Status of Women committee  Thank you for the invitation and the opportunity to discuss with you promising practices in our collective efforts to prevent and eventually end violence against women. The Canadian Network Of Women's Shelters and Transition Houses brings together 12 provincial and territorial

Status of Women committee  Actually, that is a best practice. It was a project done in Alberta specifically because there's a very high percentage of women in the shelters in Alberta who are aboriginal, and it was around the danger assessment tool. In fact, I was speaking to the executive director of the

Status of Women committee  No, it's the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters' initiative.

Status of Women committee  Actually, there's quite a bit of information I could share about that project.

Status of Women committee  Yes, from B.C.

Status of Women committee  I could speak a bit to it, then my colleagues could perhaps speak to more specifics in terms of.... I think it's a well-known fact that women who are survivors of abuse, because of the abuse, often develop either addiction issues or mental health issues. It is a challenge for s

Status of Women committee  I think Sharlene responded perfectly in terms of that's sometimes the best way to understand, through a concrete example of what the shelter workers told us in terms of the need for services that are interconnected and continuous. Just too often this is slipping between the crack

Status of Women committee  No, but I'm not aware of.... Are you talking about something specific to aboriginal women?

Status of Women committee  We are looking at it in terms of prevention mechanisms, social policy responses, legal responses, and service responses. Those are the four main areas that need to be covered. I spoke in my presentation about what we felt the national action plan could do, but also we feel that

Status of Women committee  That's the National Association of Women and the Law.

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  I would defer to Sharlene and Lynn concerning the response. They are the ones who have to deal with the day-to-day pieces of it. First of all, it's the delays in court systems.

Status of Women committee  And it wears you down just psychologically.

Status of Women committee  It's definitely something that we need to do and we'd like to do. The reality is that the network is young. I was basically on my own until October, when I was joined by a part-time colleague. There are limits to what we can do. One thing that I did want to mention as, I feel, a

Status of Women committee  We are calling for a national plan mostly to make sure that women all across the country can have access to the same level of services. A woman in Thunder Bay must have access to the same services as a woman in Toronto. Accomplishing that would be very significant. If we really