Thanks so much. It's a great question.
Having that data would be really helpful so that we would know how many sexual assaults there are and we could estimate how many women experience domestic violence. Stats Canada collects a lot of really great information. However, if we want to make real change, we need to establish markers, possibly through the social determinants of health. I think it's a great framework, because this is a health issue for everyone. Then we need to establish guideposts along the way, not targets.
I'm pretty specific about my language. Canada's report card mentions “targets”, which is interesting.
Once we establish those guideposts, we'll be able to measure whether we are actually turning the dial on things. We cannot in women's services do this alone. This is an intersectional issue that requires all of us, at micro, macro and meso levels, throughout our entire country to take ownership, to step forward and have tough conversations with folks who are afraid of talking about violence and that vulnerability. It's tough to imagine a new script if you haven't seen one modelled.
The data that we need is how are we actually making change and how do we track that?
For instance, in Ontario, at our organization, we received provincial funding to establish a court support program. It was before I arrived there two years ago. What we were asked to measure, or to track and report on, was how many women we provided support to. That's very interesting, but we also know that the court support program was doing a lot of work that would prevent women from asking a lot of questions of the court office, which wasn't in a position, as Lisa mentioned, to respond necessarily to those questions. They needed better go-to persons.
We don't have any data that shows us what's the return on investment when we have good court support workers who can connect women across the community to services they need. It's lost data for well over a decade. It's those kinds of really tangible things we need in order to make change and track it, and then make some decisions about how to do a better job, learn from our big mistakes and be willing to take huge risks.