Young Women's Christian Association of Kitchener-Waterloo

Published purpose

This 30-month project will develop and implement a five-year community justice action plan that will be built into the ongoing activities and future strategies of participating Waterloo Region organizations to address the root causes of gender-based violence. Young Women's Christian Association of Kitchener-Waterloo will achieve this by conducting GBV prevention and justice response baseline research, including interviewing the target demographic (racialized women, low-income women experiencing homelessness or housing precarity); hosting solutions labs on issues identified in the research and developing action plans; hosting listening sessions as a participant driven way for those involved to be heard, develop understanding, and find a way to move forward; building a coalition; developing a community justice action plan; mobilizing the community around the plan; and building organization and community capacity to encourage sustainability of the plan. At the end of the project, the organization will have developed a promising practice that will consist of a community justice action plan that documents and addresses the gendered violence prevention and justice response needs of this demographic by engaging those with lived experience and those in positions of leadership to change how justice is experienced in Waterloo Region. This project will form a coalition, under the leadership of Young Women's Christian Association of Kitchener-Waterloo, YWCA Cambridge, and Community Justice Initiatives, that will develop a five-year community justice action plan and work with the community to implement change and help organizations build this change into their ongoing activities and future strategies to ensure sustainability.