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EXPLORE THIS TOOL

WHAT IS THE RISA TOOL?

The RISA Tool is a Risk Identification and Safety Assessment tool developed for front-line service providers working with survivors of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) or those at risk of violence.

3 main components of THE TOOL
1

1. RISA Framework

2

2. Learning Modules

3

3. RISA Questionnaire

1. RISA FRAMEWORK


The RISA framework is based on 3 levels of factors that can impact risk and safety: social, institutional, and systemic factors. The framework outlines these key factors as well as the circumstances that are essential to consider when assessing risk and safety with survivors of GBV.

INTERACTIVE FRAMEWORK

2. LEARNING MODULES

RISA includes 3 wrap-around educational modules on the foundations of risk identification and safety planning and key approaches for conducting intersectional and trauma-informed assessments. Each module has a section that allows users to assess their readiness to use the RISA tool with clients with additional links and resources on many topics, such as GBV, anti-bias training, vicarious trauma, and others.

MODULE 1

GBV: THE BASICS

Contains background information about the definition and forms of gender-based violence and a glossary of key terms used in the training. It includes links and resources related to GBV.

MODULE 2

FOUNDATIONS OF RISK & ASSESSMENT SAFETY PLANNING

An introductory module on the “Foundations of Risk Assessment and Safety Planning” where participants will learn about risk factors, most commonly used risk assessment tools, gaps and limitations and the importance of incorporating risk assessment into safety planning.

MODULE 3

KEY APPROACHES

An intermediate module focusing on “Key Approaches to Risk Assessment and Safety Planning” where participants will learn about intersectional risk factors and trauma-informed approaches to risk assessment and safety planning.

Build your capacity to support your clients using trauma-informed, intersectional, and survivor-centred practices.

START LEARNING

3. RISA QUESTIONNAIRE


This is the core component of the RISA Tool for Service Providers. It is intended to assist service providers in screening and identifying any potential risk for future violence where GBV has been identified.

The RISA Questionnaire consists of 4 components that will assist with the identification of risks and inform personalized safety and action plans. The assessment and suggested plans will be based on the client’s past and current experiences of violence and unique circumstances and identities.

The RISA Questionnaire has questions about a client’s current situation, such as whether the client is living with the person who caused harm or is recently separated or planning to leave, that will be linked to safety and action plans based on the client’s situation.

Questions related to a client’s social identity factors and other relevant factors. Since clients’ overlapping identities and experiences can increase or mediate the risk level and/or impact safety, answers to the questions will inform safety and action plans.

Includes questions that a provider can use to help identify the risks that clients may be facing. The provider will then work with the client to help assess whether or not the client is in a high-risk situation for serious harm or lethality, as well as risk factors that should be incorporated into safety planning.

Includes additional factors identified through our research, which take into account social, institutional, and systemic forms of risk that clients may be facing.

A list of safety planning strategies and reflective questions to explore with clients. The safety plan will be generated based on answers from the RISA Questionnaire and will be anonymized based on your client’s unique identifier. Service providers can download, save, and print the plan to share and discuss in more detail with clients.

A report with a summary of identified risks will be generated along with 3 main clusters that describe each risk factor, including risk factors for serious harm or lethality, risk factors for re-assault and other risk factors.

Service providers can use the action plan templates to plan their next steps. The client action plan guides next steps for your client. The high-risk action plan can assist providers and their supervisors in taking appropriate action and doing case consultations for clients they deem high-risk. The case management action plan guides actions that the service provider can take on behalf of clients in coordinating with other service providers and stakeholders.

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RISA FRAMEWORK

RISA FRAMEWORK

Institutional and
Systemic Factors

Social and
Interpersonal Factors

 Experiences of GBV

Colonialism: the attempted or actual imposition of policies, laws, mores, economies, cultures or systems and institutions put in place by settler governments to support and continue the occupation of Indigenous territories, the subjugation of Indigenous Nations, and the resulting internalized and externalized thought patterns that support this occupation and subjugation.

Racism: systemic subordination, oppression, and exploitation of specific groups of people based on perceived physical and/or cultural characteristics. Racism is rooted in beliefs that assume the biological or cultural superiority of one racial group over others, resulting in power and privilege for the dominant group and unequal treatment and limited opportunities for oppressed groups.

Coercive Control: an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten. This is meant to make a person dependent by isolating them from support, exploiting them, depriving them of independence and regulating their everyday behavior.

Technology-facilitated violence: a modern form of gender-based violence that utilizes digital technologies to cause harm. It can include hacking, surveillance/tracking, impersonating, harassment/spamming, recruitment, and malicious distribution.

Economic Coercion: when an individual uses money, assets or property to control or exploit another individual.

