Our Mission

Luke’s Place works with women¹ who have been subjected to abuse to support them and their children through the family law process. We provide women, their children, and their communities with specialized services, resources, and information about family law and woman abuse.

Luke’s Place envisions a family law system that promotes healthy, safe families, living free from abuse and the threat of abuse.

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¹ We use the term women to include all self-identified women (including two-spirited, cisgender, or transgender women) 16 years of age and older.

About Luke's Place Support & Resource Centre for Women & Children

Luke’s Place provides direct services to women in the Durham Region and Ontario and is a leader in its systemic work across the province. We provide individualized support to women who have been subjected to abuse to navigate the family law system as safely as possible.

We work with women one on one and in group settings, including peer support groups and workshops. We engage with and support family law lawyers in our community, which enhances both our work and the work they do in private practice or other settings.

We develop and maintain specialized resources online and in print for use by women who have been subjected to abuse and their advocates.

We develop and provide education and training to those working in a number of sectors including violence against women service providers, lawyers, police, court personnel, and others.

We engage in advocacy and consultation with a wide range of institutions and organizations, including the government.

We conduct research related to women’s experiences of the family law system and the intersections between violence against women and the law/legal systems.

Luke’s Place is named after a 3½-year-old boy killed by his father in 1997. Luke’s mother had serious concerns about his safety with his father and had applied for supervised access through the family court. She was unsuccessful and Luke was killed by his father, who then killed himself, on his first unsupervised visit. Following Luke’s death, the community came together to work towards making sure no other child would face a similar fate.