Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic

What Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic does

The Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic is a registered Canadian charity (Charity #11879-9162-RR0001) founded in 1985 in memory of Barbra Schlifer, a lawyer killed in 1980. Headquartered at 489 College Street in Toronto, the clinic serves marginalized and racialized women and gender-diverse survivors of gender-based violence across Ontario through three integrated service pillars: legal services, trauma-informed counselling, and multilingual interpretation. All services are provided free of charge to eligible clients, removing financial barriers to justice and care for survivors who face intersecting barriers of language, poverty, and systemic discrimination. The clinic is led by Acting Executive Director Jehan Chaudry (who also serves as Director of Operations & Interpreter Services), with Deepa Mattoo also referenced in an Executive Director capacity, supported by a team of 11-50 staff.

The clinic's revenue model is a charitable grant-and-donation stack rather than commercial pricing. Funding flows from government ministries and foundations including the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS), Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE), the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Law Foundation of Ontario, and the United Way of Greater Toronto, supplemented by individual donations. Service pricing is uniformly free to clients, with programs such as the Independent Legal Advice (ILA) service offering up to 8 hours of free legal advice by phone or video. The clinic publishes multilingual fact sheets in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and Farsi, signaling a deliberate commitment to language accessibility.

Beyond core services, the clinic operates an expanding portfolio of specialized projects: the Resilient Together Project (in partnership with the MCCSS Toronto Region VAW Service System Planning Table), the Criminalization and Survivorship project (a 30-month national initiative funded by WAGE), the Self-Represented Litigants Project (Ontario Trillium Foundation), the Senior Women Survivors of Violence (TSAES) Project, and the Criminalization of Women Project. The clinic's most distinctive technology asset is the Risk Identification and Safety Assessment (RISA) Tool, released in Spring 2024 after three years of community-based research involving 597 service providers and 38 survivors; the tool is free to GBV agencies province-wide via RiseAboveRisk.ca. Distribution spans in-person delivery at the Toronto office, phone and video (Zoom/Teams) delivery across Ontario, and partner-agency channels through the Resilient Together network of 25+ GBV agencies.

Name

Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic

Legal name

Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic

Website

https://schliferclinic.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1985

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic is a Toronto-based registered Canadian charity, founded in 1985, that provides free trauma-informed legal, counselling, and multilingual interpretation services to marginalized and racialized women and gender-diverse survivors of gender-based violence across Ontario.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Legal Services for Gender-Based Violence Survivors

NAICS

Individual and Family Services (6241), Other Individual and Family Services (62419)

SIC

Services-Legal Services (8111), Services-Health Services (8000)

akta.pro primary industry

Protection Services (GBV, Child Protection, Legal Aid) (BPADADAH)

Keywords

• Trauma-informed legal services
• Gender-based violence support
• Multilingual interpretation services
• Survivor counselling services
• Community legal clinic

Headquarters

HQ city

Toronto

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Government Funding and Grants: Primary funding from government ministries and foundations including Ontario Ministry of Children, Community, and Social Services (MCCSS), Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE), Ontario Trillium Foundation, and Law Foundation of Ontario.
2. Donations: Accepts charitable donations from individuals and organizations to support ongoing operations and special projects.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic provides free, trauma-informed legal, counselling, and multilingual interpretation services to marginalized and racialized women and gender diverse people who have survived gender-based violence. Services are delivered in-person at the Toronto office and remotely via phone and video across Ontario, supplemented by specialized projects addressing criminalization, self-represented litigants, senior women's economic security, and risk assessment.

