Survey of Residential Facilities for Victims of Abuse (SRFVA)
Detailed information for 2024/2025 (snapshot day: April 30, 2025)
Status:
Active
Frequency:
Every 2 years
Record number:
3328
The Survey of Residential Facilities for Victims of Abuse (SRFVA) is a census of Canadian residential facilities primarily mandated to provide residential services to victims of abuse. The objective of SRFVA is to produce statistics on the services offered by these facilities during the previous 12 months, as well as to provide a one-day snapshot of the clientele being served on a specific date (mid-April of the survey year).
Description
The objective of the Survey of Residential Facilities for Victims of Abuse (SRFVA) is to collect data that can be used to produce statistics on facilities in Canada primarily mandated to provide residential services to victims of abuse (defined as on-going victimization). In aggregated form, the collected data provide an indication of the number and types of residential services and admissions over time, as well as the characteristics of clients being served on a specific survey reference day, or "one day snapshot". This will provide valuable information that is useful for various levels of government, sheltering and other non-profit organizations, service providers, and researchers to assist in developing research, policy and programs, as well as identifying funding needs for residential facilities for victims of abuse. This information may also be used by Statistics Canada for other statistical and research purposes.
The SRFVA is a redesign of the original Transition Home Survey (THS).
The SRFVA differs from the THS in terms of survey frame, content, collection, processing, and analysis. In particular, the scope of the SRFVA was enlarged beyond facilities serving abused women and their children. Due to these changes, data collected for the SRFVA are not comparable with historical THS data.
Statistics Canada will make information available through a data release in The Daily, as well as through additional products available to the public, including an analytical report and statistical tables.
Reference period: Fiscal year, calendar year or a 12 month period of the respondent's choosing; snapshot date (mid-April of survey year)
Collection period: April through August of the survey year
Subjects
- Crime and justice
- Family violence
- Victims and victimization
Data sources and methodology
Target population
This survey is a census of Canadian residential facilities primarily mandated to serve victims of abuse. These may include short-term, long-term, and/or mixed-use facilities, transition homes, second stage housing, safe home networks, women's emergency centres, emergency shelters, Rural Family Violence Prevention Centres (Alberta only), Interim Housing (Manitoba only), Family Resource Centres, and any other residential facilities offering services to victims of abuse with or without children.
Instrument design
The Survey of Residential Facilities for Victims of Abuse questionnaire content was developed under the direction of Subject Matter and the Questionnaire Design Resource Centre (QDRC) through consultations with stakeholders. Consultations were conducted to learn more about the information needs of data users and sought feedback on the relevance of Transition Home Survey data and proposed changes to the survey scope.
Further refinements to the questionnaire and testing of the electronic questionnaire functionality were conducted through content testing. User acceptance testing was conducted to identify issues with questionnaire text and flow. End to End testing was conducted to ensure proper process flow from data entry to data extraction and processing.
Sampling
This survey is a census with a cross-sectional design.
Data are collected for all units of the target population.
Data sources
Data collection for this reference period: 2025-04-24 to 2025-09-22
Responding to this survey is voluntary.
Data are collected directly from survey respondents.
Collection is conducted in two phases: pre-contact collection and main collection.
An initial pre-contact frame is contacted to identify in-scope units for the main collection period, as well as to acquire contact information for primary respondents, including email addresses. Pre-contact is conducted in the regional offices, using a telephone interview. Data is collected using an electronic questionnaire loaded into the Business Collection Portal (BCP).
Main collection is conducted for all in-scope units identified in the pre-contact phase. A secure access code (SAC) is emailed to the primary contact respondent for in-scope units. If there is no email address provided for the unit, then a SAC letter is mailed to the mailing address. Main collection is conducted through self-response and via interviewers in the regional offices. An electronic questionnaire rendered in the Electronic Questionnaire Generation System is available for self-response, and it is loaded into the BCP for interviewer follow-up. Follow-up includes contacting respondents for non-response cases and failed edits.
An introduction email or letter is sent to respondents two weeks before main collection to indicate that they will be asked to complete a questionnaire electronically in the coming weeks, and the types of data they should prepare to have available.
E-mail and letter reminders are sent according to a collection schedule for non-response cases.
All collection materials are provided to respondents in English and French.
View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .
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