Family Violence Prevention Project (FVPP) Toolkit for Newcomer, Immigrant, and Refugee (NIR) Service Providers
Introduction
This Family Violence Prevention Project (FVPP) toolkit was developed by the Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies (AAISA) to support Newcomer, Immigrant, and Refugee (NIR) service providers working with individuals and families impacted by domestic violence (DV). Recognizing that NIR communities often face unique challenges—including language barriers, cultural stigma, immigration-related stressors, and limited access to mainstream supports—this toolkit integrates best practices, practical tools, and culturally responsive approaches to strengthen frontline responses across the sector.
Built with input from community organizations, current research, and sector-wide expertise, the toolkit provides service providers with accessible, evidence-informed resources to enhance safety, promote empowerment, and facilitate coordinated care. It is designed to be adaptable across diverse organizational settings, helping professionals respond to domestic violence in ways that honour cultural nuances, respect lived experience, and prioritize survivor-centered support.
Who This Toolkit Is For
This toolkit is intended for service providers who support Newcomer, Immigrant, and Refugee individuals and families, including:
- Settlement and integration workers
- Case managers, social workers, and counsellors
- Community outreach and frontline staff
- Shelter workers and crisis responders
- Policy, advocacy, and program staff in NIR-serving agencies
- Professionals collaborating with justice, child protection, or health systems
Whether you are new to domestic violence work or an experienced practitioner, this toolkit aims to strengthen your capacity to respond safely, confidently, and collaboratively.
Overall Information
English Overall Information
Alberta Resources
- Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters: Inventory of Promising Practices
- Canadian Immigrant Women’s Association: Multilingual Resources on Gender-Based Violence
- Islamic Family: Fostering Resilience – Tailored Resources for Racialized Frontline Agencies, Informal Community Care Providers, and Muslim Survivors of Gender-Based Violence
Other Provincial Resources
- Battered Women’s Support Services (Vancouver, BC): Empowering Non-Status, Refugee and Immigrant Women Who Experience Violence
- MOSAIC BC: Training and Education for Front-Line Service Providers Responding to Violence Against Women
- AMSSA BC: Supporting Migrant Workers Experiencing Domestic Violence (with 90 min webinar)
- Neighbours, Friends and Families (ON): Resource library
- Milieux de travail alliés (QC): Facing conjugal violence: allies, resources, and rights for immigrant women (in the workplace)
Canada – Wide Resources
- Government of Canada: Abuse is wrong in any language booklets.
- Hébergement femmes Canada: Liste de ressources pour s’orienter dans les systems d’immigration et accéder aux services avec les immigrantes et les réfugiées survivantes de VFF (some links in English).
- Women’s Shelters Canada Resource List: Community of practice on navigating immigration systems and access to services with immigrant and refugee survivors of violence against women.
International Resources
- Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence (USA): Language planning for victims of crime with low English proficiency, or who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Information En Francais
Ressources en français sont aussi inclus dans les sections ci-dessous. | Resources in French are also included in the sections below.
Provincial Resources
- Africa Centre + Partnership for African Newcomers (AB): Briser les barriers, Construire le soutien: Violence conjugale dans les communautés africaines, antillaises et noires de l’Alberta
- CLEO Violence familiale et femmes immigrantes (ON): identifier, comprendre et se protéger
- VoirLaViolence.ca (ON)
- Institut national de santé publique du Québec Context de vulnérabilité (QC): femmes immigrantes
- YWCA Montreal bibliothèque de ressources SansViolenceFree(QC)
- ControleCoercitif.ca(QC) : Bibliothèque de ressources
- Educaloi: Intervenir auprès des personnes immigrantes victims d’agression sexuelle (QC) (apprentissage en ligne de 50 mins)
- Violence conjugale et personnes sans statut (QC)
- Milieux de travail alliés contre la violence conjugale (QC): Face à la violence conjugale: des alliés, des ressources et des droits pour les femmes immigrantes (en milieu de travail)
- Développement professionel La Re-Source (QC): Accueillir les femmes victims de violence conjugale issues de l’immigration.
