iolence affecting students on campus and reviews institutional barriers and other factors that limit Seneca College’s efforts to address the issue of violence against women and men. Students and stakeholder teams are expanding their understanding of the sources of abuse and are working together to develop strategies to prevent and reduce gender-based violence in their campus community. A gender-based analysis (GBA) was conducted using qualitative and quantitative data collected from surveys, focus groups, and campus safety assessments conducted with the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence against Women and Children (METRAC). The purpose of the GBA was to examine the issue of violence against students using diverse groups in order to represent the realities of all Seneca College students. A key finding was the importance in addressing violence on post-secondary campuses in a way that engaged students, i.e., building bystander capacity. For instance, the students from the Graphic Design for Social Change developed a marketing campaign aptly branded Students Supporting Students, Taking a Stand against Abuse. The goal of the campaign is to engage students in being proactive and involved in helping to prevent violence on post-secondary campuses. You can follow Students Supporting Students, Taking a Stand against Abuse on Facebook and Twitter. The campaign is still in its early stages of development. For more information, please contact Pamela Nitert.
The Change Project
The Change Project is a collaboration between the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region (SASC), the Social Innovation Research Group (SIRG), the Centre for Women and Trans People*, the UW Women’s Centre, the Diversity & Equity Office at Laurier, Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU), and the University of Waterloo (UW). The project relies heavily on the involvement and leadership of students. The Change Project is grounded in a framework of university-community collaboration.
The purpose of the Change Project is to develop and implement comprehensive approaches for preventing and responding to gendered violence against students at WLU and UW. With the support of an inter-university/community Advisory Committee, the project team has undertaken data collection to assess the current strengths and needs of the local universities and surrounding community in addressing gendered violence against students. This has included conversations with students, staff and faculty, and community-based organizations and local businesses in the surrounding community of Waterloo. In addition, the project team is conducting a policy scan to describe the current state of policies that address gendered violence at Canadian universities and to identify promising practices in higher education policy interventions. For more information about the project partners, please visit https://legacy.wlu.ca/homepage.php?grp_id=1331 and www.sascwr.org or contact the Project Coordinator Jay Harrison.
Making Noise @ Humber
Making Noise @ Humber is an initiative developed in collaboration with the Urban Alliance on Race Relations (UARR), Humber College, and the Humber Students’ Federation (HSF). The purpose of the initiative is to raise awareness on preventing violence against women/gender-based violence at the North and Lakeshore campus. The project dedicated Year I to researching current awareness of gender-based violence on campus with surveys, on-campus safety walkabouts, and focus groups. The data collected was analyzed to identify service gaps and make recommendations on how to use existing resources to address these gaps. Year II will involve implementing these recommendations as well as delivering gender-based violence workshops, resource materials and a toolkit, all of which will be distributed at an Awareness Week in March 2014 and ending with International Women’s Day. The UARR is committed to achieving a violent free world. We believe education is a beacon for transformative change. To learn more about this initiative, please visit www.urbanalliance.ca or contact the Project Co