Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region

Published purpose

This 30-month project will support a feminist response and recovery from the current impacts of COVID-19, through systemic change. The Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region (SASCWR) will achieve this by completing a scan of feminist organizations in Ontario regarding their male engagement programs preventing GBV, identifying key challenges, unique issues, and best practices to direct the development of the tools and resources (including a Male Allies Program Manual) to guide the network of project participant feminist-led organizations as they onboard and embed male ally staff and volunteers within their organizations. At the end of the project, the organization will have contributed to addressing systemic barriers by increasing networks and collaboration to accelerate systemic change and addressing persistent harmful gender norms and attitudes to support women’s equality. SASCWR is an active member of the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC) which is a network made up of sexual assault centres across the province. One of the main goals of the network is to facilitate communication and resource-sharing between sexual assault centres. SASCWR will be utilizing their OCRCC network to support member centres on their road to engaging men more formally as allies. As part of this project, SASCWR will also reach out to the Ontario Association of Interval & Transition Houses, women, trans and non-binary student centres, 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations and women’s cultural associations to invite them to participate in the project and share project resources.