in Duluth Minnesota. This model involved a mixture of the presentation of psycho-educational material in conjunction with a feminist analysis of violence against women. The Duluth model has remained the centerpiece of many programs throughout the United States and Canada

Hooking in, Activating and Extending: An Institutional Ethnography of the Family Violence Project of the Waterloo Region

Domestic violence (DV) is a significant social issue requiring a thoughtful and dedicated response. At present, many social service agencies and governmental bodies have a responsibility to provide a response to DV. Increasingly, innovative service delivery models are being used to construct more coherent responses to the violence. One such model, originates from the United States is entitled the Family Justice Centre model. This model of service delivery consists of the agencies responding to DV residing within the same building. The goal of this model is to improve the access to service for victims and to improve collaborative efforts between organizations in response to DV. In Ontario, Canada, the Family Violence Project of the Waterloo Region (FVP) is the first co-located DV model of service delivery. Comprised of twelve partners from the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and the non-profit sector, the FVP was initially designed to streamline services to victims and provide one-stop service provision. A growing body of research suggests that victims benefit from receiving service from the FVP model of service delivery. However, little is known about how the work is accomplished within these co-located models. Using Institutional Ethnography (IE), as developed by Dorothy Smith (1999), this research explores the textually-mediated landscape of the FVP to understand work processes and social relations. By using IE as a method of inquiry, a model of a community-based response to DV is revealed that establishes the powerful role of the CJS in identifying and assessing risk using risk assessing tools. The sharing of risk documents by the core CJS agencies activates other non-core CJS partners and extends the overall response to non-CJS partners in the community. The overall effect is the creation of a web of surveillance where the CJS is provided with information regarding families by various FVP partner agencies at various stages of intervention. The recommendations arising from this research include expanding the research on the use of multi-agency, co-located service delivery models in Canada in response to DV. Future research should also include an examination into the experiences of DV victims accessing service from these co-located models. Finally, future research is needed to understand the pathways to service of men who use violence in their relationships to improve their visibility within these service response models

The child welfare response to domestic violence : exploring the concurrence between the literature, best practice guidelines and worker perception in the Ministry for Children and Family Development

Increasingly; child welfare authorities have become involved with families where domestic violence is an issue. This has been the result of improved understanding of the impact of witnessing domestic violence on children. However, child welfare has been criticized for the oppressive nature of the interventions with families where domestic violence has occurred. Critics have argued that an absence of understanding about domestic violence by social workers in child welfare has resulted in oppressive practice towards women and children. This study explored the perceptions of social workers in British Columbia's Ministry for Children and Family Development - South Fraser Region about the barriers to best practice in cases of domestic violence. An extensive literature review revealed eight barriers to best practice that contradict current best practice guidelines for cases of domestic violence. The findings of this study revealed that social workers identified that similar barriers to best practice exist in the South Fraser Region, thereby confirming the concerns in the literature. The use of factor analysis revealed that social workers are attempting to work with non-offending parents in amore supportive manner, but there continue to be systemic problems associated with child welfare services that impede workers ability to practice in a non-oppressive manner. Recommendations for improvement of service provision are outlined and discussed.Arts, Faculty ofSocial Work, School ofGraduat

PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL WORK VOLUME 8 (Spring 2010)

This is the full-text volume of Perspectives on Social Work, vol. 8 (Spring 2010)

WOSMIP II- Workshop on Signatures of Medical and Industrial Isotope Production

Medical and industrial fadioisotopes are fundamental tools used in science, medicine and industry with an ever expanding usage in medical practice where their availability is vital. Very sensitive environmental radionuclide monitoring networks have been developed for nuclear-security-related monitoring [particularly Comprehensive Test-Ban-Treaty (CTBT) compliance verification] and are now operational