[Photograph of a speaker at a VLMFSS event]

Photograph of an unidentified speaker at an event organized by the Vancouver & Lower Mainland Multicultural Family Support Services Society (VLMFSS).

The Vancouver & Lower Mainland Multicultural Family Support Services Society (VLMFSS) is a non-profit organization pioneered to provide culturally responsive, trauma-informed, confidential and free services with immigrant/refugee women and children facing the challenges of family violence in more than 20 languages. VLMFSS was established in September 1991 by Shashi Assanand who became the first Executive Director. The Ministry for Children and Families Development (formerly known as the Ministry of Social Services) approved a proposal from the Vancouver Society of Immigrant and Visible Minority Women to create a culturally sensitive and multilingual agency dedicated to assisting immigrant, visible minority, refugee, and women without immigration status and their families who face family violence / gender-based violence (GBV) / intimate partner violence (IPV). VLMFSS was conceived within the kitchens of a group of immigrant women who held a strong passion for advocating on behalf of racialized immigrant women and children affected by family violence/GBV/IPV. VLMFSS is based in Burnaby, British Columbia.