Escaping Violence

The airing of "Double Jeopardy on "The Disability Network" on CBC marked CAILC’s first video production on violence issues, and further broadened our growing library of resources related to family violence and people with disabilities.

Faithful ABILITIES readers and Independent Living (IL) supporters will recall the extensive resources that CAILC, the Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres, has developed to address family violence issues. We have had tremendous response to our initiatives, which include:

? "Responding to Abuse: An Independent Living Approach," a comprehensive train-the-trainer resource which helped people apply IL philosophy to address family violence issues in their communities;

? "Prevention of Abuse Against Elderly Citizens with Disabilities," which includes prevention strategies related to elderly citizens with disabilities living in rural communities; and

? "Youth Speak Up! Youth Speak Out!", a participatory research study on abuse against youth with disabilities -- developed, conducted and written by youth with disabilities.

These unique resources and innovative projects, developed at local Independent Living Resource Centres (ILRCs), have enabled CAILC to become well recognized for our work in the area of disability and violence.

"We knew we had to continue developing resources. The problems related to family violence and people with disabilities still exist, and service providers and the general population need to know consumers face many access issues when looking for the supports needed to break the cycle," says Traci Walters, CAILC’s National Director.

The "Double Jeopardy" theme evolved naturally. People are in jeopardy when they are trying to end abuse in their life, and those issues are magnified when systemic, attitudinal, and physical barriers prevent access to services and supports.

Previous projects and training have enabled local ILRCs to generate tremendous response in their communities across Canada when conducting educational workshops to abuse services providers and the general public, but in most cases their resources are very limited. In a response to local needs, CAILC secured funding from Health Canada to produce a video that would articulate the

needs of people with disabilities related to family violence.

"Consumer identification of needs as well as solutions has always been the key to the IL Movement, and we knew this theme must be strong in this video," Traci explains. "We also knew we had the opportunity to say, not only, Yes, people with disabilities continue to be subjected to abuse by partners, strangers and caregivers, but, We have additional barriers in the system when we look for support. "

It was also very important to hear from survivors how the system should change to meet their needs. Listening to survivors articulate, in their own words, the necessary changes in the system accomplishes two things: policy makers and service planners hear from the consumer the serious flaws in the legal and support service delivery system; and survivors who watch the video get a

sense that they are not alone in their efforts to stop the abuse in own their lives.

CAILC used the production expertise at "The Disability Network" (D-Net) to make the video. This ensured that the video would reach the maximum number of consumers and remain a consumer-directed initiative. This also made it easier to incorporate IL principles of cross- disability and the promotion of integration and full participation of people with disabilities into the script. In addition, D-Net was anxious to air the production on a special edition of their

program, which generated tremendous response across the country.

The writer/researcher for this project worked closely with a consumer advisory group which provided guidance and leadership to all aspects of the project. This also contributed to the success of the project, since the experiences of people with disabilities across the country were incorporated into the themes of the production.

CAILC felt it wouldn’t make sense to hand the project over to an outside production company, allowing them to hire actors and "run wild" with it -- consumers have the expertise, based on their life experiences within the system. Their stories need to be told, in their own words.

Several women agreed to share their experiences related to family violence. As they clearly explained in the video, people need to know abuse can and does happen to anyone. It crosses cultural, economic and gender lines, and people need to know they are not alone when they begin to address their own issues.

Since the airing of the video, CAILC and local ILRCs have received feedback from consumers and service providers praising the efforts of CAILC and the consumers who spoke so candidly about their experiences. Local ILRCs will now be able to show the video at peer support meetings or public forums, to sensitize people about the barriers in the system for people with disabilities.

CAILC hopes to continue to develop projects as successful as "Double Jeopardy" to enable local ILRCs further to assist individuals with disabilities to reach their Independent Living goals.

For a VHS copy of Double Jeopardy and its companion guide ($38, including postage), or to receive information about other CAILC resources, write or call CAILC:

CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT LIVING CENTRES (CAILC)

1004-350 SPARKS STREET

OTTAWA, ON K1R 7S8

TEL: (613) 563-2581

FAX: (613) 235-4497

TTY: (613) 563-2581

E-MAIL: [email protected]

WEBSITE: http://indie.ca/cailc/english/index.htm