Research

AVA is about creating the capacity to transform population (community) health and social services to promote health and wellness of girls and women at risk/affected by violence and adversity over the life-cycle, via a collaborative, innovative, cross-sectoral/disciplinary/jurisdictional training platform.

AVA stands to help reduce family violence and improve Canada’s UNICEF rankings for girls’ health and wellness, with positive lifespan, intergenerational and population impacts.

AVA Objectives

To transform population (community) health and social services to promote health and wellness of girls and women at risk/affected by violence and adversity over the life-cycle. 

To do this, AVA will:

1. Reduce Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), especially violence
2. Promote life-cycle & intergenerational health and wellness
3. Support families
4. Develop, deliver, test and integrate innovations across sectors
5. Reduce health, economic, and social costs

AVA Plan

• Prevent/address impacts of violence and ACEs on girls and women’s health and wellness
• Conduct collaborative Implementation Science (e.g. community-based) research 
• Develop, test, implement, scale and spread evidence-based, innovative interventions
• Undertake essential, barrier-breaking cross-disciplinary/sectoral/jurisdictional research 
• Undertake transformative strategic planning (development/management) and evaluation to influence programs and policy from service delivery to policy and systems levels

AVA Partners

The AVA team is comprised of 203+ members and growing, including 69 academic partners and 85 community partners across Canada.

Visit the AVA Partners webpage for a comprehensive list of AVA partners by region.

Learn more about the AVA project here.

The project will include a comprehensive examination of the RESOLVE Network's current research capacity for conducting community-engaged Indigenous research and the development of strategy to increase our current capacity. The project will result in the Network having greater capacity to conduct research based on stronger relationships with Indigenous partners and will embrace fundamental principles, such as good faith, reciprocity, and trust. Outcomes of the project will be shared broadly - with UM senior administration, research centres affiliated with the University of Manitoba, the seven partnering universities affiliated with the RESOLVE Network, and the four other gender-based violence research centres across Canada.

Investigators and community partners

RESOLVE Manitoba: Dr. Kendra Nixon, Director of RESOLVE, Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Work

Advisory Committee Members

• Dr. Kendra Nixon, Faculty of Social Work, Director of RESOLVE
• Nikki Klymochko, Faculty of Social Work, MSW-IK-Student Research Assistant
• Logan Stalker, Faculty of Social Work, Student Research Assistant
• Dr. Marlyn Bennett, Faculty of Social Work, MSW-IK
• Dr. Michael Yellow Bird, Faculty of Social Work
• Dr. Adele Perry, Centre for Human Rights Research and Faculty of Arts
• Dr. Frank Deer, Faculty of Education
• Elder Belinda Vandenbroeck
• Sharon Mason, Circling Buffalo
• Elder Wanda Murdock, Indigenous Student Centre (U of M)
• Jeneen Dederick, Manitoba Inuit Association (MIA)
• Jac Nobliss, Faculty of Social Work, MSW-IK

Through integrated Knowledge Translation (iKT)(Graham, Kothari et al. 2018) and Patient Engagement (PE)(CIHR/SPOR 2014, Alberta SPOR SUPPORT Unit 2018) approaches—where patients, health care professionals and health system administrators are partners—and along with our SPOR collaborators (e.g. Alberta SPOR Support Unit), we are conducting an effectiveness-implementation hybrid (EIH) Type II study of ATTACH™.

Co-primary objectives evaluate clinical intervention effectiveness and implementation strategy feasibility(Curran, Bauer et al. 2012) in naturalistic, real-world, settings, as delivered by community agencies. ATTACH™ is a promising early intervention and psychoeducational parenting program, designed for delivery at community agencies serving families of preschoolers affected by toxic stress (e.g. parental depression and addiction, family violence, poverty) (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University 2016).

