Completed

Older Women’s Legal Education Project

Overview

Handbook: Road to Safety: Legal Information for Older Women in BC

Wallet sized cards available in 12 languages.

This project was a collaboration of CCEL and West Coast LEAF (WCL).

The project addressed a serious gap in existing public legal education resources: information tailored to older women fleeing abuse. Currently, the services that address elder abuse and those that address domestic violence do not always speak to the specific needs of older women. There is rich expertise in organizations serving both seniors and women, but often a lack of knowledge sharing between both sectors.

This project aimed to:

  1. Enhance capacity of seniors-serving professionals to support older women fleeing violence occurring in the family, and
  2. Inform older women of their rights and options in situations of abuse.

As part of this project CCEL and WCL:

  • Developed a plain language booklet on family law issues relevant to older women fleeing abuse
  • Created and delivered a three-hour workshop and a webinar to train service providers on the relevant law and on strategies for supporting older women who are fleeing abuse (see below for link)
  • Developed a series of wallet-sized cards

This project built on what we learned from older women through the Older Women’s Dialogue Project. Older women have consistently identified elder abuse in the family, including ongoing spousal abuse, as an urgent priority. They have told us that they need better access to clear legal information on their rights and options.

The ultimate goal of this collaboration was to enhance capacity of older women to get the help they need and escape abusive and violent relationships. All older women deserve to live free of violence and abuse.

Webinar Presentations

Part 1

Part 1 Q&A

Part 2

Part 2 Q&A

Related Files

Below you will find additional, relevant and specific documentation, backgrounders, research, resources, media releases and summaries that have been, or will be incorporated into our final publications and study papers.

If you have questions about these or other specific documents, please reach out to BCLI using our contact page or at the bottom of each page of our website.