Canada – Wide Resources
- Canadian Council of Muslim Women:Mobiliser les hommes et les garçons pour mettre fin à la violence familiale
- Hébergement femmes Canada: Liste de ressources pour s’orienter dans les systems d’immigration et accéder aux services avec les immigrantes et les réfugiées survivantes de VFF
Danger Assessment and Safety Planning
Once family violence has been disclosed to a practitioner, this section provides several possible question guides to support service providers in assessing danger and planning next steps. Newcomers may face unique risks and barriers when experiencing domestic violence. Danger assessments and safety plans help identify the level of risk for severe harm or lethality in situations of intimate partner violence and determine what steps a person may take.
Appropriately administering a danger assessment or assisting a client with a safety plan may require formal training. If you are not sure how to perform a danger assessment or safety planning session, it may be appropriate to refer your client to, or collaborate with, an organization that specializes in family violence such as one of those linked further below, which specialize in performing these tasks. It can still be valuable to review the guidance associated with the administration of each of these tools to learn more about the approach.
Danger Assessment
Provincial Resources
- Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters (AB): Danger assessment course materials
- Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic (ON): Has analysis of 15 risk assessment tools and includes a child-focused risk assessment tool.
- Woman Abuse Council of Toronto (ON): A community analysis of intimate partner violence risk assessment tool.
- FAST (Four Aspects Screening Tool) (NB): A culturally integrated family violence risk assessment tool.
International Resources
- VAWNet Online Resource Library: Danger assessment for immigrant women (DA-I).
- Johns Hopkins School of Nursing (Danger Assessment): A specialized safety and risk assessment resource related to domestic violence.
- DASH (Domestic Abuse, Stalking, and Honour-Based) Violence Risk Checklist & Training: The domestic abuse, stalking and honour based violence risk Identification. Note that the term “honour-based violence” is generally criticized by advocates for immigrant and racialized women who experience family violence.
Safety Planning
Provincial Resources
- Battered Women’s Support Services (BC): Safety planning for non-status immigrants, refugees, and refugee claimants.
- Safety Assessment and Safety Planning Tool (BC): Supporting women with precarious immigration status, refugees, refugee claimants and immigrant women facing domestic violence.
- Alberta Safe Horizon (AB): Safety Planning Tool document used to explore possible ways in which a person experiencing abuse in a
relationship can keep themselves and their children safer. - Peel Committee Against Woman Abuse (PCAWA) (ON): A booklet that was put together by women who have survived abuse
Canada – Wide Resources
- Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Initiative: Creating safety plans with vulnerable populations to reduce the risk of repeated violence and homicide.
Financial Assistance & Housing Support
Leaving an abusive relationship often comes with financial strain and housing instability. This section compiles key benefits, emergency support services, and shelter options in Alberta to help survivors access immediate safety and rebuild their stability. Please note that some government-funded housing programs in Alberta are restricted to assisting citizens and permanent residents (which includes refugees).
- GOA – Escaping Abuse Benefit
- GOA – Housing Support for GBV Survivors
- Calgary Police Services – Shelters for Survivors
- Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters shelter map
Legal Resources and Collaborations Amongst the Family, Child Protection and the Justice System
Families experiencing violence often interact with multiple systems at once. Coordinated responses between criminal justice, child protection, and family law support safety, clarity, and healing. This section emphasizes collaborative approaches that reduce system barriers and improve outcomes for survivors and children.
Immigration Law and Family Violence
Provincial Resources
- Legal Aid (BC): Pathways for women with precarious immigration status fleeing violence.
- Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta (CPLEA) (AB): Leaving an abusive relationship if you are not a Canadian Citizen.
- Canadian Journal of Family Law (ON): Domestic Violence and Access to Justice Within and Across Legal Systems
- Éducaloi–Se séparer en context de violence (QC): Quelles consequences pour les personnes immigrantes.
- Défendre une femme issue de l’immigration victime de contrôle coercitif (QC): Guide pour les avocats et les avocates en droit de l’immigration Régroupement des maison pour femme victims de violence conjugale
Canada – Wide Resources
- Government of Canada: Immigration options for victims of family violence.
- Defending Immigrant Women Who Are Victims of Coercive Control: A Guide for Immigration Lawyers (EN), grouping of shelters for women who are victims of domestic violence.
Traditional Law and Court System
Provincial Resources
- Rowan House (AB): Legal Resource Navigator
- Mapping Domestic Violence Law and Policy in Alberta (AB): A document by Jennifer Koshan that provides an in-depth analysis of the laws, policies, and justice system components related to domestic violence in Alberta,
- Islamic Family Law Made Simple Guide (AB): A legal guide to understanding the law in Alberta translated in Arabic, English and Somali.
- Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta (CPLEA) (AB): Family law toolkit for Albertans experiencing domestic violence and the frontline service workers who assist them.
Canada – Wide Resources
- Government of Canada: Making the Links in Family Violence Cases: Collaboration among the Family, Child Protection and Criminal Justice Systems
Restorative Justice and Diversionary Programs
In the past, practitioners have been wary of the use of restorative justice protocols in cases of family violence because of the potential for reinforcing abusive dynamics if the victim-centered lens of restorative justice fails. However, especially among communities that have also found the conventional court system re-traumatizing, including immigrant communities, indigenous communities, and Black communities, in recent years there has been increasing recognition and openness to restorative and relational approaches to handling family violence cases.
- Ending Violence Association of BC: Restorative Justice and Gender-Based Violence in BC
- Ruth’s House: Couples’ Support Group Programs
- The Ubuntu Approach to Building Restorative Justice: An article that analyzes the significance of Ubuntu as a philosophy of life and its potential as a conceptual and practical framework for restorative justice, especially in contexts marked by exclusion and structural violence
- National Resource Center on Domestic Violence: A national portrait of restorative approaches to intimate partner violence, with pathways to safety, accountability, healing, and well-being.
- Alberta’s Restorative Justice Pilot Project : This framework is designed to ONLY address criminal matters in which charges have been laid, and does not include specific reference to the role of police in making RJ referrals as an alternative to charging.
- Beverley Brown – RJ Pilot: Myths and facts in restorative justice.
Restraining Orders in Alberta
There are several kinds of restraining orders available in Alberta, including Emergency Protection Orders (EPOs), which offer immediate legal protection for individuals at risk of family violence.
Provincial Resources
- Emergency Protection Order (EPO) Application in Alberta (AB): How to apply for an Emergency Protection Order if you have been in a family violence situation.
- Today Centre (Edmonton)(AB): Introduction to Emergency Protection Orders.
- Women’s Centre of Calgary (AB): A PDF file on understanding on how to apply Emergency Protection Orders
Canada – Wide Resources
- Government of Alberta: Restraining and protection orders overview.
Other Resources for Family and Intimate Partner Violence
A range of local and national services is available to support individuals experiencing family or intimate partner violence. This section provides links to organizations offering crisis support, counselling, advocacy, and community-specific resources.
Provincial Resources
- Breaking Barriers, Building Support (AB): Intimate partner violence in Alberta’s African, Caribbean, and Black Communities.
- Sagesse Calgary (AB): a Calgary-based, non-profit organization dedicated to disrupting the structures of domestic abuse and fostering safe, healthy communities
- Fear Is Not Love Calgary (AB) : Support in Calgary and area individuals, families, and communities to live free from domestic violence and abuse.
- Ruth’s House Calgary (AB): Sisterhood/brotherhood connect & emergency shelter in Calgary resources.
- Africa Centre (AB): Better than the cure, preventing Intimate Partner Violence Podcast
Canada – Wide Resources
- Canadian Association of Social Welfares (CASW): Family and intimate partner violence resources.
- Alberta 211: Alberta Crisis Helplines
International Resources
- Human Rights Commission : Understanding Intimate Partner Violence in the LGBTQ+ Community
Engaging Perpetrators of Family Violence
Effective prevention and long-term safety require supporting both survivors and those who use violence. This section highlights trauma-informed approaches that promote healing, accountability, and community involvement, especially the role of families, friends, and men in prevention efforts.
Provincial Resources
- Mandela House Men’s Shelter Calgary (AB) : a short stay emergency shelter for men experiencing homelessness due to family crisis.
Canada – Wide Resources
- The Learning Network & Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Initiative With Vulnerable Populations: Survivors of intimate partner violence share insights on how friends and family can help.
International Resources
- National Resource Center on DV: workbook for fathers who have harmed their partners and families and want to change.
Primary Prevention Engaging Boys and Men
Explore these resources to learn how engaging boys and men can strengthen primary prevention efforts and promote respectful, equitable communities.
Provincial Resources
- University of Calgary SHIFT program (AB): Engaging Boys and Men.
