MARC
(Men Accepting Responsibility for Change)
The Family Violence Counselling Program is firmly committed to act co-operatively with the community to end violence against women by offering specialized services that work towards the safety of abused women, hold perpetrators accountable and work preventively to interrupt the generational cycle of violence with children exposed to family violence.
A complete end to all forms of abuse designed to control the women. Enhancing the woman's safety, is a critical first step to enable the woman partner to make choices that meet her needs and those of her children.
The intentional and systematic use of tactics to establish and maintain power and control over a woman's thoughts, beliefs and conduct through the inducement of fear and/or dependency. Control tactics are based on a range of personal, institutional and cultural beliefs, including an assumption of male privilege, that support the perpetrator feeling entitled to behave this way. Control tactics can include but are not limited to: physical and sexual violence, threats, isolation, economic deprivation, attacks on her personality and mind, coercive use of children and entrapment. (CAS/VAW Joint Training Ontario Ministry of Community and Social, Oct 1999)
…Underlying all abuse is a power imbalance between victim and offender. (D. Sinclair, 1985)
Practice and Procedures
1. The primary stakeholder of the MARC Program is the abused woman.
2. Every effort will be made to contact the current and previous partners of an abusive man referred to this Program. Attempts will be made to invite them for an interview. At minimum the woman will be contacted by letter, which will contain information about relevant resources for her.
If it is a new partner, the abusive man will be offered the opportunity to advise his partner on his own, prior to the Program contacting her.
3. An abused woman will not be interviewed in front of her partner and the man will not be given information about her unless she gives explicit permission for him to be confronted with it in-group.
4. If a male therapist in the Program is to contact an abused woman, he is first to ascertain that she is comfortable talking to a man and that she is offered the option of talking to a woman.
5. Partner contacts should address, at the minimum, the following areas:
a) An assessment of the history, nature and extent of the abuse perpetrated against her.
b) An assessment of her level of safety using the Victim's statement of Risk (Joint Committee on Domestic Violence august 1999 - AGO) and the completion of a Safety Plan. She needs to be informed that participation in this Program does not guarantee her safety. She is still the best judge to determine if she is vulnerable to further abuse and to act accordingly on her determination.
c) The establishment of a safe time to make regular contacts with her, a procedure to contact her in an emergency, such as communicating a threat made towards her, and an alternative contact person if she is unable to be reached.
9. When the abusive man makes a threat towards a partner or when it is assessed that she may be at risk for possible abuse or harm, the Program protocol is to be addressed in the following ways: -
a) The caseworker or group facilitator is to contact the woman at a time when it is safe for her to be contacted or the designated alternate contact person, as soon as possible.
b) In clear and direct terms, the partner is to be informed that the Program worker considers that she is at risk for abuse or harm. The statements made by the perpetrator and the context of the statements need to be communicated to her.
c) She needs to be offered assistance to develop an effective safety plan, encouraged to alert the Police of her circumstances and offered assistance that the Program will alert the police directly or that the Program will assist her to achieve this.
d) The wishes of the partner to access other direct services for abused women as part of her safety plan need to receive support and encouragement.
e) This Program will have a written description that the abusive man signs, as part of his contract, which explains that authorities such as the Police, and/or Children's Aid Society will be informed of any heightened concerns for violence that might be perpetrated by him.
10. It is the policy of the program to inform the police if he re-assaults his partner. If the abusive man reports the re-assault, he will be encouraged to report this to the Police and his Probation Officer (if applicable) and the program will make the report within 24 hours. The caseworker or group facilitator is to contact the woman at a time when it is safe for her to be contacted or her designated alternate contact person, as soon as possible. The woman who has been re-assaulted needs to be offered assistance to develop an effective safety plan. She will be encouraged to report the assault to the Police and offered assistance to do this. If the assaulted woman has concerns that a report to the Police by the Program will jeopardize her safety, a report will not be made until this risk has been effectively dealt with. If children have been present during the assault, a report will be made to the Children's Aid Society in accordance with CFSA s.72(1).
In order to address the requirements for accountability, the Family Violence Counselling Program will remain a member of the Family Violence Co-ordinating Committee or such body that represents the co-ordination of community services in this field.
11. The Program has a confidentiality policy, which is signed by the abusive man, and his agreement to sign this document is a condition of his treatment. This document contains a clear indication of what will remain confidential and what cannot be held confidential. A copy of this confidentiality policy and an explanation of this policy will be provided to the partner of the male batterer.
A. To halt all forms of abuse and other tactics designed to control the man's partner.
B. To hold the man accountable for the abuse that he has committed.
C. To provide a theme-based, structured educational format.
D. To broaden the understanding of each client about:
1. The forms of abuse he uses.
2. The purpose of this abuse.
3. The reasons why he continues to use abuse.
4. The consequences of this abuse for his partner,
the children and himself.
