Building Leadership in Family Violence/GBV Shelters & Agencies in Winnipeg & Across the Province (2024-2025)
The project focuses on leadership approaches in the Family Violence (FV)/Gender-Based Violence (GBV) sector, including internal structures and governance, maintaining capacity at the management level and achieving organizational strategic planning.
The main objective is to develop a leadership manual with an online component to support growth and service delivery from the top down. This manual will provide insight into the front-line work in a shelter in Manitoba. Each shelter will have unique operations; this manual is merely a guideline, so it’s important, in addition to your orientation training, that you read the in-house policies and manuals provided by your shelter.
View Manual
Additionally, our recommended readings feature a range of topics relevant to leadership in the Family Violence (FV)/Gender-Based Violence (GBV) sector, addressing both general leadership principles and specific issues related to family violence emergency shelters, shelter management and GBV. The readings include a mix of academic sources, practical guides, and reports from relevant organizations in the field. Click here to view the Recommended Readings
Course co-created with Heartwood Healing Centre (2022)
Childhood sexual assault is a prevalent issue that people seeking shelter are dealing with, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, Family Violence (FV) staff observed increasing numbers of childhood sexual assaults. To help FV workers support their clients better, MAWS partnered with the Heartwood Healing Centre to create training for FV shelters and agency staff that would help them support and stabilize clients who have been waiting for long-term counselling.
There is both compelling research and evidence from the family violence community that childhood sexual abuse training focusing on Stage 1 – stabilization, safety, and grounding support will build capacity within the organizations to support individuals who disclose childhood sexual abuse. The online self-directed course developed by Hearthwood, is available on the MAWS training webpage titled Working with Disclosures of Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA)