DisAbled Women’s Network (DAWN)/Réseau d'action
de femmes handicapées (RAFH) Canada
No the title of my talk is NOT Understanding the Response Needs of Women with
Disabilities who are Victims of Violence …
30 Years of Leadership, Partnership and Networking – what now?!
Presented by Bonnie Brayton, National Executive Director,
DAWN-RAFH Canada
November 7th, 2014
aus·pi·cious
ôˈspiSHəs/
adjective
•conducive to
success;
favorable.
Produced in collaboration with The Learning Centre at University of
Western Ontario’s Centre for Research and Education on Violence
Against Women and Children, this Resource and Educational Tool
highlights the context of violence experienced by women with disabilities
and provides statistics and important resources.
Creating transformation by…
Leadership
Partnership
Networking
The gaps that continue
• http://www.understandingsexwork.com/
October 2014
• About one third of managers (33%) and sex workers(35%) in
our study, as well as one quarter (25%) of intimate partners
said they had a long term disability
• These figures are well above the Canadian average.
• In 2012.
• Statistics Canada reported14% of adult Canadians were
limited in their daily activities due to a disability, with the
prevalence of disability increasing with age,
• reaching 16% for those aged 45 – 64 (Statistics Canada, 2013a)
How DAWN-RAFH works…
1. An issue is identified
http://www.dawncanada.net/?attachment_id=1296
1. Identify WWD and stakeholders
who will lead work, identify and
build partnerships and establish key
networks
2. Develop and implement the plan
Leadership
 Ridington, Jillian, Beating the “Odds”: Violence and Women with
Disabilities, 1989.
 Masuda, Shirley and Jillian Ridington, Meeting Our Needs: An Access
Manual for Transition Houses, 2nd printing, April 1992.
 Masuda, Shirley, Don’t Tell Me To Take A Hot Bath: Resource Manual
for Crisis Workers, 1995.
NATIONAL Accessibility and Accommodation Survey (NAAS)
Demanding Access to Justice for Women with Intellectual
Disabilities, Brain Injury and Mental Health - R vs. DAI - 2012
Leadership …
• Violence against Women with disabilities – Violence
prevention review:
• http://www.dawncanada.net/?bookmarks=violence-againstwomen-with-disabilities-violence-prevention-review
•
• Recommendations: Meeting the Needs of Victims of Crime in
Canada:
• http://www.dawncanada.net/?attachment_id=1017
Partnership …
Exposing Abuse of Federally-Sentenced Women with
Mental Health Issues - Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading?
Canada’s Treatment of Federally-Sentenced Women
with Mental Health Issues - U of T, Native Women’s
Association, Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry
Societies – 2012
Learning Network Newsletter: Issue #7 | December 2013
(PDF)
Ableism is a form of violence
 Ableism and ableist views are ways in which ideas/beliefs
are organized and supported that is based on the belief that
the‘ablebody’ is favoured/preferred over the disAbled body.
 Similar to the experience of racism homophobia/transphobia
and sexism, it is the socially constructed characteristics of
disAbility that positions people with disAbilitiesas an ‘inferior’
group to non disAbled people.
Definition of Disability
12
“Disability” results from the interaction
between persons with impairments,
conditions or illnesses and the
environmental and attitudinal barriers that
hinders full and effective participation in
society on an equal basis with others.
Definition of Disability (continued)
13
Impairment
and/or
Illness
Exclusionary
environments
and/or
attitudes
+
DISABILITY !
=
14
The UN Convention on the Rights of People
(CRPD) does not explicitly define disability –
why?
Preamble of Convention states:
Disability is an evolving
Concept
Partnership – InFocus
Bringing People with Disabilities into the picture
With our lead partner the Canadian Association
for Community Living, 13 + provincial/
territorial and dozens of local groups…
We are assisting communities to organize around ..
Health & wellness promotion – with a focus on breast cancer
prevention
Combating violence against women, men and older adults
3 funded projects rolled into 1 initiative!
