Toward Justice and Healing: Transforming Victim Services for African, Caribbean, and Black Survivors of Homicide Victims in Ontario

Background and Purpose:
In alignment with the conference theme “Leading for Transformative Change: Aligning Social Work Science with Policy and Practice,” this qualitative study examines systemic gaps in victim services for African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) survivors of homicide victims in Ontario, Canada. Amid rising national homicide rates—disproportionately impacting racialized communities—this study centers the lived experiences of ACB survivors to identify structural inequities in the provision of grief and trauma support. The research aims to understand how current victim service systems fall short in meeting the needs of ACB survivors and to explore community-informed recommendations for more equitable and culturally responsive responses.

Methods:
This study draws on data from 22 focus groups conducted with 51 participants across five high-homicide regions in Ontario. Participants included ACB family members of homicide victims, service providers, and community leaders. Purposive sampling was used to ensure representation from regions most impacted by community violence. Focus groups were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis to identify patterns in participants’ experiences with victim services, law enforcement, and media.

Results:
Findings reveal that ACB survivors face multiple systemic barriers to healing, including insufficient funding for services, culturally insensitive support models, and retraumatizing interactions with police and media. Participants emphasized the lack of culturally responsive grief services and the underrepresentation of ACB professionals in the victim services workforce. These gaps were described as compounding trauma, diminishing trust, and limiting survivors’ access to justice, validation, and care. In addition to institutional failures, participants identified the erasure of their experiences in media portrayals and policy conversations as contributing to ongoing harm.

Conclusions and Implications:
This study underscores the urgent need for structural reforms that integrate trauma-informed, culturally specific, and anti-racist approaches into victim service systems. Recommendations include increased funding for community-based ACB-led organizations, mandatory anti-racist and trauma-informed training for practitioners, and service models that are co-developed with survivors and rooted in cultural humility. The findings demonstrate how culturally responsive, community-engaged interventions can transform the landscape of homicide survivor support and build pathways toward collective healing and accountability. By elevating the voices of ACB communities, this study calls on social work leaders, policymakers, and practitioners to commit to justice-oriented strategies that address the root causes of exclusion and center the needs of survivors in systems of care.