Grants and Contributions

Through this 15 - month systemic change project, Alberta Council of Women's Shelters will help advance women’s equality. The project will scale the assessment tool created in a previous project funded by WAGE to address gaps in supports for underserved groups experiencing gender-based violence (GBV). It will scale to rural and remote communities with a focus on Indigenous women and children. The project will address the need for intersectional, survivor-centred, trauma and violence informed assessment tools to support frontline service, and foundational education and training for service providers. To do so, the project will hold regional knowledge exchanges, evaluate readiness and identify community need, and implement assessment tools to rural communities

This 29-month research project aims to address systemic barriers to understanding and responding to economic abuse experienced by Black, Indigenous, and other racialized women across Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Northwest Territories by conducting a national study on economic abuse among racialized women. The study will examine the prevalence, forms, and consequences of economic abuse (including economic control, exploitation, and employment sabotage) across these regions. All research activities will be trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and guided by an advisory committee composed of survivors and community representatives.

Through this 18-month project, DisAbled Women’s Network of Canada (DAWN Canada) will scale a peer support model for women with disabilities (WWD) who are survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) to new local and national partners across Canada. The model addresses gaps in access to peer support for WWD survivors of GBV and focuses on ensuring representation from intersecting identities (such as Black, Indigenous, Racialized, Francophone, 2SLGBTQI, and Deaf women). Project activities will include developing curriculum, delivering training, and providing coaching and support to partners to implement peer support programs. A Community of Practice will also be created to facilitate knowledge transfer. An evaluation report will be developed to share information on the promising practice with others so they may replicate or expand upon it.

Through this 18-month project, Woman Abuse Council of Toronto (WomanACT) will scale the Canadian Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) model to improve the identification and response to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) cases and strengthen the GBV sector. The project will expand upon and operationalize the work undertaken by WomanACT in the original Canadian pilot site of Toronto, and further adapt the model to 8 communities in Alberta. To do so, it will expand community partnerships and provide capacity-building to key organizations to foster a coordinated and resilient response; develop a logic model and evaluation framework; implement MARAC protocols and processes in Toronto in line with the plan for integration developed in the project’s first iteration; partner with Sagesse to design adapted MARAC protocols and processes for model implementation in 8 new pilot sites in Alberta; and engage in knowledge mobilization to bridge the gap between research and action and drive informed decision-making to improve IPV services. At the end of the project, the organization will have contributed to improving IPV responses, to enhancing collaboration across sectors, and to ensuring a more comprehensive, coordinated approach to supporting survivors, ultimately leading to safer communities and better outcomes for individuals impacted by IPV.

Through this 18-month project, Food Banks Canada will facilitate the provision of menstrual products to community organizations serving diverse low-income populations in various locations throughout Canada, including those living with disabilities and Indigenous populations, and support the delivery of education and awareness activities to increase awareness of period poverty and reduce the stigma of menstruation.

Specifically, this initiative will allow Food Banks Canada to procure and distribute a variety of menstrual products, both disposable and reusable. The primary distribution sites will distribute products to people in need in their communities directly through their existing client relationships, and where applicable, may further distribute through their network of community organizations. They will communicate the availability of product to the community and use their infrastructure and existing systems to distribute to those in need. As a result, individuals who are living with low income will have access to the products they need, allowing them to participate fully in life’s activities – school, work, community, and family.

Food Banks Canada will also work with menstrual equity organizations in Canada to support the delivery of their education and awareness activities to increase awareness of period poverty and reduce the stigma of menstruation in Canada.

Through this 24-month systemic change project, HelpAge will help advance women’s equality. Specifically, the project will address systemic barriers within the senior women community by amplifying the diverse voices of older women from coast-to coast, enacting policy and practice change, and supporting a better coordinated network of Community-Based Seniors Services (CBSS) organizations across the country. Key activities include conducting a scoping review, surveys and consultations; creating and implementing regional networks (Atlantic, Ontario/Quebec, Prairies and Pacific); and developing tools and resources to better meet the evolving needs of older women now and in the future. An external project evaluation will measure and assess the project’s impact.

The supplemental funds will be used to complete the activities of developing four (4) new regional hubs on CORE Canada (Atlantic, Ontario/Quebec, Prairies, and Pacific) a provincial/territorial registry of CBSS organizations serving older women, a systems map, and the development of two (2) online communities of practice on the CORE platform.

This 24-month project aims to confront and alleviate ageism by protecting the rights of older Canadian women—particularly those who are racialized and living in poverty—across four key rights-based domains: housing, income, care, and health. The project will accomplish this objective by expanding the Canadian Coalition Against Ageism; establishing Canada's first rights-based roundtable for older women; developing policy and system reform recommendations through the production of a series of research and policy based white papers; supporting intergenerational programming and pedagogies; and launching an intergenerational hub. By the end of the project, the project will have reduced ageist barriers in policies, programs, systems, and institutions—leading to greater inclusion, recognition, and access to safe housing, healthcare, care services, and earning opportunities for older women. This systemic shift will help foster a higher quality of life for a historically underserved and equity-denied population within Canada.

Through this 30-month systemic change project, Eviance will help advance equality of women with disabilities. Specifically, the project will address a systemic gap related to information about women with disabilities within the entrepreneurship ecosystem that is a barrier to supporting women entrepreneurs with disabilities to achieve economic
security and prosperity.

This will be achieved by: convening a working group of women entrepreneurs with disabilities, and strategic community members to provide continuous feedback to project activities; scanning the entrepreneurship ecosystem for key actors and existing tools; conducting focus groups and interviews to identify and better understand the issues; developing a strategy to address the information needs and gaps; piloting a tool for information gathering and reporting; sharing the strategy within the entrepreneurship ecosystem; and securing commitments from key actors to implement the strategy and plan for sustainability. An external evaluation will be conducted to measure and assess the impact of the systemic change project.

Through this 24-month project, Realize will help advance systemic change and equality for women with disabilities. This will be achieved by engaging with stakeholders and organizations specifically to address the norms and systemic barriers that exist in the work place for women living with episodic health conditions with the aim of helping them achieve economic security and prosperity.

Key activities include regional and national training workshops, community-building cohorts for further learning, collaboration and best practice training, and an online Summit designed to amplify voices, share learnings and foster action. An external evaluator will measure and assess the impact of the systemic change.

Through this 22-month project, Intersex Canada will address the needs and barriers to equality for 2SLGBTQI+ communities. This will be achieved by: developing and sharing tools for accessible services for intersex individuals, building awareness to increase visibility of intersex individuals past and present and conducting research activities to understand the needs and experiences of intersex individuals.