Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre

Published purpose

Through this 29-month project, Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre will scale anti-oppressive practices and alternative therapeutic approaches to healing for individuals from historically underserved communities to strengthen the GBV sector. It will address the need for supports that acknowledge systemic and structural violence and exhibit cultural awareness and competency, and for more established anti-oppressive perspectives in the GBV sector. To do so, the project will (1) develop, implement, evaluate and optimize an anti-oppressive framework based on a Critical Discourse Analysis of resources most commonly used by GBV service providers; and (2) implement and evaluate the practices of trauma-informed yoga, nature-based healing and art therapy as culturally sensitive and anti-oppressive alternative approaches to healing. Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre will create a guidebook for the anti-oppressive framework, draft a report based on the evaluation of the three alternative therapeutic practices, and disseminate these two documents via email and social media to share information on the promising practices with others so that they may replicate it or expand upon them.