Children’s exposure to toxic stress predicts developmental problems (e.g. cognitive and motor), physical health problems (e.g. inflammatory disorders), and years of life lost to disability, resulting in health care system burden (Cuijpers, Smit et al. 2011, Brent and Silverstein 2013). According to the 2019 ‘Vibrant and Healthy Kids’ Report of the National Academies, effective early interventions focused on supporting parent-child relationships are urgently needed to reduce societal health inequities stemming from childhood stress exposures (National Academies of Sciences 2019). ATTACH™ is poised to address this need.

Investigators and community partners

RESOLVE Manitoba: Dr. Kendra Nixon, University of Manitoba, Dr. Nicole Letourneau, Kharah Ross, Kathryn Birnie, Ian Graham, Michael Kobor, Sarah Merrill, Kendra Nixon, Caroline Piotrowski, and Dr. Karen Wood

Community partners include: Calgary Urban Project Society, Discovery House, Sonshine Centre, Steinbach FRC, Alcove Addiction Recovery

The COVID-19 and the Experiences of IPV Survivors and Service Providers project aims to address current and critical gaps by better understanding how pandemics, such as COVID-19, directly impact survivors of IPV and the organizations that serve them.

The objectives of the project include:

1. Establish a foundational understanding of the nature and scope of the impact of pandemics on the social issue of IPV;
2. Explore the impact of pandemics on IPV survivors;
3. Identify how pandemics can put IPV survivors at additional risk;
4. Explore the impacts of pandemics on IPV service providers;
5. Explore how IPV-serving organizations in Manitoba responded to COVID-19, including what barriers they encountered;
6. Develop policy and practice recommendations for policymakers and service providers. Through these objectives, the extent of the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on IPV victims/survivors and service providers will be identified.

Investigators and community partners

RESOLVE Manitoba: Dr. Kendra Nixon, University of Manitoba, Renée Hoffart, RESOLVE Project Coordinator, University of Manitoba
Brandon University: Nadine Henriquez and Nadine Smith

Community partners include: Government of Manitoba (Status of Women) Family Violence Prevention Program.

COVID-19 and the Experiences of IPV Survivors and Service Providers Final Reports

• Literature Review

The research and development project will gather the wisdom of lived experience, knowledge keepers, academics, and local community service providers to inform the creation of a Two-Eyed Seeing trauma specific healing model for people who have experienced childhood sexual abuse. The research will also identify existing service gaps in Manitoba, highlighting the urgency around addressing this important societal issue. 

Investigators and community partners

RESOLVE Manitoba: Dr. Kendra Nixon (Co-Investigator), Ph.D., Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Work, U of M and Director, RESOLVE Network

Tammy Nelson, (Primary Investigator) Ph.D. Student, Faculty of Social Work, University of Manitoba   

Community Partner: The Laurel Centre Inc.

This project is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada and is designed to address the unique need of survivors of family violence within the family justice system. Canada’s research centres on violence against women will initiate, host and support a Community of Practice (CoP) comprised of family violence experts, survivors, family lawyers, researchers, mental health and social service professionals.

The overarching goal of the project is to enhanced support to survivors of violence through the family law system by increasing opportunities for family law practitioners to have training, guidance and resources to support trauma-informed practice, and to improve coordination of services that will enhance the safety and well-being of all parties.

Investigators and community partners

RESOLVE Manitoba & Academic Partners:

• Kendra Nixon, Director RESOLVE
• Renée Hoffart, Research Associate RESOLVE
• Kathleen McDonald, Research Assistant, RESOLVE
• Lorna Turnbull, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba

Community Partners:

