Building Connections: Supporting Community-Based Programs to Address Interpersonal Violence and Child Maltreatment
The goal of the Building Connections initiative was to enhance the capacity of service providers in Community Action Program for Children (CAPC), Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program (CPNP), and Aboriginal Head Start in Urban and Northern Communities (AHSUNC) to identify and respond to mothers and young children experiencing interpersonal violence and child maltreatment.
In addition to developing and delivering resources and training to community based projects across Canada on ways to respond to interpersonal violence and child maltreatment using trauma-informed and relational approaches, the initiative involved training facilitators from over 30 of these projects to deliver Connections: A Group Intervention for Mothers and Children Experiencing Violence to mothers in their communities.
This project was funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada as part of an initiative called “Supporting the Health of Victims of Domestic Violence Through Community Programs.” The Building Connections initiative is led by Margaret Leslie and is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Debra Pepler, Dr. Mary Motz, and Mothercraft’s Breaking the Cycle program.
For more information on the Building Connections Initiative, click here.
Click on the two images below to read the Building Connections final reports:
Connections for Breaking the Cycle (C-BTC) of VIolence
Stemming from the successful Building Connections initiative, the C-BTC initiative was designed to continue supporting delivery of the Connections intervention within 15 of our partner communities in order to strengthen a national network of certified facilitators responding to interpersonal violence. We also aimed to increase the evidence base for Connections by a) understanding whether impacts endure over time, and ) identifying mechanisms responsible for the changes observed.
This project is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada as part of an initiative called “Preventing and Addressing Family Violence: The Health Perspective.” C-BTC is led by Margaret Leslie and Bhupinder Heer, and is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Debra Pepler, Dr. Mary Motz, and Mothercraft’s Breaking the Cycle program.
For more information on the Building Connections Initiative, click here.
MacAulay, K., Andrews, N. C. Z., Motz, M., Lee, G. J., & Pepler, D. J. (2025). Pathways of perceived change in an interpersonal violence intervention for mothers: The importance of self-compassion. Behavioral Sciences, 15(6), 739. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15060739
Andrews, N. C. Z., Motz, M., & Pepler, D. J. (2020). A national implementation of a community-based intervention for mothers experiencing violence in relationships. Journal of Family Psychology. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/fam0000810
Andrews, N. C. Z., Motz, M., & Pepler, D. J. (2020). Developing and testing a readiness tool for violence prevention partnerships with community-based projects. Journal of Community Psychology, 48, 1715-1731. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22361
Andrews, N. C. Z., Pepler, D. J., & Motz, M. (2019). Research and evaluation with community-based projects: Approaches, considerations, and strategies. American Journal of Evaluation, 40, 548-561. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214019835821