Backgrounder - Government of Canada More Than Doubles Support to Survivors of Gender-Based Violence

Gender-Based Violence Program

Following the June 2017 announcement of It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence, Status of Women Canada (SWC) launched the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Program in January 2018.

The GBV Program complements SWC’s Women’s Program, and helps organizations working in the GBV sector to develop and implement promising practices to address gaps in supports for survivors and their families.

While violence affects people of all genders, ages, cultures, ethnicities, geographic locations, and socio-economic backgrounds, some populations are more at risk and face additional barriers to access services. The GBV Program responds to this need by providing funding to eligible organizations at the local, regional and national levels for projects that address gaps in supports for specific groups of survivors, including Indigenous women and their communities, and other underserved populations, such as children and youth, LGBTQ2 communities and gender non-binary people, non-status/refugee/immigrant women, seniors, women living in official language minority communities, women living in northern, rural and remote communities, and women living with disabilities.

Call for concepts: Promising Practices to Support Survivors and their Families

In January 2018, Minister Monsef announced $20 million in funding for a call for concepts as part of the new Gender-Based Violence Program. Following Budget 2018, the funding for the Gender-Based Violence Program more than doubled so that more organizations, such as sexual assault crisis centers, are better able to help population groups at the highest risk of experiencing violence.

The GBV Program piloted an innovative approach to supporting community organizations, which includes:

• a longer funding period of up to five years;
• a two-stage application process, which reduced the administrative burden for applicant organizations. Less information was required in the initial concept phase, which meant a leaner application process for organizations;
• eligible recipients were expanded to include labour groups and unions; provinces, territories, municipalities and their agencies; research organizations and institutes, centers of expertise, educational institutions (i.e. universities, colleges, CÉGEPs, secondary schools, school boards/school districts) as well as public health institutions, hospitals, and health care service providers; and
• testing and evaluation of promising practices is emphasized which will lead to clear impact and results for Canadians.

Nova Scotia Projects

Today’s announcement profiled three projects in Nova Scotia that are receiving funding up to $1 million each. They include:

Antigonish Women’s Resource Centre and Sexual Assault Services Association

Project title: Circles of Support and Change: Transferring Successful Rural Indigenous Practices to Other Rural Contexts

This project will provide rural and remote Nova Scotians, particularly youth and African-Nova Scotians, access to tailored and culturally relevant services based on existing successful models in Indigenous communities.

Avalon Sexual Assault Centre

Project title: Halifax Community Support Network

This project will test formal collaborations between organizations and service providers that provide safe, accessible spaces for programs and services to ensure that gaps in services—including lack of information, interpretation, or cultural appropriateness—are identified and addressed.

Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women

Project title: Creating Communities of Care with Survivors through a Customary Law Approach

This project will establish communities of care to provide culturally appropriate services, safe spaces for trauma and safety needs, and improve the health and well-being of currently under-supported survivors.