On January 13th 2021, courageous voices from across Canada participated in the launch of Courage to Act’s National Skillshare Series on Addressing and Preventing Gender-Based Violence at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada. This was Canada’s first national conference to address and prevent gender-based violence on campuses.

C’est avec beaucoup d’excitation que nous annonçons le lancement de notre Congrès pancanadien de partage des compétences! Nous invitons les administrations, les membres du personnel, le corps enseignant et professoral, la communauté étudiante, les personnes qui travaillent en première ligne et les organisations communautaires de tout le pays à participer à la première conférence pancanadienne visant à prévenir et contrer la violence fondée sur le genre sur les campus.

Le pendant francophone de notre blogue a été lancé le mois dernier ! Chaque mois, vous aurez désormais accès à des articles qui aborderont des sujets novateurs liés aux violences fondées sur le genre dans les établissements post-secondaire canadiens. Pour terminer l’année en beauté, on vous présente les travaux de notre communauté de pratique francophone.

If you are involved in gender-based violence prevention and intervention, or work at a post-secondary institution in Canada, you can't afford to miss Courage to Act's National Skillshare Series. Here's why!

Warmest congratulations to Aaron Brown, the first recipient of the Courage to Act: Addressing and Preventing Gender-Based Violence at Post-Secondary Institutions certificate! Impressively, Aaron has attended every webinar offered through Courage to Act. Learn more about Aaron and the deeply inspiring and impactful work he does as Coordinator, Sexual Violence Prevention & Education at Humber College & University of Guelph-Humber. Congratulations, Aaron!

Courage to Act has curated an interactive virtual shelf with some of our favourite self-care tools including guided meditations, journaling prompts, music playlists, grounding exercises, games and fun activities. Browse our fun selection of self-care tools by clicking on any of the ten objects on the shelf!

L'année qui vient de s’écouler fut difficile à bien des égards. En ces temps qui riment habituellement avec rapprochements et festivités, il semble encore plus important de s’accorder du temps pour prendre soin de soi. Pour vous aider à y arriver, nous avons préparé une liste de 10 ressources gratuites et accessibles en ligne que vous pourrez consulter à votre guise ou lorsque vous en ressentirez le besoin. Nous espérons que celle-ci vous aidera à traverser la période des fêtes en douceur.

As we enter the holiday season, we all deserve the chance to pause and deeply nourish and replenish our minds, bodies and spirits with care. Our team has gathered our most favourite recipes for learning, reflection, activism and healing. We hope these offer some food for thought, help you nourish existing self-care practices, and inspire you to "cook up" some new practices, so you can rest fully and bring your best self to the table in 2021.

The first in a four-part series by region, this guide lists all the campus sexual violence support and prevention offices at post-secondary institutions in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. We hope this list will help increase awareness of the resources and supports available, facilitate knowledge-sharing and create a connected national network of experts working toward addressing and preventing gender-based violence at post-secondary institutions in Canada.

The Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic released a new risk assessment tool. It assesses the presence of risk factors for violence to support Court stakeholders in identifying red flags for high-risk situations. Administered in collaboration with women experiencing violence, the user guide and risk assessment tool considers the complex lived realities of survivors and current understandings of gender-based violence.

La Chaire de recherche sur les violences sexistes et sexuelles en milieu d’enseignement supérieur a récemment dévoilé les résultats d’un projet de recherche portant sur la violence sexuelle en milieu collégial au Québec. L’article présente brièvement le contexte, les objectifs et la méthodologie de cette recherche de même que les principaux résultats obtenus.

Creating Black-centred survivor spaces can be a great way to cater to the Black student population because it shows an understanding of the nuances of Black survivorship and a commitment to giving them the respect they deserve.

To sustain ourselves and our movements, remain open to possibilities, cultivate our creativity and have the greatest impact, we need to invest in a vital resource: ourselves. Self-care is both a radical practice, and a necessary part of creating lasting social change. We hope this list inspires you to create and commit to some individual and collective self-care practices for the rest of the year. Yes, there's lots happening in the world and lots to do, but you matter too!

While efforts to address gender-based violence at PSIs are often focused on students, we must also consider employee safety. All employees - unionized workers, student staff, management, and faculty - deserve to have safe workplaces, free of gender-based violence and where they can access support if they experience harm. An aspect of support includes knowing your rights so we've compiled a list of labour laws by province and territory.

What are the ways we can engage men to address and prevent gender-based violence?

Across Canada, it is common for post-secondary institutions (PSIs) to treat trauma-informed approaches to investigations, adjudication and appeals, and the delivery of those decisions and outcomes as being separate from “the process,” or even at odds with procedural fairness.

However, there is a growing awareness of the urgent need for trauma-informed approaches and trauma-informed care (including harm reduction) when supporting people who are involved in reporting processes.

In September 2020 Statistics Canada released four research reports regarding gender-based violence, sexual violence and discrimination. The following are key highlights from the reports.

Building meaningful dialogue with college administration is key to having a positive impact on your campus and creating win-win solutions that will ultimately benefit your student population and your school as a whole. If your administration involves you in their decisions on a regular basis, and vice versa, there is a greater opportunity for both parties to come to a constructive solution before issues escalate. COVID-19 has undoubtedly made meaningful discussion more difficult without the ability to have in-person meetings. We have compiled a list of dos and don’ts for meaningful dialogue with your college administration that can be used to help increase the impact of your sexual violence prevention advocacy on your campus!

The second in this two-part series expands on the key recommendations in the Courage to Act Report. It offers a closer look at the incredible work happening at PSIs across the country to address and prevent GBV on campus. It takes great courage to act. We are excited and honoured to learn and work alongside you.

This month marks the one year anniversary of the release of the Courage to Act Report. We are grateful to all the community members, student advocates, researchers, PSI workers, frontline GBV workers and survivors who have worked with us on this project. The following are just some of the many voices highlighting the impact of this groundbreaking project.