Programs & Services > Violence Against Women > If I'd Only Known

“If I Had Only Known” Brochures

Family Service Toronto, with funding support from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, released on March 8, 2011 a series of brochures on violence in personal relationships. They focus on women who experience intimate partner violence, elder abuse and perpetrators or abuse and are available in six languages – Dari, Pashto, Farsi, Somali, Tamil and Punjabi. The brochures, which are the result of newcomer community collaboration, are designed to educate new immigrants about their rights and responsibilities under Canadian law with regard to violence.

If I Had Only Known brochures will assist in the settlement process, as newcomers will benefit from early exposure to critical information about their roles and responsibilities regarding violence and abuse within the family; culturally-situated forms of abuse and resources that they can access to assist them to live their lives free of violence.

“Abuse and violence knows no cultural, spiritual, linguistic, age or economic boundaries,” says Dr. Lisa Manuel, Director of Family Violence Programs at Family Service Toronto. “It is an inappropriate use of power and often takes place in a context of social isolation. Newcomers to Canada can be vulnerable to abuse – both perpetrating it and experiencing it – because of a range of factors, including lack of knowledge of Canadian laws, their rights and responsibilities, and the unacceptability of specific and generic actions that are constructed as abuse.”

Read more about If I had only known project in Catalyst magazine.