ANNUAL REPORT OF ACTIVITIES AND SERVICES
2007-2008

April 1rst to March 31st

CLIENTS DEMOGRAPHICS

BACKGROUND:
This last statistical period represents the fourth year of expanded services that included our shelter and external services for shelter clients. It also includes information and statistics on our community outreach  and public awareness department.

In the first area of this report we will be speaking only about the clients and communities reached through our external and specialized services. The Shelter report is independent and a summary will be provided at the end.

TYPES OF SERVICES THAT THE NETWORK PROVIDES

• EXTERNAL
We are a network that includes two external centers and a shelter and we have included statistics on clients that come for follow up services for themselves and their children after a stay at the shelter. This in addition to the services that already exist at the centres has forced us to put people on waiting lists. Presently there is a five to ten day waiting period for clients unless there is an emergency situation that exists.

The clientele at the external centers is totally different from what we see at the shelter. At the external centers, we see women and children before or after a crisis. At the shelter, they have been referred there either by SOS or the police and are there because of a crisis situation. It is important to underline that not all women victims coming from ethno cultural communities go to shelters; our external offices give them the option to obtain all the services except the housing should they want to stay at home. This is an important alternative for this clientele. 

PLEASE TAKE NOTE THAT THE TWO CENTRES IN MONTREAL AND IN LAVAL HANDLED    24,653 CALLS THIS YEAR

 

• SPECIALIZED SERVICES

Presently at the external offices and the shelter there are ten languages that are spoken in house; they are: Arab, Armenian, Creole, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Rumanian, English, Farsi and French; on call we have Turkish and Urdu. The composition of the languages frequently changes when the staff changes but we also have cultural interpreters on call or use the Banque d’interprètes from the Agence. The shelter staff is often implicated when there are linguistic issues associated with the intervention either at the shelter or at the external offices. We are also trying to increase our cultural interpreter base by training them on family violence. All of these measures are designed to promote more accessibility to services for women coming from ethno cultural communities and their children, particularly when linguistic issues are present. The specialized intervention services are very important and may include group sessions and individual consultations for women and children exposed to violence.  The presence of many caseworkers from different communities provides us with cultural and religious insights that help in the intervention. Presently, 33% of our long term conjugal violence cases necessitate intervention in a language other than French or English

• COMMUNITY OUTREACH SERVICES

The organization has been a pioneer in public awareness and outreach programs such as those developed with the Ethnic Media, particularly CJNT and with partners such as the SPVM.

We have been actively involved in community outreach since 1991. From that time till present we have developed 66 multilingual videos that have been diffused in the ethnic media, 13 pamphlets, a law booklet in three languages and many other tools. (Annex 1) In addition to being used to raise awareness in ethnic communities, these are all in use by the existing services, shelters and various police departments.

The organization also presents regularly on family violence and the importance of providing culturally adapted services to victims coming from ethno cultural communities. (Annex 3)

 This year, in addition to the outreach sessions we have had other interesting developments, primarily the Launch of the multilingual PSA’s on sexual abuse with CJNT Television, November 1, 2007 at City Hall in Montreal.

Our multilingual outreach program is designed to inform communities on the issues of family violence, the laws and the police procedure. Through this we hope to demystify the existing services, Canadian laws and the resources as well as educate communities on providing support for the women and children in these situations and to not tolerate such violence.

We are the only organization in Quebec that is developing a department of community outreach with agents from different communities who plan sessions and public awareness programs in the language or origins and in a culturally sensitive way.

________________________________________________________________________________

COMBINED STATISTICS:  DEMOGRAPHICS FOR EXTERNAL OFFICES MONTREAL & LAVAL
________________________________________________________________________________

CLIENTS

The total number of clients that came to our services last year is 405 representing an 8% increase from the year before; Of these 334 were new short and long term (fewer than three interventions); 110 were new and old long term clients. 95% were women.

 

THE FOLLOWING NUMBERS ARE BASED ON 334 NEW CLIENTS THAT WERE SERVICED LAST YEAR.

 

• ETHNIC BACKGROUNDS
Ninety three percent (93%) of our clients come from different ethnic backgrounds notably: Greek (33%) and the rest being Arab, Rumanian, Hispanic, Iranian, Armenian, African Haitian and from different South Asian backgrounds.

• AGES
44% of our clients were between the ages of 20-39. Although more and more, younger women are using our services we also had 31% coming from the 40-49 age group. We had an increase in the 50-59 year category that represented 12% of our clientele. Women over 60 comprised 13%

• PREFERRED LANGUAGE OF COMMUNICATION
The preferred language of communication was English, that was used in   49% of our cases; 26% of the clients spoke only Greek; 24% spoke French; 1% spoke another language primarily Rumanian.

