This project brings together a common understanding of relationship violence (RV) across the lifespan and resources/links on one site.

Dr. Balbir Gurm, the facilitator of the Network to Eliminate Violence in Relationships (NEVR) and a faculty member at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) led the development of the first edition of this online resource while on educational leave (sabbatical) from her teaching and service duties, with key writing support from Glaucia Salgado, Professor Jennifer Marchbank and Sheila Early. For the second edition, Doctor Gurm did this off the side of her desk and while on non-teaching time. She put out a call for those who wished to continue work to create the second edition. All three key individuals agreed.

Professionals from multiple fields/perspectives provided review, input and feedback as the first edition evolved to ensure that key information was captured. This interdisciplinary team included: Gary Thandi, Daljit Gill-Badesha, Julie Czeck, Sobhana Jaya-Madhavan, Jim Cessford, Andrea Alexon, Sonia Andhi, CJ Rowe and Amarjit Sahota. All these individuals were not available as there are many committments to balance. I must also acknowledge that Andrea Alexon, the survivor on our first edition’s time has been taken from earth. To her we owe a great deal of gratitude for ensuring we used common language and had material relevant to surviors.

To this editon we added Haley Hrymak, a lawyer, to help update chapter 9, Legislation and Policy. Haley thank-you for being comprehensive. This chapter was reviewed by Simmi Sandhu, a BC lawyer and  Judge on the Asian Development Bank Administrative Tribunal. Thank-you Simmi for contibuting your time and expertise.

We have also added a chapter on Gang Violence. Dr. Dianne Symonds a former colleague has studied and written a book soley on gangs. We are honoured to have her write a chapter sharing her knowledge and expertise. Thank-you Dianne.

In the last few years we have heightened awareness around abuse of international students and a few films have been produced to increase awareness. Sparked by this, we added a chapter on abuse against international students. There are similiarities and differences between the chapters on abuse and the one specific to Abuse of International Students.

We discussed systemic racism and the impact of colonialized processes in the first edition.  In the second edition, we felt it was prudent to include a chapter on structural racism. This information can be used to help changes structures and processes in institutions and society.

This process has allowed us to build on the first edition and continue to have multiple perspectives and resources to provide a comprehensive overview of relationship violence. Our first edition was to be an online living resource but due to resource limitations did not materialize. To keep the resource current, we created this second edition. To honour the team who created the first edition, we maintain it on our platform.

A note on content and use

Chapter one includes summaries on chapters that follow. As well, each chapter identifies learning objectives and key messages that may help you decide which chapter you want to give more time and attention too. We anticipate that readers will use this book to ‘dip’ into different topics to develop their understandings of specific areas or to simply access the resources. As such, we have repeated some material in certain chapters and also refer readers to other chapters to further develop a theme. So, if you read each chapter in turn you will find duplicate or similar material in more than one place – this is intentional.

Also, there are many hyperlinks to resources. Some references can only be accessed through a library so are not linked. You will find the full citation at the end of the chapter and you can use it to request the resource from the KPU library or find it at another library.

This book is available under a Creative Commons licence, this means that you can use any materials in your classes and/or to provide services, but please make sure that you give due credit to the authors. If you adapt/update the material, please email a copy to NEVR@kpu.ca.