PLEA Community Services Society of British Columbia

Published purpose

Through this 30-month project, PLEA Community Services Society of British Columbia will scale the delivery of its youth-focused, gender-based violence prevention workshops to strengthen the GBV sector. It will scale to reach high-risk youth across BC including Indigenous youth, 2SLGBTQI+ youth, youth in care/custody, homeless youth, youth in alternative and mainstream schools, youth in smaller and rural communities, and youth in sports. It will address a gap in understanding among youth about toxic forms of masculinity, and the harms these can cause, to discourage young men and boys from participating in or perpetrating gender-based violence. To do so, the project will form an Advisory Committee to guide and inform the project, develop tailored workshops for each of the identified populations, and deliver workshops to these populations throughout BC. The project will also collect data, conduct evaluations, and produce a toolkit to share best practices and lessons learned on educating youth about toxic masculinity and gender-based violence. PLEA Community Services Society of BC will share its evaluation results and the toolkit with its Advisory Committee members and its partners in gender-based violence prevention so that they may replicate it or expand upon it. The first supplemental funding in January 2026 will be used to increase management oversight hours of the project. The second supplemental funding in January 2026 will be used to support an awareness campaign directed at parents of teenage boys.