• SOCIOECONOMIC BACKGROUND
27% of our clients make 15,000$ or less a year and are considered at the poverty line. 36% make between 20- 30,000$; 24% make up to 40,000 and only 13% come from higher income earners;

MONOPARENTAL FAMILIES HEADED BY SINGLE MOTHERS
REPRESENT 58% OF OUR CASES

• RESIDENTIAL ORIGINS

Montreal, including CDN, St. Laurent, Cartierville, Park Extension, East End, Mile End and Lasalle represents 61% of our clients; Laval accounts for 30%. The remaining 9% comes from the suburbs of the West Island and South Shore.

• SOURCE OF REFERRALS

43% of  the referrals came from the existing  social services, including CLSC’S, hospitals, the police and community centers;  word of mouth (referral by the community and the outreach program indirectly) accounted for 39% of the referrals, and 18% came directly through the community outreach measures and programs (pamphlets, website, resource books)

 

• NATURE OF PROBLEMS

New (334)

65% of our new cases dealt with family violence; 23% dealt with access issues and the remaining 12%, with youth and family issues.

Long Term (110 old & new)

There were 110 long term files that were handled at the centers last year. 81% of them were conjugal violence cases; 11%were youth & family cases and 8% were access cases.

SERVICES

• SERVICES FOR WOMEN

Last year at both the Montreal & Laval offices we did 1212 telephone consultations; 275 individual consultations; 43 legal clinics; 43 accompaniments and 12 home visits for women. There were also 693 advocacy services.

There was an increase of 43% in the number of individual consultations; a 20% increase in the number of phone consultations and a 36% increase in advocacy services
 

THESE INCREASES ARE DUE TO THE EXISTENCE OF SPECIALIZED NEEDS THAT EXIST FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN COMING FROM DIFFERENT ETHNIC BACKGROUNDS THAT PASS THROUGH OUR NETWORK

• CHILDREN’S SERVICES & ACTIVITIES

 This year 158 children exposed to family violence were recorded at our centers. Although they did not all receive intervention services many did come in contact with the organization at some point in time. 

 In all 13 children exposed to conjugal violence benefited from our specialized interventions and activities. There were 46 intervention services that were given to 9 children at our external offices. This year they were mostly children from our external clients given by Betty Petropoulos, social worker and our child worker, Christina Mandilaras.

 Creative play activities for children under four were given at at the Laval center by Dorina Bucur. Four children participated. This new service will be expanded and included in the Laval Halte Garderie.

 HOME VISITS – ECONOMIC: There were home visits and also economic services given to children during home visits, where clothes, diapers, groceries and formula were distributed.

ONLY CHILDREN WITNESSES OF VIOLENCE RECEIVED THESE SERVICES.

SPECIALIZED SERVICES-LANGUAGES OTHER THAN FRENCH

• One group for women victims, in Greek. In Laval. There were four participants and it was held in 6 sessions. Facilitated by Betty Petropoulos & Maria Papadopoulos.

• Support group for women victims. In English. Held in Montreal. Facilitated by Betty Petropoulos & Maria

• 36 women, or 33% of our long term cases received consultation and intervention services in a language other than French or English that included Greek, Rumanian, Iranian & Spanish

• Out of 39 new long term cases, 11, representing 28% came from the shelter.

ONLY WOMEN VICTIMS OF CONJUGAL VIOLENCE RECEIVED THESE SERVICES.

Due to the fact that there are so many languages spoken between the Shelter and the Centers, most of the client needs regarding advocacy, legal matters, translation and economic support are taken care of as part of the follow up. In regards to sponsorship and immigration cases the appropriate accompaniments and procedures are taken by our caseworkers.

ACTIVITIES

ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE

a) Christmas activity

• December 20, 2007 - 25 cheques from the Gazette Christmas Fund were distributed to the most impoverished families.
• A total of 200 people benefited from economic assistance last year
• 35 women & 15 children
•  Food baskets were distributed by the Hellenic Appeal to 50 families.

b) Easter activity: March 31, 2008

• New clothing for women and children
• 30 women & 10 children
• Food baskets for 41 families

SPECIAL ACTIVITY

• Wellness Day:
Two activities were done with the shelter. A total of 18 woman including seven from the external offices benefited.

• French Language Courses
In this last statistical period, 42 people participated in our French language courses. We had 33 classes in the last period from beginners to level 3 at our Montreal Centre.

