Hundreds of people gathered outside the Victoria court house to remember a mother of two killed in an alleged case of intimate partner violence. As CBC’s Katie DeRosa reports, they’re calling on the province and the federal government to do more to protect women.

Cridge programs help everyone from women fleeing intimate partner abuse to young parents in a difficult spot and people with brain injuries or complex health needs. With age comes experience, and the Cridge Centre for the Family has certainly picked up a few things over its 152-year history. The organization, on a hill overlooking the city at Hillside Avenue and Cook Street, has learned that being there for people in moments of crisis is important, but staying with them on the road to recovery is essential. “We want to be able to give families a time of support — it’s ...

Warning: this story contains descriptions of intimate partner violence. Angie Smith hopes sharing her story of intimate partner violence (IPV) that left her with a brain injury will encourage other survivors to seek help. Smith is vice-president of the Canadian Royal Purple Society, a service organization that has taken on brain injuries as its primary cause and launched a national awareness campaign. “As a survivor myself with a brain injury, it was something I wanted to be involved in,” she said. Smith endured IPV in her early twenties. She said she faced shame and stigma alongside the physical abuse. “I ...

Photo by Hilla Kerner of a vigil held in Vancouver in 2022 to pay respects to 10 B.C. women killed as a result of domestic violence that year.  Maybe things start as typical bickering among couples, or maybe the rage blows up out of nowhere. The aggressor slaps, pushes and punches before grabbing their partner around the neck, squeezing tight as they gasp for air. And in that moment, a life just might change forever. Restricted blood flow to the brain caused by strangling leads to a brain injury. The “invisible” injury may go unrecognized by the person who has ...

A family legacy dating back to 150 years fuels a donation that will sustain the Second Chance Cafe in Saanich for years to come. Growing up in the Cridge family comes with stories of community works dating as far back as great, great, great grandfather Bishop Edward Cridge whose work alongside wife Mary led to the creation of the BC Protestant Orphans Home in Victoria in 1873. The orphanage shifted focus by 1970 and became The Bishop Cridge Centre for the Family, altered in 1980 to what it’s called today, The Cridge Centre for the Family. It developed from an ...