Association of women’s shelters fears effects of gender-based violence research funding cut

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This article was published 18/07/2023 (829 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CUTS in funding for research into gender-based violence will affect the care and resources survivors receive in the future, the association representing Manitoba’s women’s shelters is warning.

And the escalating costs of dealing with the aftermath of intimate-partner violence across the country — $7.4 billion, according to the Canadian Women’s Foundation — should concern everyone, said Deena Brock, co-ordinator for the Manitoba Association of Women’s Shelters.

“Both (federal and provincial) levels of government need to understand that domestic violence is a huge expense for society,” said Brock.

MAWS provides administrative support and leadership to 10 women’s shelters in the province and contracts research networks to back up data required to secure crucial government funding. It has worked with Research and Education for Solutions to Violence and Abuse (RESOLVE), a network of three Canadian research centres focusing on gender-based violence.

In March, the network received a letter from 25-year partner Prairieaction Foundation terminating the relationship; the letter said funding RESOLVE no longer met the foundation’s objectives.

“We’re all very shocked and surprised by it,” RESOLVE Manitoba director Kendra Nixon said. “All of this is happening at a time when rates of gender-based violence are escalating.

“This is not a time to be cutting funding to research.”

Prairieaction Foundation was created to fund RESOLVE following the anti-feminist 1989 Montreal massacre when 14 women were gunned down in a mechanical engineering classroom at École Polytechnique. The organization earmarked $5 million to fund RESOLVE and its infrastructure needs; the University of Manitoba location has received $107,000 annually since.

The loss of funding means there will be a significant increase in the cost of work done in conjunction with community-led research projects, some of which will be financially out of reach.

In addition, directors will spend more time applying for grants, which are time-intensive and may not directly benefit the day-to-day operations of community-based organizations, as opposed to engaging with community organizations and supervising students, said Nixon.

“It’s really perplexing that we received the news that our infrastructure is being cut when it’s never needed more,” said Nixon.

To ease the transition, Prairieaction Foundation provided RESOLVE with funding until next May.

Nixon said if RESOLVE can’t secure research grants dedicated to covering the costs of infrastructure, it may have to charge registration fees for webinar participants, who include survivors, shelter workers and members of the public.

Women’s shelters are severely underfunded and may not be able to pay for staff to attend professional development courses or participate in webinars, she said.

In the last four years, MAWS has completed several research projects with RESOLVE that have helped provincial officials understand the extent of data needed to be successful in providing support for gender-based violence survivors.

Last year, the association developed online training about the effects of mental illness, substance use and intimate partner violence on front-line workers.

And work is currently underway on research projects looking at the experiences of children whose parents are involved in both the family court and criminal court system in cases of gender-based violence, and the “shadow pandemic,” studying how stay-at-home orders impacted survivors experiencing domestic abuse.

“Unfortunately, we also see multiple generations come into the shelter,” said Brock. “That’s why the research helps to support the people working in the field to be able to understand how to better the programs they’re doing and how to convince the government to provide funding so that we can actually do that.”

Although shelters and resource centres are funded by the provincial government, the responsibility falls on the independent organizations or charities to complete the work and secure more funding for research specific to gender-based violence, she said.

From 2018 to 2022, a minimum of 850 women and girls were killed through acts of gender-based violence, according to the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability.

Last year, 2,569 women and children accessed a shelter in Manitoba, compared to 2,332 in 2021.

Brock said more research is needed on the effects of gender-based violence on children as a means to end the cycle, which is where contracting RESOLVE would help to address the root causes and prevent the continuation of violence in families.

RESOLVE has requested a meeting with the federal government to provide more funding to the alliance of five research centres, said Nixon.

tessa.adamski@freepress.mb.ca