A charity for survivors of domestic violence that started in Calgary is setting up centres across Canada, with the help of Canadian Hadassah-WIZO.
Rebecca Snukal, a criminal defence lawyer, started Franny’s Fund in 2021 to help victims of child abuse gain access to counselling services.
“What the statistics show is that the more meaningful approach to dealing with harm, particularly with children, is an urgent response. And so, the sooner you can get a child into counselling, the better it is,” Snukal said.
“But if there’s no resources, and if you’re a working parent, and let’s say you now find yourself in a situation where you’re a single parent because of a no-contact condition, it’s very hard to take time off of work and things like that. And so I wanted to be able to create a fund (for) some of these families that are protecting their kids but aren’t eligible for other services.”
Snukal created Franny’s Fund, named after her mother, because the current system can disincentivize reporting domestic violence, which makes it impossible to change patterns of violence.
“If you don’t report domestic violence or child abuse, then there’s no mechanism to stop the cycle of abuse. A lot of this stuff comes from intergenerational forms of parenting,” she said. “So let’s say you were hit as a child and then you start hitting as a parent, if you’re given the opportunity to learn more sophisticated ways of parenting or being in the world, then you can stop that cycle.
“Of course, there’s cases where intervention and family reunification is not safe and not possible, but there’s many cases where… you can get help and you can change, and families can be reunited in safer ways, parents can become better. And so we want to offer this as an opportunity for that to happen.”
Parents who report their partners for child abuse can be ineligible for public counselling services. Paradoxically, if a parent fails to report their abusive partner, then child welfare would intervene and more public programming and counselling would become available for families.
In Alberta, if parents share custody of a child, then they both need to sign off on the child receiving counselling. However, when a parent has been charged, they may withhold consent for counselling because they worry it could weaken their legal position.
It’s possible to get a court order that the child should receive counselling without the second parent signing off, but it is quite expensive to obtain. So Franny’s Fund also provides funding for that process.
When the fund first started, it focussed on ensuring counselling for children who were abused. But as the charity expanded, it was also able to provide support for siblings and parents of the children. Franny’s Fund then grew to support a broader set of services, including ones that can help people leave unhealthy or dangerous relationships.
Last year, Canadian Hadassah-WIZO (CHW) learned about Franny’s Fund, and quickly identified the charity as a natural partner, said Lisa Colt-Kotler, CEO of CHW. One of CHW’s goals is to support victims of domestic violence in both Canada and Israel.
“I was so impressed with what Rebecca had done and accomplished, and the impact that could be made to help support victims of domestic violence this way, that I said to her, “would you like us to take you national?” Colt-Kotler said. “And that’s what we did.”
In 2022-2023, CHW committed $100,000 to Franny’s Fund. That money helped open centres in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal, with each local centre, including Calgary, receiving $20,000. For the next year, CHW has committed $150,000 with each city receiving $30,000.
The eventual plan is to introduce Franny’s Fund to smaller cities as well, Colt-Kotler said.
In Israel, CHW works with an organization called Safety Net that gives a fresh start to women who are leaving shelters. CHW also supports the Michal Sela Forum to provide highly trained protective dogs to families who are deemed to be at an extreme risk of domestic violence.
CHW began a fundraising campaign this month called Starting Over Safely (SOS) for its projects that support victims of domestic violence.
