Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada

Published purpose

Through this 22-month project, ESVA Canada and the Improving Institutional Accountability Project (IIAP) will scale the work of IIAP Phases I & II to address barriers in access to justice for survivors of sexual violence who seek a criminal justice system response. Prior IIAP phases created and implemented the VAW Advocate Case Review (VACR) model now used to audit uncharged police sexual assault investigations in over 30 communities across Canada. IIAP’s three-prong model of systemic change combines supporting communities to implement local oversight of criminal justice system (CJS) responses to survivors, linking advocates across Canada to share promising practices, and finally, engaging national institutions, decision-makers, and advocates to develop consistent national policy, evidence-based practice, and system accountability mechanisms required for effective oversight, data transparency, and outcomes measurement of CJS responses to sexual violence. IIAP III will scale up to implement more VACR teams in new regions/provinces while strengthening sustainability in existing sites, collaborate with stakeholders to develop a framework to address significant national gaps in data collection, and create an evaluation framework for assessing effectiveness and outcomes of the variety of oversight mechanisms (including VACR) currently in use across Canada.