Community and Corporate Organizations

Canadian Women's Foundation | Facebook | IROC2 | METRAC
Ontario Association of Art Galleries | Teesri Duniya Theatre 
Visual Arts Centre | West Coast LEAF | YWCA Montreal

 

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Canadian Women's Foundation

The Canadian Women’s Foundation is Canada’s public foundation for women and girls. Since 1991, thanks to generous donors across the country, we’ve invested in more than 1,300 community programs across Canada, and are now one of the ten largest women’s foundations in the world. Every year, your support helps empower nearly 30,000 women and girls to move out of violence, out of poverty and into confidence.

The Canadian Women's Foundation focused on the most critical challenges facing women and girls, and invest in the most effective solutions for long-term change:

• ENDING POVERTY: We help women living on low incomes by investing in programs that help them launch a small business, learn a skilled trade, or gain valuable work experience in a social purpose enterprise. We also bring together community organizations to share research, skills and best practices for women.
• STOPPING THE VIOLENCE: We help women in Canada to move out of violence by funding emergency shelters and programs that help survivors to rebuild their lives. We are working to end the crime of sex trafficking in Canada, by helping women and girls to escape from traffickers and by working with local stakeholders to create action plans. We also invest in school-based violence-prevention programs that teach girls and boys to stop the violence — for good.
• EMPOWERING GIRLS: We help girls in Canada to move into confidence by funding dynamic programs that engage their body, mind, and spirit. In these programs, at-risk girls can explore science and technology, play sports, learn to think critically, or take on leadership, in a supportive all-girl environment. 

Within our project, the Canadian Women's Foundation will contribute to our research and practices around media-making and policy-making towards the sustained reduction of sexual violence and social attitudes that promote or tacitly condone rape culture within our universities. Anuradha Dugal, Director of Violence Prevention Programs at the Canadian Women's Foundation, will be leading the partnership and engagement with our project. 

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Facebook

Founded in 2004, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them. As one of the most popular social media platforms today, Facebook has the ability to influence culture and social perceptions around issues such as sexual violence. As a part of this project, Facebook will benefit because of the opportunity to engage with other interested organizations and partners on the issue of preventing sexual violence, and also contribute in multiple ways, including but not limited to:

• Opportunities for researchers and students to engage with Facebook on various project initiatives over 7 years
• Support and contribution to the education and dissemination of information regarding the Facebook platform, its community standards, and the tools and projects focused on online safety and bullying
• Keeping researchers, the advisory board and the steering committee up to speed on new developments as they occur and provide first hand opportunities to engage with innovation on the issue of rape culture

Kevin Chan, the Director of Public Policy for Facebook Canada, will lead Facebook's engagement with our project, in addition to acting as Chair of the Advisory Board for the first 3 years of the project.

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The Institute for Responsible Online and Cellphone Communication (IROC2)

The Institute for Responsible Online and Cellphone Communication is a US Based 501(c)(3) nonprofit nonprofit recognized internationally as a leading digital safety & citizenship organization. Since 2009 our nonprofit has directly educated over one million parents, educators, law enforcement, and students across the United States and Canada through our award winning Digital Safety Workshops & Assemblies titled, Public and Permanent®. 

Over the 7 year partnership, IROC will contribute in several ways:

• Customizing and sharing their risk assessment content, questions, resources to help students think about what they are posting that can be incorporated into research surveys, focus groups, etc.
• Three (3) free 90 Minute presentations of our award winning Live Event for students, community events, various faculties and professional groups (dentistry, law, teacher education, psychology, arts-entertainment, technology) per year for 7 years.
• Providing access to their 1 day “on demand” video channel for 20 schools per year for 7 years.

Richard Guerry, founder of IROC, will lead the engagement with our project.

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METRAC

METRAC works with individuals, communities and institutions to change ideas, actions and policies with the goal of ending violence against women and youth. Delivering relevant and boundary-breaking services and programs, we focus on education and prevention and use innovative tools to build safety, justice and equity.