- Calling in Men Research Project Calgary (AB): Approaches for Practitioners Engaging Men in Violence Prevention and Gender Equality
Canada – Wide Resources
- Canadian Council of Muslim Women English: Engaging Men and Boys to End Violence in the Family.
- Canadian Council of Muslim Women French: Mobiliser les hommes et les garçons pour mettre fin à la violence familiale.
Primary Prevention Engaging Community and Bystanders
These resources focus on engaging communities and bystanders in primary prevention by building awareness, confidence, and skills to recognize and safely respond to harmful situations before they escalate.
Provincial Resources
- Faith and Community Leaders Program (AB): Ruth’s House (for Black community members).
- University of Calgary SHIFT Program (AB): Supporting the Supporters.
- Neighbours, Friends and Families: Immigrant and Refugee Communities(ON)
- VoirLaViolence.ca(ON)
Supporting Survivors of Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is a serious human rights violation that requires informed, coordinated community action. This section shares resources which provide frontline support to survivors and training for service providers to recognize, respond to, and prevent exploitation.
Provincial Resources
- Act Alberta Services (AB): Offers a pathway to safety through frontline services and provides training for both service providers and community members.
Canada – Wide Resources
- CWICE-Protecting Refugee & Immigrant Youth from Exploitation and Human Trafficking: Across Canada, many refugee and immigrant youth face challenges that increase their vulnerability and lack of protection. The CWICE integrated model has led to more youth securing stable immigration status, experiencing less exploitation, and building stronger skills through targeted training. CWICE-Protecting Refugee & Immigrant Youth from Exploitation and Human Trafficking.
TRAININGS
This section highlights training opportunities and learning resources for service providers, community partners, and sector stakeholders working to prevent and respond to gender-based and family violence.
For Service Providers
Professional development opportunities to strengthen trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and coordinated GBV practice.
- OCASI: Review of GBV training for settlement workers currently available (2019)
- The Today Centre – Events
- GBV User Guide – GBV Guide for Supporting Survivors
- Gender-Based Violence Settlement Strategy Project – GBV Collaboration Between Sectors
- Africa Centre – Culturally and Contextually Adaptive Support and Prevention
- OCASI – Initiatives to End Gender-Based Violence
- Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) – Psychological Health & Safety Navigator Course
- AASAS – First Responder to Sexual Assault and Abuse Training
- ACSW Survivor – Centred Case Management
- University of Calgary Shift to Learn – Primary Prevention Courses
- Immigrant Family Violence Prevention Committee—“Understanding Family Systems in Immigrant Communities” and “Coercive Control Within Immigrant Family Systems”.
- La Re-Source (QC): Accueillir les femmes victims de violence conjugale issues de l’immigration.
Elder Abuse
Resources to help practitioners recognize, prevent, and respond to elder abuse in diverse community settings.
Gender Based Violence
Culturally informed training and supports tailored for immigrant women and families experiencing GBV.
- CIWA GBV TRAINING: The Gender Based Violence Prevention Program offers professional and culturally sensitive counselling and case management services to immigrant women and their families who are facing challenges related to family dynamics, domestic issues, gender-based violence, intimate partner violence, relationship problems, abuse, and trauma.
Family Violence Prevention
Information on assessment and court-mandated treatment programs for individuals who use violence.
- Stettler Society for the Prevention of Family Violence: Provides assessment and treatment for individuals who have been mandated through the court system, community corrections (probation), or Children and Family Services for charges related to intimate partner violence.
Indigenous Circle of Safety
Trauma-informed, culturally grounded training for Indigenous families and communities impacted by family violence.
- Aboriginal Counseling Services of Alberta: Training offered by the Aboriginal Counselling Services of Alberta for men, women, children and youth impacted by family violence.
For Men
Programs and services focused on healthy masculinities, accountability, prevention, and healing for men.
- Canadian Centre for Men & Families
- WiseGuyz Project – Centre for Sexuality
- NextGenMen: Changing the way we see, act, and think about masculinity
Mental Health
Supports for mental health and wellbeing, including group-based resources for those experiencing depression.
Black Communities
Culturally grounded supports and programs designed to meet the unique needs of Black individuals and families.
Contact and Contributions
For updates, resource sharing, or to contribute:
- Please email AAISA at events@aaisa.ca
This toolkit is a dynamic resource designed to evolve based on the needs and feedback of service providers. Regular updates and collaborative contributions are encouraged to maximize its effectiveness.