Enhancing Service Provision for Immigrant Families Experiencing Domestic Violence through Partnerships between Mainstream Service Providers and Cultural Brokers

Abstract

Domestic violence among immigrant families and communities resettling in Canada is a growing area of concern for all stakeholders. Efforts to develop and implement culturally meaningful policy and practice initiatives to address this violence have been hampered by the diversity that exists among immigrant families, lack of information on how violence plays out in these families and inadequate resources. Since domestic violence and child abuse often co-occur in the same families, there is a growing trend among organizations like Children's Services to employ formalized partnerships with cultural brokers to build respectful relationships with immigrant families and provide culturally relevant interventions. This research-based paper describes the range of services cultural brokers render as part of this partnership, explores the challenges they experience as working partners, and makes recommendations for strengthening the partnership. The findings have implications for social work practitioners and other stakeholders who are interested in using community-based approaches for improving services for immigrant families that are involved or at risk of getting involved with Children's Services.