Fora: Network for Change

Published purpose

This 29-month project will support a feminist response and recovery from the current impacts of COVID-19, through systemic change. Fora: Network for Change will achieve this by designing and implementing policies and practices to increase women’s labour market participation and opportunities; engaging women and/or girls with lived experience to influence pandemic recovery responses; and designing and implementing policies and practices to increase women’s leadership in democratic, civic, public or private sectors. At the end of the project, the organization will have contributed to addressing systemic barriers by advancing inclusive policies and practices; increasing networks and collaboration to accelerate systemic change; and supporting positive distribution of authority, voices, and decision-making power to support women’s equality. This project seeks to fight for a COVID-19 recovery that prioritizes girls’ and women’s full participation in the labour force, by placing young women with lived experiences of the pandemic in decision-making spaces across Canada. Task forces in the private sector, philanthropic, and public sectors will be included, and, as part of tracking participation in recovery committees and task forces across sectors, Fora will produce a first of its kind semi-annual tracker of recovery committees and task forces ("decision-making bodies"), and report on the number of younger women included on these bodies across Canada. The additional funds will be used to improve communication materials and strengthen advocacy activities, including an advocacy webpage and an advocacy event.