Forcible confinement: depriving an individual of the liberty to move from one point to another by unlawfully confining, imprisoning or forcibly seizing that person.

Spiritual abuse: using a person's religious or spiritual beliefs to manipulate, dominate or control them. It may also include preventing someone from engaging in spiritual or religious practices or ridiculing their beliefs.

Xenophobia: Fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers, their cultures, and/or their customs.

Classism: negative beliefs, attitudes, behaviours, and/or systems of practices that devalue, exploit, or exclude people viewed as being from a lower social standing or class.

The RISA Framework outlines the key factors and circumstances that are essential to consider when assessing risk and safety with survivors of GBV.


Unlike a one-size-fits-all approach, the RISA Framework acknowledges that a holistic account of an individual’s unique experiences must be centered during service provision and support services. This includes considering the combination of a client’s unique identity factors and experiences of violence, as well as their experiences of structural and institutional harms.

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SELF CARE RESOURCES

SELF CARE RESOURCES

These resources are for you to use on your own or with a client. They can be used to help ground you before or after meeting with clients, or during your session with clients you may want to integrate a grounding exercise where appropriate.

Take a minute

It's ok to pause and take a moment to:
BREATHE
GROUND
LISTEN
READ

Breathe

Try a breathing meditation

ground

Help refocus and distract an anxious mind

listen

Self-care and avoiding burnout
Kristen Lee, Ed.D., LICSW, is a professor of Behavioral Science at Northeastern University, and is the author of “Mentalligence” and “Reset.” With more than 20 years’ experience as a clinician, educator, researcher and parent, she speaks about her area of expertise:preventing and treating burnout.
LISTEN
Join Autumn Brown and adrienne maree brown, two sisters who share many identities, as writers, activists, facilitators, and inheritors of multiracial diasporic lineages, as well as a particular interest in the question of survival, as we embark on a podcast that delves into the practices we need as a community, to move through endings and to come out whole on the other side, whatever that might be.
LISTEN

Kelley Bonner, LCSW, MA, is a burnout expert and wellness advocate. Her company, Burn Bright, helps high-achieving professionals prevent burnout through mindfulness and self-care. Kelley works with individuals, groups, and organizations to provide tools to reduce stress, enhance wellness, and strengthen workplace culture. 

LISTEN

Burnout. We’re all experiencing it and we’re all desperate for a way through it. In this episode, I talk to Drs. Emily and Amelia Nagoski about what causes burnout, what it does to our bodies, and how we can move through the emotional exhaustion. This has been a game changer for me and for my family!

LISTEN

READ

A Burst of Light

by Audre Lorde (1988) with Sonia Sanchez Foreword (2017)

Winner of the 1988 Before Columbus Foundation National Book Award, this path-breaking collection of essays is a clarion call to build communities that nurture our spirit. Lorde announces the need for a radical politics of intersectionality while struggling to maintain her own faith as she wages a battle against liver cancer. From reflections on her struggle with the disease to thoughts on lesbian sexuality and African-American identity in a straight white man’s world, Lorde’s voice remains enduringly relevant in today’s political landscape.

by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski (2019)

This groundbreaking book explains why women experience burnout differently than men—and provides a simple, science-based plan to help women minimize stress, manage emotions, and live a more joyful life.

by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (2018)

Care Work is a mapping of access as radical love, a celebration of the work that sick and disabled queer/people of colour are doing to find each other and to build power and community, and a toolkit for everyone who wants to build radically resilient, sustainable communities of liberation where no one is left behind. Powerful and passionate, Care Work is a crucial and necessary call to arms.

This Issue-based Newsletter examines collective wellbeing in gender-based violence work through a three-pronged approach that seeks to advocate for changes at the structural level, prevent vicarious trauma, and foster vicarious resilience among anti-violence workers. It provides an overview of vicarious trauma and vicarious resilience, highlights the role of organizations in preventing vicarious trauma, and offers strategies for what organizations can do to foster vicarious resilience and promote the well-being of anti-violence workers.

ACCESS ONLINE

by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky with Connie Burk (2009)

A longtime trauma worker, Laura van Dernoot Lipsky offers a deep and empathetic survey of the often-unrecognized toll taken on those working to make the world a better place. We may feel tired, cynical, or numb or like we can never do enough. These, and other symptoms, affect us individually and collectively, sapping the energy and effectiveness we so desperately need if we are to benefit humankind, other living things, and the planet itself. 

In Trauma Stewardship, we are called to meet these challenges in an intentional way. Lipsky offers a variety of simple and profound practices, drawn from modern psychology and a range of spiritual traditions, that enable us to look carefully at our reactions and motivations and discover new sources of energy and renewal. She includes interviews with successful trauma stewards from different walks of life and even uses New Yorker cartoons to illustrate her points.