Colour of Violence Anonymous Survey

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About this Project

Drawing on the work of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, Battered Women’s Support Services is undertaking a multi-year Colour of Violence participatory research project to examine the intersections of race and gender for Black, Indigenous, migrant/refugee, and women and gender-diverse survivors of colour experiencing gender-based violence in British Columbia.

The Colour of Violence project asks the necessary question: How can we end violence against Black, Indigenous, immigrant and women of colour in this province? Based in anti-oppressive, anti-racist, decolonial and feminist principles, this work will position racialized women and gender-diverse people at the center of anti-violence work. We wish to make visible the experiences of Black, Indigenous, immigrant/refugee, and women of colour survivors so that anti-violence service provision, advocacy and government policy centers these unique realities. We also aim to challenge the homogenization of “women of colour” and tend to the specific experiences of diverse Black, Indigenous, migrant/refugee, and women of colour survivors.

This project will explore the extent to which gender and race influence systemic responses to gender-based violence. We will examine elements of police and criminal legal responses; the systemic barriers to accessing relevant gender-based violence services; and the intersecting involvement for Black, Indigenous, immigrant/refugee, women of colour survivors with child welfare, immigration, mental health, income, housing and other systems and policies.

Consent

Thank you for participating in this survey. Your participation is important to us.

We expect that this survey will take no more than 15 minutes to complete. Your participation is voluntary. You are not required to answer any questions that make you feel uncomfortable. Feel free to skip any questions, stop answering a question, or take a break at any time. You may share as little or as much as you like.

If you do decide to withdraw at any time during the survey, please do not submit your survey and no information will be retained. If you choose to withdraw your consent after you submitted your survey, you can contact us to request the withdrawal of your data.

We hope to summarize the results of this survey in order to better understand and raise awareness on how gender and race influence the accessibility and adequacy of anti-violence services and responses to gender-based violence. We want to center the experiences of Black, Indigenous, immigrant/refugee, and women and gender diverse survivors of colour in accessing safety and justice.

This survey is completely anonymous, and all responses are treated as confidential. No identifying information is collected nor connected to your survey other than what you answer in the survey. No one will know that you have completed this survey. Your answers from this survey will be combined with others’ answers and reported in aggregated and/or anonymized quotation form only.

If you need support in working through feelings or triggers that may arise, we invite you to contact a support worker at Battered Women’s Support Services Crisis Line: 604-687-1867 or toll free at 1-855-687-1868.

This survey is being hosted on our website and data storage includes storage in the US. There is a possibility that, in extraordinary circumstances, data may be accessed in compliance with US legislation. Once the project is completed, all survey data will be destroyed by permanently deleting the project from our online database.

Should you have any questions, you may contact: endingviolence@bwss.org

If you agree to participate in this survey, you must sign and date this page to confirm your participation.

Signature (your name is not needed)(Required)

Date(Required)

Day

Month

Year

About this survey

We know that safety changes everything. This survey will focus on issues of accessibility, safety, and the structural barriers of anti-violence services in British Columbia for Black, Indigenous, immigrant/refugee, and women and gender-diverse survivors of colour. In centering the experiences of Black, Indigenous, immigrant/refugee, and women and gender-diverse survivors of colour accessing safety and justice, we will assess how gender and race influence the accessibility and adequacy of anti-violence services and responses to gender-based violence.

In this survey, we understand gender-based violence as the violence inflicted upon a person due to their gender identity, gender expression or perceived gender. Gender-based violence is pervasive in our patriarchal culture, and frequently manifests as violence and abuse against women and girls.

Survey Questions

This survey will focus on issues of accessibility, safety, and the structural barriers of anti-violence services in British Columbia for Black, Indigenous, immigrant/refugee, and women and gender-diverse survivors of colour. In this survey, we understand gender-based violence as the violence inflicted upon a person due to their gender identity, gender expression or perceived gender. Gender-based violence is pervasive in our patriarchal culture, and frequently manifests as violence and abuse against women and girls.

