Backgrounder: Projects to prevent and address gender-based violence in LGBTQ2 communities

On May 17, 2019, the Government of Canada announced support for four projects aimed at preventing and responding to gender-based violence towards people who identify as LGBTQ2.

On May 17, 2019, the Government of Canada announced support for four projects aimed at preventing and responding to gender-based violence towards LGBTQ2 communities.

Funding for these projects is provided by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and Women and Gender Equality Canada as part of Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence. 

To date, the Government of Canada has invested more than $200 million to prevent gender-based violence, support survivors and their families, and create more responsive legal and justice systems.

This includes investing $2.8 million in the four projects announced today:

1. University of British Columbia – Fostering healthy relationships among LGBTQ+ youth in British Columbia: Through a collaboration between the Stigma and Resilience Among Vulnerable Youth Centre and the McCreary Centre Society, the University of British Columbia will develop, implement, and evaluate a healthy relationship program for sexual and gender minority youth. The program will be co-developed with LGBTQ+ youth for LGBTQ+ youth and will consist of five 20-minute modules that are based on the Information-Motivation-Behavioural Skills model of health behaviour change. These modules will be designed to be delivered during secondary school lunch periods, when most Gender Sexuality Alliance Clubs meet. Modules may also be bundled together for delivery as part of after-school or community programming. PHAC is contributing $999,980 over five years to support this project. 
2. University of Toronto – Building Competence, Building Capacity: LGBTQ2+ Focused Trauma-Informed Care: Through this project, the University of Toronto will develop, deliver, and evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of an intervention designed to increase LGBTQ2+ competency among health professionals in Ontario. The project will better equip professionals to prevent, recognize, and respond to gender-based violence and trauma in LGBTQ2+ populations. If successful, the resulting intervention could then be scaled up nationally. PHAC is contributing $241,766 over two years to support this project. 
3. Egale Canada – Building Solutions for Safety – Bridging the Knowledge and Expertise of Teens/Youth and Service Providers to Prevent Dating Violence among LGBTQI2S Teens/Youth: This project will use an innovative “hackathon” approach to design a dating violence prevention program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex, and two-spirit (LGBTQI2S) youth. The project will match social service providers, researchers and LGBTQI2S youth in five teams to participate in a two-day hackathon in Toronto in winter 2020. The teams will be challenged to design a program founded on evidence and geared towards the needs and realities of LGBTQI2S youth. The results of the hackathon will inform the development of the program, which will be tested in five communities across Ontario and also increase knowledge sharing. PHAC is contributing $619,293 over five years to support this project. 
4. The 519 – Mobilizing LGBTQ2S Survivor Resiliency in Rapid Incidence Response: This project by The 519, based in Toronto, will develop and test a Rapid Incidence Response (RIR) approach to respond more effectively to incidents of violence targeting LGBTQ2S communities, by mobilizing resources, improving methods of communication, and establishing a formal advocacy response when incidents of violence occur. The Department for Women and Gender Equality is committing $1,000,000 over four years to support this initiative.