Atira Women's Resource Society

Published purpose

Through this 33-month systemic change project, Atira Women’s Resource Society will scale the Pan-Canadian Voice for Women's Housing’s project, expanding its efforts to address housing challenges faced by women and gender-diverse individuals at both regional and national levels. To achieve this objective, Atira Women’s Resource Society will update its calls to action to government bodies with a gender diverse, equity-focused perspective. It will empower and support more advocates through expanding knowledge, convening important conversations, and developing tools and resources. It will also use story telling for social change with an increased focus on engaging policy makers with women who possess lived expertise With the supplemental funds and extension provided in early 2026, Atira Women’s Resource Society will co-design a Pan-Canadian Lived Expertise Housing Accountability Framework, develop bilingual policy scorecards and implementation tools, train and mentor a national cohort of women and gender-diverse people with lived experience as Peer Policy Reviewers, conduct structured regional housing policy review cycles, produce a bilingual Pan-Canadian Lived Expertise Housing Accountability Report, and convene a National Policy Accountability Forum to engage decision-makers. Through these activities, Atira will further advance gender equality by strengthening the representation of women and gender-diverse people with lived experience in housing governance and decision-making processes, embedding their expertise into structured policy evaluation mechanisms, and increasing institutional accountability for gender-responsive housing commitments across Canada.