 Cancer Screening and Early Detection for Women with
Disabilities & People with Intellectual Disabilities (Public Health
Agency of Canada)
 Preventing and Responding to Elder Abuse in the Lives of
People with Disabilities and Deaf People (ESDC- New Horizons
for Seniors Program -NHSP)
 Preventing and Responding to Violence in the Lives of Women
& Deaf Women (Status of Women Canada)
To respond to the abuse of seniors with disabilities, DAWN-RAFH Canada and
the Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL) are implementing a
project entitled “Preventing And Responding to Elder Abuse in
the Lives of People with Disabilities and Deaf People.”
Approach
 Draws on Ellen Pence’s work on Institutional
Ethnography in the form of Safety Audits
 Work in one demonstration community in each of the
provinces/territories
 One implementation process that integrates the 3
projects in these local communities
More on lead organizations!
Why? - We want to put disability on the social
equity agenda and build the capacity of the
other local community sectors to include people
with disabilities.
Local communities and Lead
organizations!
 Montreal – YWCA Montreal
 Steinbach - Steinbach Chamber of Commerce
 Vancouver - Social Planning & Research Council of BC
 Edmonton - The Multicultural Health Brokers Cooperative
 St John- St. John Human Development Council
 Whitehorse – Yukon Status of Women Council
 Summerside – Cooper Institute
 Kitchener-Waterloo – Cross-sectoral Steering Committee- led by CHC
 Halifax – YWCA Halifax
 Yellowknife – YWCA Yellowknife
 Iqaluit - Iqaluit City Council
 St. John- The Independent Living Resource Centre
 Regina – Regina Immigrant Women’s Centre
What are we trying to accomplish? –more
specifically.. Objectives
 To raise awareness about these issues at the local level for the
mainstream, other population-specific groups and non-profit
organizations.
 To identify, examine, understand and reach the breadth of
diversity that exists in the disability population.
 To learn how to establish a local infrastructure to support this
work.
Networking
Canadian Association for Community Living
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Making Women
Count
Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions
Canadian Labour Congress
CRIAW (Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of
Women)
Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies
Maison Parent Roback
Centre de documentation en Education des Adultes et de la
femme (CDEACF)
Networking
Acquired Brain Injury – Women and Girls Working Group (American
Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine)
Council of Canadians with Disabilities
Canadian Network of Women’s Shelters and Transition Houses
FAFIA (The Feminist Alliance for International Action)
Canadian Women’s Health Network
Canadian Association for the Deaf/ Deaf Women’s Leadership
Project
National Action Committee on Access to Family Justice
National Victims of Crime Network
Bold Vision
WITHOUT A VOICE: WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES
AND VICTIMIZATION
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded
&v=7kejw_llr6E
WE CAN TELL AND WE WILL!
Information for women with disabilities about
identifying and reporting abuse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dPKu2YoCLI8
Leading by example ….
 First Nations, Inuit and Metis people
 Immigrant and racialized women
 Work in both official languages – part of
the Quebec community
 Deaf, Deafened and Hard of Hearing
communities
Leading on Intersectional Work
- CRIAW & DAWN-RAFH – Inclusive Meeting Tool;
- Vancouver/SFU – Intersectional Conference
- A Bold Vision
In collaboration
with FemNorthNet and
the Canadian Research
Institute for the
Advancement of Women
(CRIAW), the Disabled
Women’s Network of
Canada is launching our
brand new resource
“Diversity through
Inclusive Practice:
An Evolving Toolkit
for Creating
Inclusive Processes,
Spaces & Events.”
Our commitment for the next
30 years!
.
- Continue
to develop tools, resources, curriculum;
- Continue to lead research and to raise the issues that
affect women with disAbilities and Deaf women;
- Continue to engage and support others in leading;
A new conversation begins
today … Partnership
• Today, as Leaders and Partners, I ask that
we work together and begin the deeper
work … connecting all the factors that
contribute to the over representation of
women with differing abilities in a range of
'post traumatic ' states, all of
them manifestations of the physical,
sexual, emotional and systemic abuse
which women experience.
Resources for Conference Participants
• http://www.dawncanada.net/en-news/eva-bc-annualtraining-forum/