Posts Tagged ‘safety’
Helping your kids stay safe after separation: A practical checklist
Separation can bring big changes, especially for children. As you sort out parenting arrangements, it’s essential to think about how to keep your kids safe, supported, and prepared. This checklist offers simple and practical ways to help your child feel more secure and know what to do in situations that might feel confusing or unsafe. …
Read moreThe Importance of a Safety Plan
For women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV), safety can feel out of reach. Having a safety plan is essential for women staying in relationships in which they are being abused, as they are leaving and after they have left. Creating a safety plan is a proactive step toward ensuring both physical and emotional security, as…
Read moreCOVID-19 crisis complicates intimate partner violence issues, lawyers say
Ian Burns interviewed Luke’s Place on the impact of COVID-19 on women living with violence. The article appears on TheLawyersDaily.ca. “Let’s say hypothetically I was in an abusive relationship, but I had a job, or my partner worked outside the home and our kids were at school. There would at least be some time during…
Read moreHow can I support women to be as safe as possible after their family law case is over?
The family court process can be long and difficult. By the time it is over, many women are often exhausted and sick and tired of dealing with their former partner. Many also assume the battle is over; that the court order will keep them and their kids safe and that their ex will move on…
Read moreDo children need a safety plan?
Many thanks to Miranda Brijlall, articling student at Luke’s Place, who prepared this response with assistance from Legal Director, Pamela Cross. In circumstances of family violence, children as well as their mothers need to take care of themselves by developing a safety plan containing steps to increase and maintain their own safety, to the extent…
Read moreHow can I accurately assess risks my client is facing from her former partner?
Your role as a woman’s advocate will require you to engage in safety planning with the women you support. Safety planning is, in some ways, the other side of risk assessment: the more information you have about the women’s risk, the better you and she can plan for her safety. But effective safety planning means…
Read moreHow can I support a woman who does not want to leave her abuser?
When the violence against women movement became increasingly organized in Canada and shelters for abused women and rape crisis centres began to open, most of the work was focused on helping women get away from their abusers. There was an inherent belief that this was what was best for women. While shelter work has always…
Read moreWhat is a supervised access order?
Supervised access and supervised access exchanges can offer some protection to women who are concerned about the safety of their children during access or their own safety as they exchange the children with their partner. For example, if the access parent has a serious and unstable mental health issue, a drug or alcohol problem, has…
Read moreWhat is the role of violence (including separation violence) in custody and access cases in Ontario?
The presence of violence in the family is an important consideration in custody and access cases. It is, as we discuss below, one of the factors in the best interests of the child test. However, this does not mean that all judges understand how important this issue is or that all lawyers know how to…
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