• Ashley Stewart, Coordinator, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program, HSC
• Matthew Maher, Researcher, Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth
• Wayne Eisbrenner, Winnipeg Children’s Access Agency
• Ingrid Pflug, Crown Counsel, Family Law Section, Government of Manitoba
• Crystal Brown, Community Justice Development Coordinator, Southern Chiefs’ Organization
• Janis Raeburn, Manager, Family Guide, Domestic Violence Specialist, Victim Services
• Deena Brock, Provincial Coordinator, Manitoba Association of Women’s Shelters
• Robynne Kazina, Partner and Family Law Lawyer, Taylor McCaffrey LLP
• Paula Ediger, Women’s Relationship Counsellor, A Woman’s Place, NorWest Co-op
• Leita Kalinowsky, Acting Executive Director, Family Resolution Service, Government of Manitoba
• Carol Reimer, Community Resource Program Manager, IRCOM
• Shane Wepruk, Domestic Violence Intervention Coordinator, Winnipeg Police Service
• Sonia Grmela, Executive Director, ChezRachel
• Jennifer Laviolette, participant with lived experience
• Kimlee Wong, participant with lived experience
• Masha Giller, participant with lived experience

New Resource Available:

• FVFL Poster - English
• FVFL Poster - French

Community of Practice Bulletins:

• February 2021
• January 2022 | French Translation

Community of Practice Legal Bulletins:

• Issue No. 1.1 (May 2022) – Michel v. Graydon
• Issue No. 1.2 (May 2022) –  Colucci v. Colucci
• Issue No. 1.3 (May 2022) – Barendregt v. Gerbil’s
• Issue No. 2 (October 2022) – McLellan v Birbilis
• Issue No. 3 (November 2022) – Compensating Victims of Domestic Violence: The Case of A v. A

Community of Practice Research Briefs:

• Issue No. 1 – Supporting the health of survivors of family violence in family law proceedings 
• Issue No. 2 – Why Can’t Everyone Just Get Along?: How BC’s family law system puts survivors in danger
• Issue No. 3 – Coercive Control and Family Law
• Issue No. 4 - A Review of the Recent Recommendations in Québec 
• Issue No. 5 -  The 2021 Divorce Act: Using Statutory Interpretation Principles to Support Substantive Equality for Women and Children in Family Violence Cases
• Issue No. 6 - COVID-19, the Shadow Pandemic, and Access to Justice for Survivors of Domestic Violence Webinar 
• Issue No. 7- Trauma-Informed Approaches to Family Violence in Family Law 
• Issue No. 8 - Engaging Fathers Who Commit Family Violence: Issues and Challenges for Family Courts
• Issue No. 9 - Implementing Children’s Participation Rights in All Family Court Proceedings
• Issue No. 10 - Contributing to the Health and Safety of Family Violence Survivors: Reducing the Risks of Secondary Victimization
• Issue No. 11 - Supporting Survivors through Court Reform: Assessing the Role of Integrated and Specialized Courts for Family Law in British Columbia
• Issue No. 12 - Survivors’ Views of Family Courts: Findings from the Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Initiative with Vulnerable Populations (CDHPIVP)
• Issue No. 13 - Family Law Mediation in Family Violence Cases: Basics & Best Practices
• Issue No. 14 - Tech-Facilitated Violence: An Introduction
• Issue No. 15 - When the Family Court Becomes the Continuation of Family Violence After Separation: Understanding Litigation Abuse
• Issue No. 16 - The Co-Occurrence of Parental Alienation Claims and Intimate Partner Violence in Family Court: Theory and Practice 
• Issue No.17 - Addressing Poverty and Family Violence in Family Law Proceedings
• Issue No.18 – Ethical Obligations of Family Law Practitioners

**Applications are now being accepted for the Carolynne Boivin scholarship for research in family or gender-based violence! Deadline to submit application is Monday, January 16, 2023.

About the Carolynne Boivin scholarship for research in family or gender-based violence

Colleagues and board members of the Research and Education for Solutions to Violence and Abuse (RESOLVE) Research Network have acknowledged Carolynne Boivin's contribution to the development of their network through the establishment of a fund at the University of Manitoba. Each year, the available annual income from the fund will be used to offer one or more scholarships valued at a minimum of $4,000 each to graduate students who:

1. are enrolled full-time in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of Manitoba;
2. have achieved a minimum grade point average of 3.0 based on the last 60 credit hours (or equivalent) of study; and
3. are conducting research in the area of family or gender-based violence.