Product overview

The Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic is a non-profit organization offering a coordinated suite of trauma-informed services to marginalized and racialized women and gender diverse survivors of violence. The core service portfolio consists of three integrated pillars: Legal Services (including the Independent Legal Advice program providing up to 8 hours of free legal advice), Counselling Services, and Interpretation Services (in multiple languages). These services are complemented by specialized projects including the Self-Represented Litigants Project, the Senior Women Survivors of Violence (TSAES) Project, the Criminalization and Survivorship Project, the Criminalization of Women Project, and the Resilient Together Project which deploys the free RISA Tool. The organization also produces educational resources including multilingual fact sheets and guides such as the Navigating the Criminal Justice System PDF. Services are delivered via in-person appointments, phone, and video platforms (Zoom/Microsoft Teams).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Legal Services Legal advice and support services for marginalized and racialized women and gender diverse survivors of violence, including assistance with family, criminal, immigration, housing, and other legal matters.
• Counselling Services Professional trauma-informed counselling support for survivors of gender-based violence, provided by trained and compassionate staff from diverse backgrounds.
• Interpretation Services Multilingual interpretation services enabling clients to access legal and counselling services regardless of language barriers, available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and Farsi.
• Independent Legal Advice (ILA) for Survivors Free legal advice service providing up to 8 hours of legal advice by phone or video for Ontario residents aged 16+ who have experienced intimate partner violence, human trafficking, or sexual offences, regardless of police reporting status.
• Self-Represented Litigants Project 15-month program providing direct support and resources to self-represented women and gender diverse survivors of gender-based violence in civil, criminal, family, housing, and immigration law matters.
• Senior Women Survivors of Violence (TSAES Project) Initiative addressing economic insecurity among women survivors of violence aged 50+ through community engagement, financial skills workshops, job readiness training, and policy advocacy.
• Criminalization and Survivorship Project 30-month national project (launched Fall 2023) funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada, focused on preventing and addressing the criminalization of GBV survivors through scaling promising practices, policy development, bilingual forums, court observations, and multilingual fact sheets.
• Resilient Together Project 2.5-year initiative to strengthen risk assessment and case management services for GBV survivors across Ontario, in partnership with MCCSS Toronto Region VAW Service System Planning Table, implementing the RISA Tool through training, piloting, and partnership development.
• Criminalization of Women Project Project addressing the disproportionate impact of criminal law on women and gender diverse people who report violence, focusing on family law, sexual assault law, and immigration law through research, community forums, and promising practice development.
• Risk Identification and Safety Assessment (RISA) Tool Free risk assessment tool for frontline GBV service providers to identify potential risks of future violence and support personalized safety planning and case management.
• Speaking Engagements and Training Public education and training services including speaking engagements, training sessions, and webinars for the public, professionals, and other community agencies working with GBV survivors.

Quantifiable outcome

• Free legal advice up to 8 hours per survivor
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered moderate and core.

• Osgoode Hall Law SchoolmoderateStrategic or Co-development Partner · 12 June 2024Professor Janet Mosher from Osgoode Hall Law School participated as a panelist at the Criminalization & Survivorship project launch forum.
• Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry SocietiesmoderateStrategic or Co-development Partner · 12 June 2024Executive Director Emilie Coyle participated as a panelist at the Criminalization & Survivorship project launch forum.
• MCCSS Toronto Region VAW Service System Planning Table (SSPT)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership delivering the Resilient Together Project. The SSPT is a collaborative table of violence against women agencies in the Toronto region working on service system planning.
• Over 25 GBV agencies and networks across OntariocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner agencies participating in the Resilient Together Project to pilot and implement the RISA Tool across Ontario.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Interval House Toronto: Toronto-based violence-against-women shelter and counselling organization offering emergency residence and community counselling. Comparable because it serves the same client base (women survivors of violence in the GTA) with overlapping trauma-informed counselling and advocacy services.
• Fred Victor: Toronto social-services organization serving people experiencing homelessness, poverty, and gender-based violence. Comparable because it provides trauma-informed support, counselling, and advocacy to marginalized populations in the GTA, with overlapping service users.
• YWCA Toronto: Toronto women's services organization offering housing, counselling, and violence-against-women programs. Comparable because it delivers overlapping GBV response, counselling, and women-focused community services within the same geography and client population.
• METRAC (Metro Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children): Toronto-based non-profit focused on violence prevention, public education, and safety planning. Comparable because it works in the same GBV education, safety planning, and policy-advocacy space, and serves the same GTA region.
• Native Women's Resource Centre of Toronto: Toronto organization providing culturally rooted support for Indigenous women and gender diverse people fleeing violence. Comparable because it serves a similar marginalized population within the GTA with trauma-informed, culturally specific services.
• Women Abuse Council of Toronto (WAVAW) / Toronto Rape Crisis Centre: Toronto-based feminist organization providing crisis counselling, advocacy, and education around sexual violence and violence against women. Comparable because it delivers trauma-informed counselling and community education for survivors in the same geographic market.
• Assaulted Women's Helpline: Ontario-wide crisis and support line for women who have experienced abuse. Comparable because it serves the same Ontario-wide survivor population with GBV response services, including the Talk4Healing line for Indigenous survivors.
• North York Women's Centre: Toronto women's resource centre providing counselling, case management, and information/referral services for women experiencing violence and other life challenges. Comparable because it addresses similar barriers (language, poverty, discrimination) for women in the GTA.

Broad incumbents

• YWCA Canada: National federation of YWCAs delivering women's housing, VAW shelters, and advocacy programming across Canada. Comparable as a broader umbrella offering overlapping VAW services and advocacy, though at national scale rather than the clinic's focused Toronto/Ontario legal-counselling niche.
• Canadian Women's Foundation: National public foundation funding and convening work on gender-based violence, women's economic security, and gender justice across Canada. It operates as a national funder and convenor with overlapping priorities to the clinic's advocacy and program work.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/schliferclinic
• Facebookfacebook.com/BarbraSchliferCommemorativeClinic
• Instagraminstagram.com/schliferclinic

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic