Left to right: Amanda McFarlane (BrainTrust Canada), Barb Butler (BI Survivor), Tori Dach (The Cridge Centre), Ali P (BC Brain Injury Association), Maggie Spizzirri (Brain Injury Alliance), Janelle Breese-Biagioni (BC Brain Injury Association), Linda Sankey (South Okanagan Similkaeen Brain Injury Association), Helena Konanz (MP, Similkameen-South Okanagan-West Kootney), Michelle McDonald (Brain Injury Canada), Karen Mason, (SOAR), Rita Forest (BC Brain Injury Association)
The Cridge Centre for the Family has been working with women escaping violence and brain injury survivors for over 35 years. In 1991, we opened The Cridge Transition House for Women to support women leaving unsafe situations, as well as MacDonald House, a residential home for survivors of brain injury.
Through serving women fleeing violence and individuals with acquired brain injury, we began to draw important connections between these two populations. There is a significant group of women who are both fleeing violence and living with a brain injury sustained before they were able to secure safety, and this intersection has shaped our work in Intimate Partner Violence and Brain Injury (IPV-BI).
We have decades of experience providing specialized support to people navigating complex circumstances and rebuilding their lives. This experience means we understand how to best support our clients. But it also means we recognize the ongoing challenges they face as they work toward safety, stability, and independence.
When it comes to keeping women safe, this experience has enabled us to be effective in helping women rebuild their lives through the provision of affordable childcare and safe housing, while providing support navigating financial, legal, and social supports.
For brain injury survivors, we provide support along a continuum from supported living to community reintegration with employment or meaningful community involvement.
At the same time, we have seen firsthand the barriers that persist. Sometimes, challenges can be addressed with persistence and financial resources. Others feel nearly impossible to overcome, regardless of collaboration or creativity, because there are structural gaps and service shortages that even the most innovative efforts cannot bridge.
For this reason, our work extends beyond direct service. In partnership with other service providers, researchers, advocates, and survivors themselves, we are advancing collaborative advocacy efforts to drive system change for women fleeing violence, for brain injury survivors, and for women living at the intersection of both. Together, we are calling for more coordinated responses and policies that better reflect the complex realities survivors face.
Just as we want systems to work together more effectively for the people we serve, we have been intentional about building strong partnerships that strengthen coordination, reduce gaps, and improve outcomes for survivors. Read on for updates on what we are doing to support our clients.
Women Fleeing Violence
We have met with Members of the Legislative Assembly to urge the provincial government to work with justice partners and community organizations to strengthen enforcement, mandate IPV and lethality training, close inter-system gaps, and align housing, income, and childcare policies with the realities of safety and recovery. We are in ongoing dialogue with Honourable Nina Krieger, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General; the Honourable Diana Gibson, Minister of Citizens’ Services, and the Honourable Grace Lore.
In response to a recent local tragedy, The Cridge Women’s Services, together with other women’s services and anti-violence organizations, convened a gathering and press conference to highlight the urgent need for action to prevent further loss of life. We are grateful to be working in partnership with Battered Women’s Support Services, Victoria Women’s Transition House, Cowichan Women Against Violence Society, Sooke Transition House, Bridges for Women, Inter-cultural Association of Greater Victoria, and others to advance specific recommendations. These include the implementation of consistent and mandatory intimate partner violence risk assessments that trigger intervention when high risk is identified; meaningful enforcement and monitoring of protection orders and release conditions; coordinated provincial leadership to align responses across police services and ministries; sustained investment in frontline anti-violence services as essential public safety resources; and prevention efforts that occur proactively, rather than in the aftermath of tragedy.
Survivors of Brain Injury
The Cridge Brain Injury Services was a community partner in the BC Consensus on Brain Injury Participatory Action Research Project, an initiative of the CGB Centre with research undertaken by University of Victoria’s Cortex Lab, the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of British Columbia. Together we helped generate knowledge and data to shape priorities to better serve people experiencing the intersections of brain injury, mental health, and addictions in British Columbia.
Tori Dach, Manager of The Cridge Brain Injury Services, is a member of the delegation advocating for passage of Bill C-206, the National Strategy on Brain Injury act. A national strategy would ensure that prevention, rehabilitation, and lifelong support receive the targeted attention they require to ensure survivors have access to care, proper diagnosis, long-term rehabilitation, and community integration.
Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence and Brain Injury
The Cridge Centre for the Family has partnered with the CGB Centre and Saanich Police Department’s Domestic Violence Unit to host ‘Shattering the Silence’ to promote coordinated action in addressing intimate partner violence related brain injury. The intent was to build capacity for an informed, survivor-centered response to brain injury in the context of intimate partner violence. Together, partners and participants developed calls to action for individuals, organizations, and policy makers. The event report details these recommendations and is available online at cridge.org/sts.