In any given year, at least one of the scholarships will be awarded with first preference going to a student who has self-declared as a First Nations, Métis, or Inuit from Canada, and second preference to a student who is conducting Indigenous-focused research.

The competition for the scholarships will be advertised each year by RESOLVE, and applicants will be required to submit a brief description (maximum 500 words) of their graduate research.

The selection committee will have the discretion to determine the number and value of awards offered each year in accordance with the terms above. The Vice-Provost (Graduate Education) and Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies (or designate) will ask the Director of RESOLVE Manitoba to name the selection committee for this award.

This agreement may be amended by the mutual consent of the donor (or designate) and the University of Manitoba. All such amendments shall be in writing. In the absence of the donor (or designate), and providing all reasonable efforts have been made to consult, the Board of Governors of the University of Manitoba has the right to modify the terms of this award if, because of changed conditions, it becomes necessary to do so. Such modification shall conform as closely as possible to the expressed intention of the donor in establishing the award.

Download the application form

Carolynne Boivin Scholarship for Research in Family or Gender-Based Violence Impact Report

The Carolynne Boivin Scholarship for Research in Family or Gender-Based Violence Impact Report highlights past scholarship recipients whose research has focused on addressing family or gender-based violence and illustrates the true impact the scholarship has had on each recipient personally as well as academically. Download the Impact Report here.

Tammy Nelson (Faculty of Social Work)

Research Project: West Standing Bear: Two-Eyed Seeing Approach to Working with Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse 

Utilizing Indigenous research methodologies, the aim of this research will gather the knowledge and wisdom from persons with lived experience, knowledge keepers, academics, and local community organizations to inform the creation of a Two-Eyed Seeing healing model for therapeutic interventions for adults who experienced childhood sexual abuse. The model developed will replace the current clinical model at The Heartwood Healing Centre formerly known as The Laurel Centre located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to ensure trauma-focused services are accessible to all survivors/victims who have experienced childhood sexual abuse. This model will be valuable for community-based organizations across Manitoba with a specific focus on non-Indigenous organizations that provide services to Indigenous Peoples that align with Indigenous world views and traditional knowledge.  

This project will include Indigenous research methodologies to include Two-Eyed Seeing principles that are in line with OCAP, Indigenous practices with research being ceremony and the inclusion of Western traditions connected to community-based participatory action research that aims to address the effects of colonialism worldwide. Using a Two-Eyed Seeing methodology acknowledges Western knowledge systems having dominance over Indigenous people. By incorporating this methodology, it aims to prioritize Indigenous pedagogy with a particular focus on decolonizing programming and service deliverables that directly affect Indigenous peoples. 

Leah McDonell (Faculty of Peace and Conflict Studies)

Research Project: A WAY OUT: Human Trafficking of Inuit Women and Girls

Human trafficking is a manifestation of gender-based violence and a global pandemic that Canada is not exempt from. The severe and devastating issues resulting from human trafficking disproportionately affect Indigenous women and girls. Although there are reports on the trafficking of Inuit women and girls in Canada, little research has been conducted with Inuit living in Manitoba (MB) or coming to MB from Nunavut (NU) to access services.

This study is a first attempt to understand human trafficking in MB and its specific impact on Inuit. Knowledge generated will empower the Inuit organizations other allied health service agencies to provide culturally relevant, supportive services for Inuit in MB, filling gaps in services that will support the health and well-being of individuals and families impacted by human trafficking. 