1. Please check all that apply to describe you and feel free to add anything else:(Required)

Indigenous (First Nations, Metis, Inuit)

Black

First generation immigrant, refugee, or migrant to Canada

Racialized as non-white in Canada (e.g. Arab, South East Asian, South Asian, East Asian, Latin American)

We know race is complicated! Anything you wish to add about how you experience racial discrimination:

2. I live in BC, am over the age of 19, and identify as a woman, femme or gender diverse person.(Required)

Yes

3. We know that there are many other realities that intersect with race for survivors. Please check if any of the following apply for you:(Required)

I speak English as an additional language

I am trans, two-spirit, non-binary, gender diverse

My sexuality is lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, pansexual +

I have a disability

I am low-income (low wages, informal work, shift work, social assistance, etc.)

I do not have secure or stable work

I do not have secure or stable housing

I am a single parent or the primary caregiver of children

I live in a rural community

I am from a visible religious minority

I am criminalized in some way (for example, by immigration, policing, child welfare etc.)

Please feel free to add anything else about your identity and systemic oppression/barriers that you feel comfortable sharing:

4. When you have experienced gender-based violence, have you felt comfortable contacting anti-violence services such as transition houses, victim services, counselling, sexual assault services, culturally relevant organizations, serving organizations, women's centres, anti-violence organizations, crises lines?(Required)

Always

Mostly

Sometimes

Almost Never

Never

Prefer not to say

5. When you have experienced gender-based violence, what are some services or support systems that have kept you safe? Check all that apply:(Required)

Friends and families

Police

Victim services

Transition or safe house

Anti-violence services

Sexual assault services

Crisis phone line or Counselling

Culturally relevant resources

Other

Please specify what other services or support systems have kept you safe:

6. When you experienced gender-based violence, on a scale of 1-5, how much help and support did you receive from:(Required)

	1	2	3	4	5
Friends and families
Police
Victim Services
Transition or safe house
Anti-violence services
Sexual assault services
Crisis phone line or Counselling
Culturally relevant resources
Other

7. In accessing anti-violence services, I received support that was:(Required)

[Check all that apply]

Attentive to my racial, cultural and ethnic identity

Available to me in a language I am most comfortable with

Culturally relevant support, such as Indigenous-specific or Afro-centric supports

Aware of how I was also navigating other systems such as child services, police, immigration, social assistance.

From a support worker who was Black, Indigenous, immigrant/refugee or racialized.

Add anything else about support received that honoured your racial/cultural identity:

8. Please check any statement below that applies to you to fill in the blanks.(Required)

“I did not contact anti-violence services after experiencing gender-based violence because…”

I was afraid of my abuser and retaliation by them or their family/friends.

I was afraid the police would be contacted, and I did not want to be involved with the police or the criminal legal system.

I was worried about other government systems being contacted, such as immigration enforcement, involuntary mental health services, child services, housing and/or income assistance.

I already feel under surveillance (for example as a Black, Indigenous or Muslim woman; I have precarious immigration status; I am involved in under-the-table work, sex work, drug trade, street economies etc.; or because I am already “in the system” in a way I don’t like.)

I did not feel that I would be comfortable or safe with someone who did not understand my racial and cultural background.

I did not feel I would receive support in a language that is most comfortable for me.

I did not feel safe as a trans, two spirit or gender diverse person of colour.

I prefer not to answer or not applicable.

9. If you did not feel safe contacting anti-violence services after experiencing gender-based violence or did not feel comfortable with the services you did receive, can you tell us a bit more about why? Did you feel a general sense of being unwelcome, not belonging, or being out of place in accessing anti-violence services?

10. Have you have the experience of racism (whether "overt" or "subtle" anti-Indigenous racism, anti-Blackness, anti-immigrant sentiments, Islamophobia etc.) while accessing anti-violence services? If yes, feel free to share details of your experience and how you think race and gender influence the accessibility and adequacy of anti-violence services.

11. We know safety changes everything. What do you feel anti-violence organizations and policymakers need to do better to support Black, Indigenous, immigrant and women and gender diverse survivors of colour in this province?

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