Info-Femmes Inc.

Published purpose

This 29-month project will support a feminist response to and recovery from the current impacts of COVID-19 through systemic change. To achieve this, Info-Femmes Inc. plans to create an intimate partner and intrafamily violence (IPIV) issue table in Mercier-Est, Montreal. It will include all neighbourhood organizations and actors concerned by the fight against IPIV to encourage cooperation and information sharing as a means of promoting complementary action and generating changes in practices and policies. Actions and services available in the neighbourhood will be inventoried to compile a status report, identify gaps in services and determine practices to be developed, improved and harmonized. The partners will develop a protocol for preventing, screening, working with and following up on families experiencing IPIV, deployed by a multidisciplinary support and follow-up unit that will implement a practical response adapted to the risk and danger involved. Preventive training will be offered to address intimate partner violence adapted to different audiences and sectors. Various awareness tools will be created and disseminated to promote relationships of equality for both partners, and equip the public to recognize and prevent different forms of IPIV. By the end of the project, the organization will have helped eliminate systemic barriers by promoting inclusive policies and practices; by encouraging a more effective and equitable division of resources; by increasing networks and collaboration to accelerate systemic change; by supporting a positive division of power, voice and decision-making authority; and by changing persistent and harmful gender norms and attitudes in support of women’s equality.