• Volunteer Recruitment-Program
According to our recent statistics, volunteer hours last year amounted to 4,601. We had a total of 169 volunteers. Part of our volunteer recruitment is from various colleges and universities. The aim is the promotion of voluntarism as well as giving us the opportunity to recruit caring students, individuals and others as volunteers. This program is co-ordinated by Polly Tsonis.

• Volunteer and employee training
Many members of the staff are implicated in this. The organization spent 1,991 hours training its staff, interns and volunteers on our specialized intervention and services.

COMMUNITY NETWORKING AND PARTICIPATION

Executive Director

In the past year our ED, Melpa Kamateros, participated in 209 meetings:
• 15% of the time was spent networking with the social services;
• 22% of the time, 46 meetings, was dedicated to the community outreach program;  
• 63% of the time, or 131 meetings, were dedicated to  service and project development with the staff of Laval, Montreal and the Shelter, the  Board , fundraising and event purposes
• The above account for 635 hours

Staff Implication

Our clinical supervisors, Betty Petropoulos & Maria Papadopoulos were involved in the following:

• Comité de Suivi: Committee representing inter-sectorial collaboration for children exposed to conjugal violence that is part of theTCVCM.
• The AGIR committee in Laval.
• A working group comprised of Shelter and Batshaw workers for use with children exposed to violence.

Hours spent:

• The clinical supervisors provided 400 hours each of case supervision for the shelter alone last year and 34  hours each on committee work, for a total of 868 hours. 
• Our services staff, including our Shelter Coordinator Maria Kokkoris, spent a total of 202 hours in various training programs. Some of the areas that they were trained in were: suicide prevention, intersectorial collaboration, CPR, and sexual assault.

 
ORGANIZATIONS THAT WE NETWORKED ON VARIOUS COMMITTEES
LAST YEAR WERE:

MONTREAL

• Tables De Concertation En Matière de Violence Conjugale De Montreal (TCVCM)  where our organization represents the sector of ethnocultural communities
• Concertation femmes de Parc Extension
• ACCESSS,
• Services de police de la  ville de Montréal
• Batshaw Youth and Family Services & Youth Protection Services
• Comité de francisation, MICC,
• CJNT Television
• Community organizations implicated with the Ethnic Media Outreach Project (Annex 2)
• Comité de Suivi: Implantation de Protocole pour les enfants exposées à la violence conjugale (TCVCM) Committee representing inter-sectorial collaboration for children exposed to conjugal violence

LAVAL
• Tables de Concertation en Matière de Violence Conjugale et Aggression Sexuelle de Laval.
• AGIR Laval
• Table de Condition Féminine, Laval

MEDIA & COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAMS

• MEDIA

The PSA’s on sexual assault in 15 languages, produced in collaboration with CH Television, now CJNT Montreal, were diffused in ethnic broadcasting this past year. Prior to the diffusion, representatives of the Shield of Athena Family Services went on 18 programs to introduce the PSA and the topic of sexual abuse. The interviews were usually conducted in the language of the community being addressed. These interviews were then re-diffused for a total of 75 times. As well, the first interview of a 3 part series was recorded for the Iranian radio program on CFMB.

• INFORMATION SESSIONS

Eight information sessions were given this past year where 157 participants were informed on family violence , in the Iranian, Italian, African, and Greek communities. Please refer to Annex 3.

 
PRESENTATIONS & TRAININGS GIVEN TO PROFESSIONALS IN THE SOCIAL SERVICES NETWORK

A presentation regarding the Shield of Athena Family Services and its specialized intervention and community outreach services was given at the Montreal Council of Women in October 2007. As well, the organization hosted delegations from other regions and countries. In September 2007 a delegation from Cambodia received a full day training on the organization’s culturally sensitive services and community outreach program & in October 2007 the SOAFS welcomed 2 case workers from a shelter in Victoriaville for a full day  exchange on cultural intervention in cases of family violence. 
• NEW INFORMATION TOOLS
The Shield of Athena’s intervention pamphlet entitled Violence Hurts Us All! was printed in 5 new languages: Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Urdu. The pamphlet is now available in a total of 13 languages.
• NEW PROJECTS
With funding from the Status of Women Canada, a new community outreach project on sexual abuse will be developed in collaboration with the SPVM and community partners. Multilingual tools (ex: pamphlets), information sessions and videos are all in the planning stages.

• SPECIAL EVENTS:
A launch was held on November 1st, 2007 at City Hall for the new public awareness campaign on sexual abuse where the new PSA’s on sexual abuse were shown. The event and the campaign had the support of M. Marcel Tremblay; membre du Comité Exécutif de la Ville de Montréal, Isabella Federigi; Station manager at CJNT Montreal, and Commandant Pierre Leduc; chef de section Agressions sexuelles du Service de la police de la ville de Montréal.

