Backgrounder - Government of Canada supports survivors of gender-based violence in Vancouver

Department for Women and Gender Equality’s Gender-Based Violence Program

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

The GBV Program complements the department’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 accessing 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 other underserved populations, such as children and youth, LGBTQ2 communities, 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 to $50 million so that more organizations, such as sexual assault crisis centres, are better able to help population groups at the highest risk of experiencing violence. 

The GBV Program piloted an innovative approach to make it easier for community organizations to access funding, which includes: 

• a longer funding period of up to five years;
• a two-stage application process, which reduced the administrative burden of applicant organizations. Less information was required in the initial concept phase, which meant a simpler application process;
• eligible recipients were expanded to include labour groups and unions; provinces, territories, municipalities and their agencies; research organizations and institutes, centres 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 are emphasized, which will lead to clear impact and results for Canadians.

Vancouver Project

Today’s announcement profiled a project in Vancouver selected for federal funding:  

Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity (CGSHE), affiliated to the University of British Columbia
Project title: Trauma-Informed Support for Criminalized Women Survivors of GBV
Funding amount: $1 million   

CGSHE will test and evaluate a survivor-centric and trauma-informed approach to supporting criminalized women survivors of gender-based violence – one that will provide feedback and valuable information on how best to improve services and supports to women who are struggling to find a way to get the help they need, to reclaim their lives and recover. 

Located in Vancouver, CGSHE is an academic research centre housed at Providence Health Care along with the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and the UBC Youth Sexual Health Team. Formed in 2018 to address and advance gender and sexual health equity among marginalized and underserviced populations in B.C., Canada and globally, CGSHE has a strategic mandate of community-based research, policy and practice to reduce gender and sexual health inequities. CGSHE is a regular expert contributor and consultant at the national and international levels on gender and sexual health care guidelines related to gender health equity, violence, and sexual and reproductive health.