As the coordinating committee on woman abuse for Toronto, the Council often initiates and carries out projects and initiatives to respond to identified needs and gaps in the community. Projects are usually initiated in response to issues identified by the committees and / or the Council membership. In many cases a committee will explore and discuss an issue at the committee level and recommend that the Council look at follow-up actions. For example, in 2000 after a murder of a woman by her intimate partner, the Support Services Cultural Issues Committee was actively involved in exploring how to respond to high-risk situations. After working on this issue for nine months, the Committee recommended a pilot project. The Staff of the Woman Abuse Council created a project proposal and ultimately was able to get project funding from the United Way and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

In addition to pilot projects that aim to improve coordination and collaboration in order to increase women's safety, the Council has also undertaken a number of research initiatives over the past few years. These projects have grown out of the need to explore unintended consequences of new policy development (i.e. Women Charged in Domestic Violence Situations; the Unintended Consequences of Mandatory Charging), as well as to assess new policy and program initiatives that involve a coordinated response (i.e. the Women's Safety Project; an Evaluation of the Partner Abuse Response Programs from the perspective of women partners).

Most of the projects undertaken by the Council require some level of funding. Among the core projects of the Council are Women’s Court Watch and Speaker's Bureau of Women's Voices for Action. The Council is also involved in a number of joint projects and initiatives that are issue based, such as the Working Group on Non- Status Women, as well those organized by specific communities, such as the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA).

 

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