Certificate Programs

Required Courses:

Intimate Partner Violence Foundations 

This course provides foundational skills for responding to intimate partner violence (IPV). The focus is on translating systemic understandings of IPV into practice that centres diverse and intersecting identities and cultures, actively decolonizes practice, and is trauma and violence-informed. Skills for recognizing and amplifying strengths in response to violence are modelled and practiced. 

Intimate Partner Violence Risk Assessment  

Recognizing, assessing and communicating risk is a core skill for all professionals responding to intimate partner violence. In this interactive course, participants will distinguish between risk screening and assessment, understand the value of using validated tools, and practice skills for using risk assessment to guide safety planning and risk management.

Electives Courses:

Understanding and Responding to Young People with Childhood Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence 

Hear the perspectives of young people on the support they need in the aftermath of living with Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Practice skills for listening to, respecting and valuing children’s voices and experiences, working with children to continually assess risk and safety plans, and building on children’s strengths and resilience in responding to violence. 

Engaging Men in Conversations about Family Violence to Manage Risk and Promote Safety

A critical part of reducing gender-based violence is engaging men. Participants will learn skills for asking questions in ways that promote understanding of abuse and risk, for making complex and ongoing judgements for balancing empathy with risk of collusion, and for joining with men around a shared commitment to safety. 

Supporting and Advocating for Survivors who are Navigating the Criminal Justice System 

The criminal justice system often exacerbates trauma and risk associated with Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). This course supports service providers in advocating for survivors through sharing knowledge of legal frameworks and procedures that they can use to promote TVI responses from the criminal justice system that are sensitive to the risk of lethal IPV.

Skills for Working with Mothers and Infants who have Experienced IPV

No course description yet

Our program offers courses led by experts in the field of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), utilizing a specialized framework developed through extensive collaboration. This framework, called Recognizing Critical Expertise: A Knowledge and Skills Framework for Intimate Partner Violence Specialists [link], was created through hundreds of meetings with service providers, service users, and survivors across Canada.

Our Report

The framework is structured around The Flourishing Practice Model, which uses a visual representation of a flower to illustrate key areas of knowledge, skills, and expertise in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) work.

Experts

Dr. Katreena Scott, PhD, C.Psych

Katreena is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Ending Child Abuse and Family Violence in the Faculty of Education at Western University. She is the Academic Director of the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children at Western University. She leads an applied research program aimed at ending violence in family relationships, with specific expertise in addressing violence perpetration in men. See Katreena Scott's Profile!

Sarah Webb, MSW/RSW

Sarah is the Communications and Global Enterprise Development Specialist at Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children, Western University. Previously, Sarah worked for the Caring Dads Global Enterprise as an Accredited Trainer who also provided Clinical Consultations to communities around the world on how to work with abusive fathers. Sarah also worked 15 years in the Child Welfare system as a Child Protection Worker on a specialized Domestic Violence Team conducting child protection investigations while working closely with the Violence Against Women sector. Sarah also has a private practice counselling teens, parents and adults.

Dr. Angelique Jenney, MSW, RSW, PhD

Angelique is an Associate Professor and the Wood’s Homes Research Chair in Children’s Mental Health in the Faculty of Social Work, at the University of Calgary. She has 25 years of experience in intervention and prevention services within the gender-based violence, child protection and children’s mental health sectors. Her community-based research and practice interests focus on the impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on children and families including: family-based interventions for childhood trauma; child protection responses to IPV cases; and the use of reflective, simulation-based learning approaches to training both social work students and practitioners in the field.

Charmaine Lane, PhD, MSc, RP, BA

Charmaine is a registered psychotherapist experienced in children and adult mental health and working with a variety of issues such as marriage and family, transitions such as divorce and separation, social issues in child welfare as it pertains to family reunification and advocacy. She has been working as a mental health and counselling professional since 2003 and specializes in racial trauma and its contribution to other mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and mental illness routed in internalized oppression and trauma.

Margaret MacPherson

Margaret has been working in the gender-based violence sector for the past twenty years on local, regional and national projects. As a Community Research Associate, she has been leading and supporting projects at CREVAWC on workplace domestic violence, sexual violence and harassment, elder abuse, sexual and labour exploitation, trauma -and violence- informed care in police services and cultural integration in the GBV sector. Margaret also convenes the regional (Southwest Region) and provincial (Building a Bigger Wave) networks for Violence Against Women Coordinating Committees.

Tim Kelly, BA, MSW/RSW

Tim Kelly has worked with abusive men since 1986 and is Executive Director of Changing Ways, a social service agency for men who abuse women in Ontario. Tim has spoken both nationally and internationally on issues related to violence against women and children and community collaborations. Much of his efforts have included engaging men to end violence against women and children.  He has collaborated with women’s advocates and child protection leaders to develop programs and processes to engage and hold men who perpetrate gender-based violence responsible for their actions and systems accountable for change. 

Vivien Green

Vivien is an experienced community developer who has worked in the non-profit field for over 30 years in both rural and urban Ontario. She has had a special focus in violence against women services and policy development, community needs assessments and program development and community coordination. Vivien has also worked as an educator in the community college and university system and a consultant.

Subsidy

These courses have been developed with and for the GBV field. Our aim is to be revenue neutral; making these opportunities as assessable as possible while recognizing the expertise of our instructors and the work it takes to develop and offer skills-based courses. We have reserved a few subsidized spaces. We also invite you to contact Seema Hooda (shooda5@uwo.ca) to talk about our collaboration options.

Our program is designed for those looking to improve their skills in recognizing and responding to Gender-Based Violence (GBV). This training is ideal for service providers such as: 

• Mental health practitioners
• Child and family workers
• Probation/parole officers
• Shelter staff
• Child welfare workers Specialized healthcare workers
• Facilitators in programs for those who have behaved abusively
• Private practice therapists
• Human resource professionals
• Academics
• Community members

We are also developing specialized certificate programs, starting with a series of courses for child protection workers.

Students benefit from our partnership with Western University's Continuing Studies program. Our partnership with Western University ensures that your education is recognized in our community, across Canada, and around the world.

Our standards reflect the learning experience and quality of courses and programs that Western University provides to its global community of learners.

• Flexible Learning: We offer flexible programming throughout the year to help you reach your personal and professional goals.
• Online: These flexible courses and certificates are offered fully online, allowing you to keep learning, even if you work full-time or live outside of the London area.
• Take a Course: For added flexibility, you can register for individual courses. You can take one course or stack them towards a certificate program.
• Certificate: Build your knowledge and develop your skills for career advancement with our Certificate programs.

We're always looking to expand and improve our course offerings to meet the needs of service providers in the GBV field. If you have an idea for a course or specific skills you'd like to develop, we want to hear from you. Let us know how we can help you grow and enhance your expertise: fill out our survey.