Victoria Coalition for Survivors of Torture

We convened twenty-three stakeholder agencies from Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland that have contact with survivors of torture and their families under of the rubric of the interconnectedness project. We conducted a survey among our stakeholders to identify their priorities in terms of serving survivors of torture and their families. The stakeholders have expressed the need to prepare our regions for greater support for torture survivors and their familes. These meetings devised specific ways to pool our human resources and expertise as well as initiate appropriate training for front line workers. We are conducting case conferencing where intentional group holistic coordinated services are implemented for specific survivors and their families. We have also led a workshop about torture. We have also implemented a phone line which is a resource for Agencies and sponsorship groups for insight and referral. Our second case conference was conducted in March 2024 with nine agencies. In addition we wrote a back ground paper for our case conference as well as a report that included best practices for the case conference. We continued to outreach with other stakeholders including the Sexual Assault Center. We have scheduled further case conferencing and training sessions with our stakeholders. The timing of these regional events are synchronized with the war in the Ukraine and Russia as well as other serious conflicts internationally so that our mental health agenices and settlement agencies can be more prepared and trauma informed for those living in Canada as well as the new comers that flee to Canada. We also continue to develop our web-site to become a useful resource for agencies and individuals as well. We manage a listserve for our stakeholder agencies including over fifty-four individuals. We are outreaching with the Police Chiefs School Counsellors and the Men's Therapy Centre on Vancouver Island.