Researcher to address gender based violence with Government of Canada grant

On August 6, the Honourable Maryam Monsef, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development announced agreements that will see almost $200 million over two years flow to shelters, sexual assault centres and organizations supporting women and children experiencing violence. This will ensure these critical front-line organizations can continue to provide life-saving services and supports to those who need it most. To swiftly deliver these much-needed funds across the country, Women and Gender Equality Canada will work with Women’s Shelters Canada, Canadian Women’s Foundation and with the Government of Québec.

The McGill led project, Pathways2Equity: Youth‐led, Indigenous‐Focussed, Gender‐Transformative, Arts‐Based Approaches to Challenging Gender Norms in Addressing Gender Based Violence, was funded $713,170 as part of the announcement. Prof Claudia Mitchell of the Department of Integrated Studies in Education, is the principal investigator on the project.

The project will develop and study a framework for addressing harmful social norms and unhealthy relationships with the goal of ending gender based violence.  Through arts‐based methods, researchers will work  directly with Indigenous youth between the ages of 12‐24 in three communities in Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and the Northwest Territories, and in three partnering communities in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Quebec.

The project outcomes will be measured using methods from "A Toolkit On Creative Approaches to Studying Change", produced with and for youth‐focused Indigenous communities in Mitchell's previously funded project, More Than Words. 

The project aims to foster leadership of Indigenous girls and young women and to develop strategies for engaging multi‐age groupings of boys and young men to address gender based violence.

Methods will include creating local and culturally relevant dialogues and knowledge‐sharing events, and using 'dialogues‐through‐the‐arts'  approaches. Events will involve girls and boys learning together with extended families and community members.