Backgrounder – Government of Canada funds YWCA Canada and ten other organizations to prevent and address gender-based violence in Ontario

October 31, 2023 – Toronto, Ontario — Women and Gender Equality Canada

Today, Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) announced more than $5.5 million in funding for YWCA Canada and ten other organizations under the Call for Proposals to Address Gender-based Violence Through Promising Practices and Community-based Research. 

The following organizations will receive funding to develop, put in place, and evaluate promising practices to strengthen the gender-based violence sector in Ontario and across the country:

Ontario projects

Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC)

Hamilton, Ontario

Project name: Fostering a BIPOC community of practice and anti-racist reflexive practices within sexual violence services

Funding amount: up to $532,121

Muskoka Parry Sound Coordinated Sexual Assault Services

Bracebridge, Ontario

Project name: Aanji-Bimaadiziwin (A Changed Life)

Funding amount: up to $465,145

Mission Services of Hamilton

Hamilton, Ontario

Project name: Safe at Home Hamilton: Implementing a Promising Intersectional IPV Program

Funding amount: up to $432,425

Child Witness Centre

Kitchener, Ontario

Project name: Increasing wrap-around support to more victims and their families through trauma-informed and EDI lens

Funding amount: up to $338,815

YWCA Kitchener Waterloo

Kitchener, Ontario

Project name: W.A.G.E.S: Warriors. Aspiring to end. Gender Based Violence for. Equity and. Security

Funding amount: up to $629,689

Luke's Place

Oshawa, Ontario

Project name: Improving Access to Justice for Women Fleeing Abusive Partners through Limited Scope Legal Services

Funding amount: up to $588,816

Restorations Second Stage Homes

Stoney Creek, Ontario

Project name: Survivor-Led Peer Support to increase identification, prevention, and intervention of human trafficking of youth

Funding amount: up to $191,586

National projects

YWCA Canada

Toronto, Ontario

Project name: Project BEAM: Investing in GBV Workers for a Stronger Sector

Funding amount: up to $595,244

Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF)

Toronto, Ontario

Project name: Strengthening systemic change in the gender-based violence (GBV) sector through feminist strategic litigation

Funding amount: up to $644,560

Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology (CCWESTT)

Renfrew, Ontario

Project name: Skilled Trades Workplaces: engaging and mobilizing men as allies to prevent and end GBV

Funding amount: up to $722,587

The following national organization will be receiving funding to conduct community-based research to help address the needs of those that are at risk of gender-based violence or are underserved when they experience it:

Equality Insights Lab

St. Thomas, Ontario

Project name: Islamophobia and GBV risk and protective factors among Muslim newcomers, immigrant and refugee communities

Funding amount: up to $370,694

More information about the Call for Proposals to Address Gender-based Violence Through Promising Practices and Community-based Research