Grants and Contributions:

Strengthening systemic change in the gender-based violence (GBV) sector through feminist strategic litigation

GV230288

$644,560.00

Oct 1, 2023 - Mar 31, 2026

Through this 30-month project, Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) will develop and put in place a promising practice of building sector capacity to prevent and respond to GBV through feminist strategic litigation, which will strengthen the GBV sector overall by moving towards broader changes to legislation, policies, and practices. It will utilize the expertise and address the needs of women, trans, and non-binary people who are experiencing GBV, particularly those who are Black, Indigenous, racialized, low-income, disabled, and/or newcomers, as well as the people serving and advocating for them at national, provincial/territorial, and local levels across Canada, with representation of official language minority communities. To do so, the project will include an environmental scan of GBV sector organizations’ experiences within the legal system and legal cases, and gather baseline data from participating organizations regarding their level of experience with and exposure to the legal system and feminist strategic litigation through survey and consultations. The data gathered will inform the nature and scope of workshops, programming materials, and resources LEAF will develop and deliver related to feminist strategic litigation, with a focus on national, provincial/territorial, and local level interventions. LEAF will also identify potential legal cases for partnership with one or more participating organizations at federal, provincial, and/or territorial levels, in order to increase their exposure to feminist strategic litigation. An external evaluator will measure and assess the impact of the promising practice as relates to participating organizations’ experience with and exposure to the legal system and feminist strategic litigation as well as capacity to become involved in litigation in future. Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), will assess and build out a final project logic model and theory of change for feminist strategic litigation, create an online repository of project findings, resources, and tools, and facilitate the building of a network of GBV organizations interested in feminist strategic litigation through shared participation in workshops, the development of a listserv/email for ongoing communications, and the facilitation of connections with other key stakeholders, in order to share information on the promising practice with others so that they may replicate it or expand upon it.

Women and Gender Equality Canada

Promising practices are incorporated by the GBV sector into new or enhanced supports for target populations.

Toronto, Ontario, CA M5G 1Z8

001-2023-2024-Q3-00086

Contribution

Grants and Contributions

Not-for-profit organization or charity

Women's Legal Education and Action Fund Inc (LEAF)

Gender-Based Violence Program

The purpose of the GBV Program is to strengthen the GBV sector to address gaps in supports for two groups of survivors: 1) Indigenous women and their communities, and 2) underserved populations (including women living with a disability, non-status/refugee /immigrant women, LGBTQ2S, gender non-conforming people and ethno-cultural women) in Canada. The Program provides grant and contribution funding to Canadian organizations to improve supports to help create long-term, comprehensive solutions at the national, regional, and local levels.