5. How woman abuse is part of the attempt to protect male
privilege over women.
D. To evaluate the progress of each client in the above goals through feedback from partner contacts, self-evaluations, peer-group evaluations and facilitator assessments. This information will be made available to his partner, the man and other community agencies specified in signed consents.
A. All men referred to the MARC program will be required to attend for an assessment with a therapist in the Family Violence Counselling Program. The men's Assessment package will be completed with them. This includes: a questionnaire related to information regarding their own psycho-social history and the history of abuse in their present of past intimate relationships; alcohol and drug screening (MAST, DAST), Control Log; completion of consents to their partner, probation (if applicable) Children's Aid Society and other agencies as indicated; Group Contract.
B. Criteria for Group Membership -
1. The majority of referrals are made by probation. Two to three seats per session are reserved for motivated voluntary fee for service clients. Consideration is given to ability to pay.
2. The prospective group member:
· has been convicted of assault of his partner or a related offence
· has a counselling clause as a term of probation
· has a probation order that will not expire during the course of group
· acknowledges that he has been abusive to his partner
· is able to read and write at a grade 6 level or above
· is not actively abusing alcohol or drugs
· is not experiencing acute psychiatric disturbance
· is able to attend all sessions
B. Weekly co-facilitated group sessions of two hours in duration.
C. Regular attendance is required and weekly reports are made to Probation Officers.
D. Clients are required to sign a group contract.
E. Limited confidentiality applies and a release form in the name of his partner is a requirement.
F. Information on his attendance, participation and progress can be released to his partner.
G. Regular partner contacts are made to monitor controlling tactics that he may still be employing. With her explicit permission, he may be confronted in his group if he continues to use abuse to control his partner.
H. There are sixteen theme-based sessions.
Sixteen sessions:
1. Introduction to Partner Assault – Definition of Feelings and Anger
2. Physical Assault
3. Intimidation
4. Coercion and Threats
5. Emotional Abuse
6. Isolation
7. Sexual Abuse
8. Male Privilege
9. Economic Abuse
10. Using Children and Others
11. Responsibility I
12. Responsibility II
13. Safety (Non-Violence) I
14. Safety (Non-Violence) II
15. Safety (Non-Violence) III
16. Accountability
The goal of these sessions is for each man to reflect on and to demonstrate the progress that he has made while in the MARC Program. The men must demonstrate their accountability to themselves, their fellow group members, and the program facilitators and above all to their partners. This is done by having each man present and describe each of the five A's of Accountability.
Each man will participate in this process. Evaluation will be based on information from partner contacts, group members, facilitators and the individual.
¨ Complete a control log based on his entire abusive relationship.
¨ Present this completed log to fellow group members without minimizing, blaming his partner or denying his use of abuse
¨ Perform a complete layout with examples
LAYOUT SHOULD TAKE THE FOLLOWING FORM:
MY NAME IS ...
MY (EX) PARTNER'S NAME IS...AND I HAVE ABUSED
HER USING THE FOLLOWING FORMS OF ABUSE
(USE EXAMPLES)....
I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR USING THIS ABUSE NOT MY PARTNER
THE PURPOSE OF MY ABUSE IS...
THE TYPES OF ABUSE I CONTINUE TO USE OR HAVE POTENTIAL TO USE ARE...
¨ Present a disclosure of an abusive incident (the worst incident, the last incident, and the incident that brought him to group) without minimizing, blaming his partner, denying or making excuses for his actions.
¨ Lets his partner decide what is best for her i.e.: separation, counselling for herself or the man, what is abusive.
¨ The purpose of abuse is control. If his partner begins to make decisions without the influence of his control or input (i.e.: separation) then this is the ultimate loss of his control. If he allows himself to agree with her decisions then he has made a big step towards making change in his behaviour and attitudes concerning abuse.
¨ List two or three decisions his partner has made about the relationship since his abuse was disclosed.
¨ Discuss how he has agreed or disagreed with his (ex) partner's right to decide what is best for her.
List two decisions that his partner has made about the relationship, and he is prepared to follow, since his abuse was disclosed.
¨ His partner decides what the amends will be and when they have been met.
¨ Amends may include:
Ø attending group and making change
Ø taking responsibility for your actions
Ø leaving the relationship
Ø agreeing with her decisions
¨ Discuss the amends that he is committed to make.
List two amends that he is committed to make.
¨ Present and discuss your Personal Plan For Non Violence.
¨ The most important things that I learned or gained from this group were.......
¨ I still have to learn.......
GROUP EVALUATION AND FEEDBACK
Each person is asked to provide feedback to other members. During this time the member receiving feedback is asked to listen without responding.
Members are asked to comment on:
¨ One positive change this person made was.....
¨ This person still needs to work on.....
¨ His presentation of the 5 A's of accountability was.....