Resources
A list of resources and supports for families, community members, researchers and advocates.
Supports by Jurisdiction
Losing a friend, a loved one, a community member, is traumatic. The circumstances surrounding a police-involved death can magnify this impact. Personal, family or community experiences of discrimination and serious injury or death can also create complex additional layers of trauma and grief. If you or someone you know is struggling with the death of a community member or loved one please take a look at our list of resources and services by jurisdiction.
Have a resource to add? Get in touch to let us know.
eMentalHealth
Looking for information about mental health, and where to find help? eMentalHealth.ca provides anonymous, confidential and trustworthy information, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Features include:
- Mental Health Help (i.e. directory of mental health services and organizations)
- Info Sheets: Information about a variety of mental health conditions and topics.
- Screening Tools: Find out if you or a loved one has a mental health concern with our free, online screening tools.
- Events Calendar: Information about mental health events in your area.
- News Feed: Information about the latest mental health news.
- Research directory: Information about research studies in your area.
Affordable Counseling
The Affordable Therapy Network is a directory of therapists offering low-cost and sliding scale rates across Canada. The project's development has been an ongoing collaboration with service users, peers, and professionals. We started as a Grassroots initiative with a small number of therapists listed and have grown a lot since then. Thanks to our awesome therapists, many more people are able to access the support they can afford. We take user feedback to heart and continuously strive to make the Network as accessible and relevant as possible.
BounceBack® - CMHA
BounceBack® is a free program from the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) that helps you build skills to improve your mental health. Find out whether BounceBack® is right for you.
211 - Resource Finder
211 is Canada’s primary source of information for government and community-based, non-clinical health and social services. The free and confidential service can be accessed 24 hours a day, in more than 150 languages, by phone, chat, text, and web. 211 helps connect people to the right information and services, making their pathway to care and resources a guided and trusted one. 211 is available by phone, chat, website, and text in different regions – dial 2-1-1 to connect to community services.
Toronto Distress Centre
Call 416-408-4357(HELP) or Text: 45645
The distress line provides telephone support to individuals in the community who are at risk and their most vulnerable. Highly trained volunteer responders (with the support of professional staff) connect with callers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Crisis Text Line Text HOME to 741741
Crisis Text Line serves anyone, in any type of crisis, providing access to free, 24/7 support via text. This text line is powered by Kids Help Phone.
Affected Families of Police Homicide Ontario
A community-based organization lead by families who have lost loved ones as a result of police violence involved in lobbying and advocacy efforts in Ontario.
Phone: 289-880-9950
Email: grief2action@gmail.com
Together All
Join online at www.togetherall.com Safe peer-to-peer mental health community that is accessible online 24/7. Free to all Ontarians aged 16+.
Family Information Liaison Unit (FILU)
Family members of Missing and Murdered Women and Girls (MMIWG) can access this resource for confidential, culturally responsive, trauma- informed and victim- centred assistance. FILU gathers case specific information about police investigations, court proceedings, or other government processes and provides information to families.
Toronto Division: 1-844-888-8610
Thunder Bay Division: 1-807-624-1879
Naseeha – Mental Health
Naseeha – Mental Health provides a confidential helpline for young Muslims to receive immediate, anonymous, and confidential support over the phone from 12 – 9 pm, 7 days a week (Eastern Standard Time) and over text Monday to Friday. Phone: 1-866-627-3342 (12PM – 9PM)
Text: 1-866-627-3342 (12PM – 9PM)
Across Boundaries
Across Boundaries is a mental health centre which provides a range of supports and services to people of colour in the Greater Toronto Area who are experiencing severe mental health problems/serious mental illness. The centre has a holistic approach to mental health care and operates within an antiracism, anti-oppression, anti-black racism framework. They recognize the interdependence of spiritual, emotional, mental, physical, social, economic, cultural, linguistic and broader environmental aspects of life in working with individuals with severe mental health problems/illness.
Phone: 416-787-3007
Black Creek Community Health Centre
A non-profit community-based organization that provides health care services and programs geared to vulnerable populations living in Toronto’s North West communities.
Phone: 416-249-8000 or 416-246-2388
Blackline
A 24/7 hotline (accepts calls or texts), Blackline provides a space for peer support & counselling, reporting of mistreatment, affirming the lived experiences of people who are most impacted by systemic oppression with an LQBTQ+ & Black femme lens.
Helpline: 1-800-604-5841 (call or text)
CAFCAN
Provides Mental Health counseling with a range of culturally safe clinical, prevention & intervention mental health services designed to meet the cultural needs of Black children, youth, adults & families.
Phone: 416-740-1056
Email: info@cafcan.org
Rexdale Community Health Centre
Rexdale Community Health Centre and Family Service Toronto provides counseling for individuals, couples and families who are experiencing life challenges. This service is particularly oriented for those seeking support in dealing with relationships and family problems, parenting, depression, anxiety, job loss, separation, divorce and new relationships, sexual abuse and childhood trauma, life transitions and other issues.