• Publications :

 The Shield of Athena Family Services was a collaborator on a manual entitled « Répondre aux besoins des femmes immigrantes et des communautés ethnoculturelles : les Défis de l’adaptation des services en violence conjugale » The manual was produced with La Fédération de ressources d’hébergement pour femmes violentées et en difficulté du Québec, The Table de concertation en violence conjugale de Montréal and UQÀM Services aux collectivités.  A launch was held on May 30, 2007.

 A new manual entitled: ‘’Violence Hurts Us All! Development of “made to measure” community outreach sessions’’ was printed which explains the culturally sensitive approach that is used when planning and executing information sessions on family violence in ethnic communities.

 

 
 ANNEX 1

NEW TOOLS AND PUBLICATIONS

 

PAMPHLETS
1. Violence Hurts Us All! pamphlet: Tagalog/English
2. Violence Hurts Us All! pamphlet: Urdu/English
3. Violence Hurts Us All! pamphlet: Russian/French
4. Violence Hurts Us All! pamphlet: Chinese/French

MANUALS
• Violence Hurts Us All! Development of “made to measure” community outreach information sessions’’ (English & French)
• Violence Hurts Us All! Accompaniment Manual for videocassettes’’. Revised so as to include new languages, Armenian, Iranian, Creole, Rumanian

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

• The Shield of Athena Family Services was a collaborator on a manual entitled « Répondre aux besoins des femmes immigrantes et des communautés ethnoculturelles : les Défis de l’adaptation des services en violence conjugale »

• The manual was produced with La Fédération de ressources d’hébergement pour femmes violentées et en difficulté du Québec, The Table de concertation en violence  conjugale de Montréal and UQÀM Services aux collectivités .
 

Annex 2

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS & REPRESENTATIVES THAT COLLABORATED ON THE SHIELD OF ATHENA FAMILY SERVICES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CAMPAIGN 2007

HAITIAN: Bureau de la Communauté Haïtienne de Montréal

Jean-Sébastien Fleury; Agent de concertation communautaire  (SPVM)

IRANIAN : Dr. Benachef Hejazi; family practitioner
    
   Leila Sarhadi; cultural interpreter (SOAFS)
    
   Concordia Iranian Students Association

   Nasser Khodayari; Agent de quartier (SPVM)
   
   Mr. Sam Nourouzi; producer, CH Television’s     Iranian program

AFRICAN : Défis Makondé
 
ANNEX 3

COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAM

• Iranian Community: An information session in Farsi was given in April 2007 at Concordia University with the collaboration of members of the Iranian community such as the Iranian Student’s Asscociation, a doctor and a police officer from the community.

• Aux Petites Mains: Three information sessions in French & English were given in April & May 2007 and March 2008 at this social insertion center where the participants were from various ethnic groups.

• Italian Community: An information session in Italian was given in May 2007 to members of the Italian Women’s Center of Laval.

 
• African Community: An information session was given in French in November 2007 in collaboration with Centre Défis Makondé at Centre Afrika where the participants were from various African countries.

• Park Extension & general public: An information session in French & English was given in December 2007 in collaboration with Concertation Femmes de Parc Extension for residents of Parc Extension and the general public. The participants were from various ethnic groups.

• Session done with the organization « Filia » an association for senior citizens, primarily women, in Greek, on March 13 on International Women’s Day.

 

 
Annex 4

OVERVIEW OF STATISTICAL REPORT
April 1st 2007-March 31st 2008

People reached by our services & activities
ACTIVITIES & SERVICES

 PEOPLE REACHED QUANTITY
Clients
External & Shelter
 684  (individual & group)
French Courses

 42 3 sessions
(65classes)
Presentations: universities, social services
 200 people 3 presentations
Economic Assistance
 478(includes
shelter residents) Easter activity
Christmas activity
Ongoing
Volunteer
 169 4601 hours
Employee & Volunteer Training
 40 1991 hours
Meetings (collaborators, professionals, multi.)
 1480 296 meetings
Media Programs

 10000
* estimate 18 interviews
75 diffusions
Community Outreach (info. sessions)
 157 

Social Activities
 710 3 events/activities

An estimated 13,960 people were reached during this
statistical period through our services & activities

 

Fichier attaché	Taille
2007. SummaryAnnualReport.doc	31 Ko
2007. Annual Summary of The Maison D'Athéna.doc	34.5 Ko