Tearing Down Barriers

The stakes surrounding intimate partner violence in Edmonton are alarmingly high. With anywhere from 300 to 1,000 cases flagged annually as high-risk, the need for immediate, decisive intervention can be a matter of life and death. For too long, the moments following a crisis have been defined by confusion and exhaustion, as survivors navigated a fragmented network of police, courts and social services. Without a coordinated safety net, many were forced to negotiate a complex and stressful reality on their own, often falling through the cracks of a siloed system. This critical gap is precisely what the Integrated Domestic Violence Response Team (IDVRT) was created to fill. The pilot initiative — a collaboration between YWCA Edmonton, enCompass Community Safety Agency, Islamic Family & Social Services Association (IslamicFamily) and the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) — offers a single, unified system to support survivors when the need is both urgent and growing.

Before the IDVRT launched, police investigators — whose primary job is justice and accountability — often bore the emotional burden of the system’s failure to provide long-term care. “We are very cognizant of thefact that we want to help people, but our job is policing and the justice system, so we needed that outreach and support from the community to be able to effectively assist victims of intimate partner violence,” explains EPS Staff Sergeant Jeffery Kaun of the prior systemic challenge.The lack of specialized, unified support meant victims often found themselves returning to investigators for help with housing, justice system navigation and social support long after the initial crisis. The newly established IDVRT directly addresses this gap through the four frontline organizations operating as a single entity, collaborating through the secure Transform platform (built by IslamicFamily), which acts as centralized technology for real-time case management. This innovation dismantles the historical barriers between social services and justice, ensuring survivors receive timely, wraparound supports tailored to their complex needs.

This shift toward a fully integrated system has been made possible through the crucial support of Edmonton Community Foundation (ECF) in two ways. First, ECF provided IslamicFamily with $200,000 in funding from its Community Services Recovery Fund to create the Transform platform in 2023. This was followed by a $50,000 Community Grant in the spring of 2025 to directly support the IDVRT project. “Intimate partner violence is a complex issue that requires collaboration across many sectors,” says Dave Chowne, Grants Associate at ECF.

“By funding the IDVRT, we saw an opportunity to address a critical need in a very effective way in our community.”

Ashley Lim, Director of Counselling Services at YWCA Edmonton, agrees noting, “The thing that makes this program truly innovative is that integration.” By using this shared platform, Lim explains that “all the registered social workers (RSWs) in each organization have real time access to information for all the clients that they’re serving, all based on client consent.” Another revolution within the IDVRT is its trauma-informed intervention model, which strategically embeds RSWs directly within the EPS and community agencies. This ensures survivors are met with expertise and empathy at the point of crisis. Bringing specialized, long-term support into the immediate response provides crucial stabilization and safety planning, allowing the survivor to focus on healing without having to retell their story multiple times to different agencies.

This support is fundamentally changing survivor outcomes. The pilot, which formally launched in March, has already successfully taken on more than 160 high-risk referrals. “What we’ve seen is increased engagement in the justice system, and that means … survivors are able to navigate the system in an informed way so that we arrive at the best result possible for that family,” says Kaela Hendra, Director of Client Experience at enCompass, which provides holistic services and wraparound supports that address the root causes of crime and social disorder. The ultimate vision is a family justice centre for Edmonton, and the involved organizations view IDVRT as the foundational step toward this goal. A centre would represent a major step toward more integrated and survivor-centered justice, providing a “one-door” solution where all essential supports — from legal aid to trauma counseling and shelter navigation — are physically co-located in one building.

For a survivor standing at the edge of crisis, the IDVRT offers a single, profound promise: You do not have to do this alone. It takes the terror of those initial moments and replaces it with a unified, compassionate hand, guiding them toward safety and stability. If the IDVRT succeeds in their mission, every person navigating an abusive situation will know that their community truly has their back.

This story comes from the Winter 2025 Edition of Thrive Magazine.

Read the full issue.