rehensive 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 Coordinator Jason Merai. You can also follow the UARR on Facebook and Twitter.
CampUS is a joint initiative between Interim Place (an organization that provides shelter and support services for women and children fleeing violence in Peel Region) and the University of Toronto Mississauga. The purpose of the initiative is to build partnerships and collaboration between campus and community stakeholders in order to identify and respond to the specific needs of young women on campus. Students will play an integral role in identifying the issues of violence affecting young women on their campus and expand their understanding of these issues in order to help prevent and reduce gender-based violence on campus. The goals of the initiative are to conduct a campus safety audit; research the experiences of young women on UTM’s campus; develop a community campus safety plan; develop and implement an education, awareness and prevention campaign; and document and share best practices with other campuses. The project is currently in year two with the community plan recently being completed. To learn more about the project, visit the CampUS website or contact Project Manager Jacqueline Benn-John.
Build.Act.Change. Preventing Violence Together (BAC) is a new initiative between partners at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) and Scarborough Women’s Centre. The purpose of the initiative is to BUILD awareness of how violence affects women on post-secondary campuses and ACT to promote a campus community that creates positive CHANGE by working together to prevent violence. BAC works in person and online through social media to debunk violence against women myths; provide resources where women may seek support on- and off-campus; educate students on how to support those experiencing violence; and shares inspirational stories about local and international activists working to prevent violence. To date, the project manager and student outreach team have engaged more than 700 students who have participated in accessible safety audi