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Speaking for Themselves: Hope for Children Caught in High Conflict Custody and Access Disputes Involving Domestic Violence

  • PROTECTIVE FACTORS FOR AT-RISK CHILDREN
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Abstract

The Speaking for Themselves (SFT) project sought to enhance the physical, emotional, and psychological safety of children exposed to domestic violence and high conflict custody and access disputes. Children were provided with both a trauma therapist and a lawyer, in an attempt to ensure their well-being while providing decision-makers with reliable and authentic information about these children’s circumstances. This project was an attempt to balance the “best interests” approach applied in family law decision-making with the value placed on a child’s right to be heard, an approach espoused by children’s rights advocates. This article presents the SFT philosophy, model program, and evaluation results.

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Notes

  1. We use domestic violence, domestic abuse, family violence, and abuse interchangeably.

  2. Throughout this paper these terms are referred to as custody and access/parenting or one or the other alone. Parenting is the language of Alberta’s Family Law Act; custody and access appears in Canada’s divorce legislation and case law.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. YWCA of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Sarah Fotheringham & Jean Dunbar

  2. Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Sarah Fotheringham

  3. Children’s Legal and Educational Resource Center, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Dale Hensley

Authors
  1. Sarah Fotheringham
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  2. Jean Dunbar
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  3. Dale Hensley
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Correspondence to Sarah Fotheringham.

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With the permission of Irwin Law, this paper borrows from and builds on an earlier published work entitled “Speaking for Themselves: A Pilot Program Balancing Children’s Rights and Best Interests in High-Conflict Families,” which appears in Children and the Law: Essays in Honour of Professor Nicholas Bala (ed. Sanjeev Anand, Irwin Law 2011). Excerpts quoted directly are referenced to the relevant page number of the earlier paper.

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Fotheringham, S., Dunbar, J. & Hensley, D. Speaking for Themselves: Hope for Children Caught in High Conflict Custody and Access Disputes Involving Domestic Violence. J Fam Viol 28, 311–324 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-013-9511-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-013-9511-3

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