This report shares results of an action based research project on Danger Assessment useage in nine Alberta shelters over a two year period. Shelters saw a strong value in using a tool to communicate with community stakeholders on the dangers women face in abusive relationships in order to ensure effective safety planning and legal interventions occur. Fourteen (14) practice-focused recommendations are provided in this report.
Excerpt: “Following the training, some Alberta shelters began utilizing the danger assessment tool for women in contact with their shelter. Those shelters pioneering in this work were extremely concerned about the consistently high number of women who were at risk of future assault and/or homicide when they came to shelter. As ACWS began tracking these scores provincially we saw that more than three quarters of the women in emergency shelters and more than 90% of women in second stage shelters were at serious risk of danger in their intimate partner relationship based on Dr. Campbell’s Danger Assessment tool.”
This collaborative research project with Dr. Jacquelyn Campbell, ACWS and nine member sheltering agencies examined the utilization of the danger assessment tool in Alberta shelters in order to:
Inform women’s shelter practice in keeping women and children safe;
Provide accurate evidenced-based research for use by community stakeholders in keeping women and children safe; and
Pilot a train the trainer model using Canadian/Alberta data.
