Capacity Canada

Published purpose

This 15-month project will support a feminist response and recovery from the current impacts of COVID-19, through systemic change. Capacity Canada will achieve this by addressing systemic barriers that prevent women from accessing leadership roles in services delivery and governance within not-for-profit organizations. The organization will engage a broad spectrum of underrepresented women's voices by completing a Waterloo region environmental scan, conduct design sprints, and co-design community-based identified resource solutions. These tools aim to improve hiring and governance policies and practices, and advance women’s inclusion within the not-for profit sector. An outreach and advocacy communication campaign will also be developed and implemented to support women’s engagement, advocate for change, raise awareness and disseminate findings to relevant stakeholders. At the end of the project, the organization will have contributed to addressing systemic barriers by advancing inclusive policies and practices, encouraging more equitable and effective sharing of resources, increasing networks and collaboration to accelerate systemic change, supporting positive distribution of authority, voices, and decision-making power of underrepresented women within the not-for-profit sector, and finally addressing persistent harmful gender norms and attitudes to support women’s equality.