Thank you for your question.
There are many unique features of the model that are based on survivors' feedback. Again, when victims come to the Safe Centre, they have a safe place for their children that is a child-friendly environment, where there is a full-time child minder who supports the children in a place where they can play and be themselves while the mommies get the information and the support they need. They don't have to bring their children into a counselling room and have to worry about what their children are going to hear.
When people come into the Safe Centre, we do one intake. They don't repeat their story over and over again. We have one file and, again, we work integratively with our partners so that we are all using the same risk assessment and, therefore, speaking the same language. When one partner says, “This level of risk”, the other partner understands exactly what that means. What also happens at the Safe Centre is that we have glue positions. We have client navigators who are there to welcome and support our clients so that they don't have to navigate the system. The client navigators support our clients in accessing what resources they may need, when they need them and how to get them into their lives.
One of the other most important features of the Safe Centre is the ability to bring case conferences together very quickly and, therefore, to be able to respond to high-risk cases. Our recent integration with Peel Regional Police has added the additional factor of what women told us, which was that when they wanted to talk to police, they did not want to sit in police stations and wait there not knowing who was walking in the door. They want to be in a safe, comfortable place where they have supports around them and be able to talk to police who are trained in the issue and who understand what IPV is and the many barriers they may be facing.
Certainly Inspector Hewison can speak more about the work that we do with the Peel Regional Police.