Phone: 416-744-0066
TAIBU Community Health Centre
TAIBU Community Health Centre services address a wide variety of issues spanning from trauma (sexual and physical), depression, mental health, anxiety, low self-esteem and/or societal stressors relating to the Social Determinants of Health (racism, poverty, housing, employment, family issues, etc.). The Social Worker/Therapist works from an anti-oppressive framework which encompasses both teaching and learning from clients about the different forms of oppression that occur simultaneously in their lives on a day-to-day basis. TAIBU’s therapeutic model involves an integrative process involving Cognitive Behavioral Approach, Narrative Therapy, and therapy from a Recovery Model of Care.
Phone: 416-644-3536
Women’s Health in Women’s Hands
Women’s Health in Women’s Hands counselling services employs a feminist, woman-centred approach to provide short-term counselling, group sessions and workshops to women from our priority populations. Counseling takes place from the perspective that, throughout history, women have possessed the strengths that have enabled them to cope with adverse situations. Therefore, the approach to counseling focuses on women’s strengths, capabilities, and resources rather than on weaknesses and limitations. Work is based on mental health promotion rather than on treatment of disorders and/or illnesses. Counselling acknowledges women’s experiences of oppression within the context of power dynamics involving gender, race, class, ability, age and sexual orientation.
Intake Phone: 416-593-7655
MHA Yukon Division
Reach Out Support Line: 1-844-533-3030
When you call the Reach Out Support Line (ROSL) a trained volunteer uses active listening skills to support you. Volunteers on the ROSL listen to your concerns without judgment. Volunteers could ask clarifying questions, could suggest options, offer to assist you in discovering possible next steps and bring call to a close with helping you define a possible plan to manage your concerns that may include referrals to local resources
Dawson Health Center
Phone: 867-993-4300
Located on the 2nd floor of the Dawson City Community Hospital, the Dawson Health Centre provides immunization, well child exams, travel health, sexual health, prenatal and postnatal support, chronic disease prevention and support. Mental Wellness Substance Use Services is also housed within the Dawson Health Centre, and offers counseling, support and referrals for mental wellness/illness and substance use services.
Skookum Jim Friendship Centre
Phone: 867-633-7683
Our program works mainly with youth who come into conflict with the law and with their families. We also work with people in need of support and counseling services. We work in individual, group and family formats. We make referrals to other agencies as required. Youth and their families are referred to the program and attend an 8-week, 2-hour/week set of sessions focusing on family communications, traditional cares and values and parenting, plus alcohol and drug awareness. Other sessions are planned separately including anger management, grief workshops and self-esteem building to name a few.
Champagne/Aishihik First Nations Wellness Program
Phone: 867-634-2288
Aishihik Lake Wellness program offers culturally relevant prevention and rehabilitation wellness programs and client and community support programs for CAFN members. The program also offers individual counseling as well as drug and alcohol assessments and referrals for treatment. Workshops are held throughout the year to assist CAFN members on their life journey with issues such as self-esteem, anger management, relapse prevention, abuse prevention etc. The program has been critical to the development of the Aishihik Lake Treatment Centre.; The program offers intervention and prevention, and support for residential school survivors and those dealing with addictions. The Alcohol and Drug Worker provides ongoing counseling and partners with other organizations and First Nations to provide treatment, intervention and prevention.
Resources on Police and Carceral Violence
Other projects that track or discuss police-involved killings and deaths, and resources to support advocacy, research, and more.
Have a resource to add? Get in touch to let us know.
Canada
- CBC Deadly Force database
- National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
- KillerCopsCanada
- Le Crap
- Police-Involved Killings and Deaths Canada
- Alberta Police Misconduct Database
- The Edmonton SRO Research Project
- Inquests.ca
United States
- The Washington Post “Fatal Force” database
- Fatal Encounters database
- Mapping Police Violence database
United Kingdom
Australia
Multi-national
- Hon Frank Iacobucci, “Police Encounters with People in Crisis” (July 2014).
- Hon Michael H Tulloch, “Report of the Independent Police Oversight Review” (October 2017).
- Human Rights Watch, “Those Who Take Us Away: Abusive Policing and Failures in Protection of Indigenous Women and Girls in Northern British Columbia” (November 2018).
- National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, “Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls” (2019).
- Ontario Human Rights Commission, “A Collective Impact: Interim report on the inquiry into racial discrimination of Black persons by the Toronto Police Service” (November 2018).
- Ontario Human Rights Commission, “A Disparate Impact: Second interim report on the inquiry into racial profiling and racial discrimination of Black persons by the Toronto Police Service” (August 2020).
- Ontario Human Rights Commission, “Report of the Ontario Human Rights Commission on police use of force and mental health” (February 2014).
- Ontario, Report of the Ipperwash Inquiry (May 2007) (Hon Sidney B. Linden).
- Scot Wortley et al, “Police Use of Force in Canada: A Review of Data, Expert Opinion, and the International Research Literature” (June 2021).
- Wortley, Scot & Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, “Race and Criminal Injustice: An examination of public perceptions of and experiences with the Ontario criminal justice system” (February 2021).
- Wortley, Scot, Ayobami Laniyonu & Erick Laming, “Use of force by Toronto Police Service: final report” (July 2020).
See a bibliography of academic sources focusing on race, Indigeneity and the friends and family impacted by violent deaths.
Support for Family & Friends of Victims of Police Involved Deaths
Family members and friends of police involved deaths are also victims whose emotional, physical and spiritual wounds are often obscured from view but require support to cope with the death of their loved one(s).