Muskoka Parry Sound Coordinated Sexual Assault Services

Published purpose

Through this 29-month project, Muskoka Parry Sound Coordinated Sexual Assault Services (MPSSAS) will develop and put in place Aanji Bimaadziwin (A Changed Life) – a project linking Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers, women and 2S people as mentors or mentees – to strengthen the GBV sector. They will address needs in rural/remote and diverse communities in a manner that recognizes the colonial impacts of gender-based violence and marginalization and provides strategies for trauma-informed and culturally relevant healing. To do so, the project will build on the agency’s Survivor-to-Survivor Peer Mentorship Project, working with Indigenous Leadership to develop a training program and toolkit that is delivered with a decolonial and culturally relevant lens. They will develop and deliver land-based healing events, piloting and refining the model. An external evaluator will measure and assess the impact of the project, and they expect to see additional modules/materials developed to address needs identified both by Indigenous groups and mainstream organizations. MPSSAS will promote the promising practice of their project within their network/sector through social media and the sector’s provincial coalition so that they may replicate it or expand upon it. The results will also be shared with the WAGE GBV Knowledge Centre.