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Wildflower Organizational Assessment

Getting Started

The overall goal is exceptional service in any part of the service system for older women who have experienced GBV in a ‘no wrong door’ approach.

Organizations will be able to assess their capacity and progress toward achieving these four conditions through the assessment process. Each of the four conditions is considered.

Reflect on the needs of your community and the people you serve

Before you begin, consider the demographics in your community: ‍

  • What is the role of your organization in the community?
  • Do you serve older women? How diverse is this population?
  • What is your existing client profile? 
  • Why do people come to you for service?
  • Who is not accessing your services but could be? 
  • In your view, what are the barriers? How might stigma and age discrimination be showing up in your organization? 

The best way to determine whether there is an unmet need in your community is to reach out and engage people directly. If your organization does not have a relationship with a particular group, consider partnering with another organization or volunteer group that does. Local and provincial elder abuse prevention networks and GBV coordinating committees can be found in some communities and will be a good resource.

These conditions should be met:

  1. Organizational policies, procedures, culture and environment are supportive and explicit on age discrimination and the organizational role in addressing GBV as a part of a community network of services
  2. Service providers have core competencies relevant to their professional roles
  3. Older women and gender diverse people seeking service feel safe, comfortable, welcomed and supported when interacting with the organization
  4. There are opportunities for clients who are using services to provide input and feedback about their experience

The Assessment Process

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Start the Process

  1. If you are not the organizational leader, talk with your senior management to engage them and ensure buy-in. You might ask:
    1. How confident they feel about the organization serving older women who are GBV survivors?
    2. Is equity work planned or ongoing? 
    3. Is age discrimination an explicit focus in your equity work? 
  2. Identify who should participate in the organizational assessment process. 
  3. Form a TVIC implementation team or working group and resource them with time and administrative tools and supports. This is difficult work to do alone, especially as roles shift. A senior leader should be attached to the team. 
  4. Engage the line of managers, staff and volunteers that may be involved with direct service and with whom clients come into contact. If your organization is large, you may want to start with a unit or department with a smaller representative group of staff and volunteers. Bring their responses to the larger organization for further discussion and discussion of the implementation process and potential for scaling.
  5. Identify where and how this assessment process fits within your organizational policies and processes. Ideally the tools can be incorporated into regular quality improvement to reinforce a welcoming and supportive culture throughout the organization rather than being seen as an ‘add-on’ extra process. 
  6. Encourage participating staff and volunteers to complete the GBV knowledge check and self-reflection tool on trauma -and violence- informed practice as a first step. 
  7. Identify and respond effectively to resistance. 

See: EQUIP Anticipating Resistance Equity

Completing the Process

Bring staff groups together to discuss their individual assessment experiences and ratings on the GBV knowledge check and self-reflection tools. The information, ideas and themes can be relayed to the TVIC implementation team. This is an important learning opportunity and should foster open and constructive discussion of organizational strengths and challenges. Managers should ensure a safe and supportive environment so that staff feel able to respond openly to the assessment questions. Staff should have the option to complete the assessment anonymously.

As a group:

  1. Choose an average rating for the organization for each of the assessment questions.
  2. Identify priorities and action.

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Develop your Improvement Plan

Next, your organization will develop an improvement plan to address the priorities and steps to action. This plan should be realistic in the time and resources that are needed to achieve the goals. An Active Implementation Framework is recommended to support the implementation process.

Download the PDF Assessment Tool

Download Assessment tool (PDF)Download full resource guide here

The Wildflower Project, a CNPEA Project

CNPEA builds awareness, support and capacity for a coordinated pan-Canadian approach to the prevention of elder abuse and neglect. We promote the rights of older adults through knowledge mobilization, collaboration, policy reform and education.

The Wildflower Project is a 5-year initiative led by CNPEA and informed by a diverse group of partners across many sectors including shelters, interval and transition housing, violence against women, elder abuse, and community support services for older adults.

Learn more about CNPEA

Our Partners

AOcVF acronym with the text 'Australian Open Cybersecurity Virtual Forum' below.
Western University logo with Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children text
DAWN Canada logo featuring a stylized purple and orange hummingbird.
Egale Canada logo with stylized 'E' and grey 'gale' text.
Elder Abuse Prevention Ontario logo.
A circular emblem divided into four colored quadrants with black, white, red, and yellow sections, surrounded by an outline of hands and a feather, with the text 'Ininiwak E Wichihitotcik' above and 'People Helping Each Other' below.
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Logo of OCASI with the text 'Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants' below.
Logo of Pauktuutit, Inuit Women of Canada, with stylized purple icon and text in Inuktitut and English.

CNPEA acknowledges the support of Women and Gender Equality Canada

Canadian flag next to the text Women and Gender Equality Canada and its French translation Femmes et Égalité des genres Canada.
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