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.

Much has been written about the exclusionary culture of the sciences (sometimes lumped together as STEM -science, technology, engineering and math) to women and to marginalized groups such as BIPOC, members of the LGBTQ2S+ community and people with disabilities. There is ample data from around the globe (e.g. UNESCO, OECD) that demonstrates a disproportionate over-representation of men in STEM disciplines and medicine, particularly at the higher levels, in leadership positions and positions of power.

Inspired by Dr. Imogen Coe’s webinar, Courage to Act has created the first ABC model to assist PSIs in addressing and preventing GBV in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) in Canada.

Working together, this change is possible. Together, we can take courageous action to ensure our STEM programs in Canada are inclusive and accessible spaces for all genders to learn, work and thrive.

We invite all PSIs to participate in the #ConsentIsNotCancelled campaign this Fall to inspire conversations about consent, gender-based violence and bystander intervention, especially in a time of social distancing. Here are 5 easy ways to implement this national campaign!

Courage to Act: Developing a National draft Framework to Address and Prevent Gender-Based Violence at Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada was released one year ago. Informed by experienced survivors, student researchers, frontline workers and policy experts, it provided a blueprint for a national Framework to address gender-based violence (GBV) on campus. This two-part series expands on these key recommendations, offering a closer look at the incredible work happening at PSIs across the country to address and prevent GBV on campus.

REES is a centralized reporting hub available 24/7 that provides information about campus sexual violence policies, direct reporting options, campus and community resources, health care options, and self-care. REES is customized to the specific institution and community where it is located.

Coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, and grounded in a long tradition of Black feminist activism, intersectionality is both a mode of critical analysis and practice that recognizes the inseparability of systems of oppression. As such, it must inform not only how we understand the issue of sexual violence on campus, but also how we take action to address and prevent violence. When these commitments to intersectionality fall short of translating into practice, our anti-violence efforts can become sites of harm and marginalization.

Noting that there are 230+ Calls for Justice prescribed in the Final Report of the National Inquiry, and that post-secondary institutions have an important role in actualizing justice for MMIWG, Courtney Skye excerpted the most applicable Calls for Justice as they relate to college and university campuses. In this free worksheet, you will find a list of these Calls for Justice for PSIs with guiding questions to support you and your PSI in exploring these further.

Courage to Act has built ten robust communities of practice for post-secondary administration staff, faculty and students as well as community advocates who are working to address and prevent gender-based violence on campus.

#ConsentIsNotCancelled began as a mini-campaign under the Simon Fraser University’s Active Bystander Network social media to contextualize the biannual Consent Matters campaign at Simon Fraser University. The campaign is an invitation to reflect on how consent ought to be prioritized as an ongoing practice in our daily lives, including when engaging in sexual activity. Courage to Act hopes that the #ConsentIsNotCancelled campaign can be used by other institutions this fall to inspire conversations about consent, gender-based violence and bystander intervention, especially in a time of social distancing.

As gender justice advocates, many if not all of you are in the midst of moving all or most of your programming and initiatives into the online world. This transition won’t be easy or seamless and we know that you are adaptable, creative, and innovative and, ultimately, you know what’s best for your campus's unique population of students, staff, and faculty. To help support you in this work, we are sharing some of the great tips and tools we’ve been drawing upon in our work.

Despite the fact that many PSIs have developed and implemented educational programs and support services to respond to GBV in university communities, this approach tends to miss a vulnerable population on campuses: those Students from International Pathways (SIPs).