Child, Family and Community Safety Division, Justice Institute of British Columbia

The purpose of this research was to enhance our understanding of the unique experiences of immigrant and refugee women who were victims of violence in their intimate relationships, in order to: (1) determine what service delivery factors they found to be empowering and disempowering; and (2) develop recommendations based on the findings to more effectively facilitate their empowerment. Empowering practices were defined as those responses that helped immigrant and refugee women who are victims of violence keep themselves safe and move forward in their lives.