Rachel Antonia Dunsmore (Faculty Sociology & Criminology)

Research Project: Best Practices for Strengthening Eldercare: A Policy Review

While aging in place is the preferred option of most members of the public over being institutionalized in later life, abuse and/or neglect of older adults also occurs within families and non-institutional settings. Domestic violence has been exacerbated by public health restrictions, yet domestic or family-based elder abuse is rarely named as a public problem and is likely underreported. Domestic elder abuse occurs in a context of a broader ageist society whereby older adults’ human and citizenship rights are frequently violated, within and outside of long-term care institutions. Despite an aging population, Canadian society is characterized by individualism and high levels of family breakdown whereby reciprocal relations of care are largely unsupported by public policies. There is also inadequate public understanding of the social aspects of aging in a context where aging is predominately understood from an individual, biomedical, or disease-based perspective.

Building on my previous research on long-term institutional care in Canada, the goal of this research is three-fold: First, to review existing literature on best practices regarding community and family-based eldercare. Second, to review eldercare policies in Manitoba and across Canada with a particular focus on community/family-based eldercare. Finally, existing family-based eldercare policies in Manitoba and Canada will then be compared and evaluated with policy approaches to eldercare highlighted in the literature with a particular focus on the security and well-being of older adults. 

Lauren Bresch (Faculty of Sociology and Criminology)

Research Project: Who is Responsible? Discourses on Mothering and Protecting Children in Service Provider Responses to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in Manitoba

Lauren Bresch’s research analyzes how service providers in Manitoba make sense of mothering and the responsibility of protecting children in the context of IPV. Prior feminist research has found that the implementation of gender-neutral legislation for family violence and child protection has shifted the focus away from men’s violence and onto women’s ‘failures’ as mothers. Embedded within dominant discourses surrounding mothers and notions of risk, such policies hold mothers responsible for maintaining a safe home environment for children through controlling, managing, and fleeing men’s violence. If a mother is unable to cease men’s violence from occurring, she can be considered an ‘unfit’ mother subject to losing her child. While these policies aim to protect children from harm, in practice they responsibilize mother-victims of IPV.

Building on these understandings of mothers, Lauren’s research engages in an in-depth critical discourse analysis of key informant interview data collected by the Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Initiative to examine what kinds of discourses are evident among service providers’ framing and response to mothers and children who experience IPV and the ways in which notions of risks have permeated service provision for mother and child victims of IPV.

Using an intersectional feminist lens throughout her research, Lauren seeks to expose problematic policies and practices prevalent in responses towards mothers (with a particular focus on responses towards mothers who are single, poor, and racialized) and children who experience IPV and highlight ways forward to create more humane and effective policies that better protect mothers and their children from violence.

Bolloite Deborah Offor (Faculty of Law)

Research Project: “Noticing” Intersectionality in Sexual Assault Trials: The Influence of Feminist Organisations on the Barton Decision   

In the 2019 case of R v Barton, the Supreme Court of Canada, in what might be considered a ground-breaking decision, judicially noticed the fact that myths, stereotypes and discriminatory practices which operate against sexually assaulted women within the Canadian criminal justice system become compounded when the woman in question is Indigenous and more so, when the Indigenous woman is a sex worker.  Cindy Gladue, a 36-year-old Métis woman and mother of three was found dead in a bathtub, with an 11cm wound to her vaginal wall, following contracted sexual activities with Barton. Occurrences during the trial, like admission of prejudicial sexual history evidence, and references to Miss. Gladue as a “Native prostitute” led to intervening submissions by feminist organisations— an action that has been criticized as unduly interfering with the appeal process.  The objectives of Bolloite’s research are thus to:

1. examine the extent to which the advocacy of feminist organisations influenced the Barton decision on appeal, as well as the necessity of their intervention; and
2. project the possible impacts that the decision might have for Indigenous sexual assault complainants, going forward.

The expected conclusions and recommendations Bolloite’s findings, will be crucial in critical assessments of the Barton decision, for lawyers, sexual assault complainants, the justice system and most importantly, Indigenous women, who have for too long, had to deal with multiple layers of discrimination within the Canadian society and the criminal justice system, as a consequence of the intersection between their race and gender.