Grants and Contributions

This 24-month project aims to scale Vesta Community, a survivor-centered practice, to reduce barriers to reporting gender-based violence (GBV) across Canada. It will expand services to reach marginalized populations, including immigrant, refugee, and non-status women, while addressing gaps such as limited culturally responsive services, barriers to reporting, and a lack of accessible, trauma-informed pathways to justice and support.

The project will strengthen frontline capacity through community engagement, training, and collaborative research and data gathering to better understand survivors’ needs and systemic barriers. A secure, culturally responsive platform: the Navigator Program, with enhanced privacy features will be developed to protect survivor information and provide them with trusted guides to help access services. Additionally, outreach and awareness-building activities will reduce stigma and raise awareness of available supports. Evaluation and measurement will ensure the framework’s ongoing improvement and scalability.

By the project’s end, survivors will have greater access to responsive, trauma-informed services, and the GBV sector will be better equipped to support them. Findings will be shared nationally to promote replication and systemic change.

Through this 30-month project, Rainbow Resource Centre, Inc. will address the needs and barriers to equality for 2SLGBTQI+ communities. This will be achieved by identifying systemic change opportunities and raising awareness about hate and discrimination and the forms it takes in the media, online and in the community. In an effort to advance and protect queer rights, the organization will look to increase the representation of 2SLGBTQI+ people in all sectors by facilitating focus groups to identify top issues for employers experiencing gender transitions in the workplace, by creating online eLearning modules, developing a toolkit, offering training opportunities for employers and the health care sector, and by implementing a strategic marketing campaign to promote the tools that shape a more collective response to addressing improved equality for all community members.

Through this 24-month project, 2Spirit Manitoba Inc. will address the needs and barriers to equality for 2SLGBTQI+ communities in urban and rural Manitoba. More specifically, through community involvement and engagement with Indigenous and 2SLGBTQI+ communities, the project will address hate and discrimination and improve access to inclusive services to better support the community members in the province. The organization will host and facilitate workshops and sharing circles, collect feedback from participants, conduct a needs assessment on 2Spirit anti-discrimination, conduct surveys, develop an evaluation logic model and matrix, and develop community-informed toolkit resources for the members and other service providers.

By the end of the project, 2Spirit Manitoba Inc. will change attitudes, behaviours, and increase knowledge and education within the sector to promote equality and wellbeing of 2SLGBTQI+ individuals across the province.

Through this 24-month project, the Alliance Arc-en-ciel de Québec will address the Québec City 2SLGBTQI+ communities’ needs and barriers to equality. To achieve this, the organization will launch an awareness campaign to educate the public about the realities sexually and gender-diverse people experience in the events industry. It will also collect data from event promoters to determine their specific needs and outline customized solutions. Then, the Alliance will adopt practices for inclusion and cross-sectoral collaboration with the festivals and events industry. It will also develop a best practice guide and training for the events industry to foster the creation of safe spaces and address intersectional barriers.

Through this 26-month project, the Montréal Youth Coalition Against Homophobia will address 2SLGBTQI+ communities’ needs and barriers to equality. More specifically, the organization will address barriers to appropriate healthcare facing the trans and 2SLGBTQI+ communities in Montréal and Quebec, namely in terms of access, navigation, professional competencies, and quality of care.

To achieve this, the organization will create an accessible, easy-to-navigate web application to help queer and trans people find appropriate care that meets their needs. The Coalition will establish a community expert committee to support the project. It will also develop a community-expertise-based best practices guide as well as training for gender-affirming care providers. An approval process for the application will be developed and followed during the project, which will end with the launch of the application and community guides.

By the end of the project, 2SLGBTQI+ communities will be able to rely on an easy-to-find web application that is managed jointly by 2SLGBTQI+ led community organizations. The application will list practitioners who follow the standards of care for, and meet the ongoing and evolving needs of, the trans community.

Through this 24-month project, Northreach Society will address the needs and barriers to equality faced by 2SLGBTQ+ youth, aged 13-29, in Grande Prairie, Alberta. This will be achieved by developing and conducting a city-wide needs assessment which includes planning, gathering and analyzing data, as well as making decisions. 2SLGBTQ+ youth and community stakeholders will be engaged throughout the project by way of surveys, focus groups and interviews. By the end of the project, Northreach Society will have identified solutions and will implement a toolkit including findings and resources to be shared with stakeholders in the community and used to develop programs and services to advance equality.

Through this 24-month project, Malton Women Council will scale a promising practice for engaging South Asian men and boys as allies to prevent GBV, and to strengthen the GBV sector. It will scale this promising practice to improve and adapt the already successfully piloted model, to reach additional communities in Mississauga, Brampton, and Caledon. By doing so, it will address the need for culturally responsive and trauma informed approaches to engage men and boys as allies within South Asian communities in the Peel region. The project will include: 1) engagement of community members to identify specific needs within the reached communities; 2) adaptation of the original adopted model to reflect the needs of the additional communities to be reached; 3) mobilization and capacity building of South Asian men and boys as allies in additional communities in Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon, to prevent and address GBV, while combating harmful gender norms; 4) development of a social media campaign aimed at challenging gender norms and promoting healthy models of masculinity; 5) development and dissemination of educational resources for engaging men and boys as allies to combat GBV within the reached communities; and 6) evaluation of the results of the adapted model implemented. Malton Women Council will disseminate the improved and adapted culturally responsive model and resources during a forum among community stakeholders and through social media.

Through this 24-month project, THS Society of Transition Houses will scale a PEACE for Canadian Children and Youth to strengthen the GBV sector. It will scale to new and existing women’s shelter organizations throughout the territory of Nunavut. It will address the need to break the isolation experienced by shelter workers in remote northern communities resulting from geographical and connectivity challenges and help them establish a network of knowledge sharing and peer support. To do so, the project will include a needs assessment, remote and in person capacity building opportunities for learning and knowledge sharing, mentoring and peer support to develop a community of practice and an evaluation to share information on the promising practice with others so that they may replicate it or expand upon it.

Through this 24-month project, FOXY will scale the previous SMASH program to be more inclusive of Northern and Indigenous young men and non-binary youth with complex needs and disabilities located in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. It will address barriers faced by youth with complex needs and disabilities by delivering modified SMASH programs to combat harmful gender norms and advance gender equality across the North, using inclusive lesson plans and implementing enhanced workshop facilitation of and on-the land Peer Leader Retreats. The project will include a Think Tank, pilot testing, evaluations, and community-based action research, engaging with Northern youth with complex needs and disabilities. FOXY will publish research and infographics to share information on the promising practice allowing others to replicate or expand upon this project.

Through this 24-month project, Andrew Fleck Children’s Services will develop and put in place promising practices related to Early Childhood Education for children living in a shelter with their mothers after fleeing domestic violence, in particular children who may have experienced abuse directly and/or witnessed abuse in their homes before seeking safety. It will address gaps in equitable early learning opportunities for children by supporting Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) as they provide trauma-informed, play-based early learning experiences.

To do so, the project will create two toolkits for early childhood educators – one on trauma-informed practices and one to support their own well-being. They will also document best practices in setting up licensed child-care in a shelter. An external evaluator will measure and assess the impact of the promising practice. Andrew Fleck Children’s Services will reach out widely to share information on the promising practice with others so that they may replicate it or expand upon it