ElevateHer Mental Health Support Services Canada

Published purpose

This 34-month project will develop and implement the Girls Achieving Gender Equity (GAGE) Outreach program to address the root causes of Gender Based Violence on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) populations, by educating and empowering young women ages 12+ across 3 rural Nova Scotia communities. ElevateHer Mental Health Support Services Canada will build community capacity to respond to Gender Based Violence in a preventative and sustainable way and support Gender-Based Violence (GBV) survivors and their families in Truro, Shelburne, and Sydney. This will be achieved this by conducting community youth led consultation; developing comprehensive overview of services and resources in all 3 areas, conducting an evaluation to assess the activities/ programming effectiveness; integrating evaluation results to refine activities/programing; and disseminating results with community partners within the GBV sector as well as in other regional community organizations. This project will engage with Elizabeth Fry Societies of Atlantic Canada, Department of Community Services: Wood Street Secure Centre for Youth and Shelburne County Youth Health & Support Association. GBV survivors will be engaged, ensuring that project activities are trauma-informed and survivor-led. The impact of this program will also be assessed through an external evaluation process, including an analysis of its potential to be adapted and replicated. By the end of the project, ElevateHer Mental Health Support Services Canada will have developed a promising practice and have shared it with the wider GBV sector, to strengthen supports to BIPOC youth of GBV survivors and their families, in Canada.