With over 40 per cent of women in Canada reporting their experience of violence at the hands of an intimate partner, and nearly all of those women suffering at least one brain injury as a result, British Columbia-based charity Supporting Survivors of Abuse and Brain Injury Through Research (SOAR) is working to bring attention to this issue.

Grant of $75,000 to help the cause

The Royal LePage Shelter Foundation (RLSF) is supporting their work with a grant of $75,000. The funds will be used to help launch a training program for women’s shelters across Canada, equipping front-line staff with the knowledge and skills they need to better support women who’ve experienced a brain injury from intimate partner violence.

“When we first heard the horrifying statistics on how many women were suffering a brain injury from intimate partner violence and learned how many shelter workers still didn’t know how to recognize or respond to it, we knew this was a project we had to support as part of our commitment to helping women and children find safety and healing from domestic abuse,” says Lisa Gibbs, executive director of RLSF.

Project will help create new, standardized best practices in identifying and supporting survivors at a shelter

Karen Mason, co-founder and executive director of SOAR, expresses how grateful the organization is to RLSF for supporting such impactful work. They can’t wait to get started.

“This project has the potential to form the basis for new, standardized best practices in identifying and supporting survivors at what is often their first point of contact after leaving an abusive relationship — a shelter — leading to better outcomes overall,” Mason adds.

Photo: RoyalLePageLeadingEdge.ca