METRAC has been a champion of campus safety for years through its Campus Safety Audit process. Campus safety is a partnership between students, administration, faculty, employees and the broader community. METRAC's Campus Safety Audit process invigorates partnerships to improve the safety track record of campuses, from those in urban centres to rural areas to distance/online learning programs.

Wendy Komiotis, Executive Director, and Gabrielle Ross-Marquette, Communications Coordinator, will lead the engagement with our project. 

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Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG)

In 1968 the Ontario Association of Art Galleries was formed with the following purposes:

1. To encourage close cooperation between the Ontario Association of Art Galleries and the Province of Ontario Council for the Arts [now the Ontario Arts Council] and other similar agencies.
2. To assist developing visual art centres in the Province.
3. To promote high standards of excellence and uniform methods in the care and presentation of works of art.
4. To serve as an advisory body in matters of professional interest.

The Ontario Association of Art Galleries was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1970 when the office of the secretariat was opened in Toronto.

Zainub Verjee, Executive Director of OAAG, will lead their collaboration with our project. She will also serve as a member of our Advisory Board.

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Teesri Duniya Theatre

Teesri Duniya Theatre is dedicated to producing socially and politically relevant plays based on cultural experiences of communities living in Canada. Reflecting the multicultural-multiracial and aboriginal reality of Canada, its work aims to bring critical thinking on important issues, connect communities and generate an intercultural dialogue. Teesri Duniya tells peoples’ stories that are aesthetically outstanding and socially engaging. The company is committed to multiethnic casting and compelling stories. Teesri Duniya Theatre is engaged in four interlinked areas of activities: productions, play and playwright development, publication of the theatre quarterly alt.theatre, cultural diversity and the stage, and an Artists and Community project.

Teesri Duniya will use theatre to critique, analyse and understand deep-rooted sexualized norms in universities. In so doing, it hopes to use theatre programs and pieces to encourage dialogue and help create safer spaces in universities. Storytelling, intercultural theatre, oral history and dissemination could be used as ways to highlight existing problems, heal survivors, restore dignity and generate a social dialogue about sexual violence in universities. 

Rahul Varma, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Teesri Duniya Theatre, will lead their engagement with our project.

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Visual Arts Centre

With its School of Art – Canada’s largest bilingual independent art school – and the McClure Gallery – an exciting exhibition venue – the Visual Arts Centre offers a thriving community of artists, teachers, and students. The Visual Arts Centre has been part of Montreal’s artistic fabric for 65 years, with courses open to anyone with a desire to learn. The VAC teaches all levels, all ages, all year round. The Visual Arts Centre's mandate is:

• To offer excellence and accessibility in the education and presentation of the visual arts.
• To provide a welcoming and stimulating environment that encourages the development of skill and creativity in each student.
• To nurture a sense of community in which all can learn from and value the support of fellow students, artists and teachers.
• To promote and advocate for the visual arts in the broader society and to foster alliances that help bring the visual arts more fully into the centre of our lives.

Natasha Reid, the newly-appointed Executive Director of the Visual Arts Centre, will lead their engagement with our project.

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West Coast LEAF

West Coast LEAF is the first and only organization in British Columbia dedicated to promoting women’s equality through the law. West Coast LEAF and its sister organization LEAF have helped bring about some of the most important victories for women in Canada: safe access to reproductive rights; fair workplace standards; fair separation agreements; “no means no” in sexual assault; the right to be free of sexual harassment from landlords, and more.

West Coast LEAF envisions a society in which women are full participants in all social, economic, and political activities. We believe that differences must be respected and supported by the law, and by social and institutional practices. West Coast LEAF is committed to a vision of feminism that is inclusive of persons who are transgender and/or intersex and of their equality rights to be free from sex and gender discrimination.

Kasari Govender, Executive Director of West Coast LEAF, will lead their collaboration with our project.

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YWCA Montreal

The YWCA Montreal was founded on February 23, 1875, and is one of the oldest community organizations in the city. Its original mission was to «receive young women who come as strangers to the city, obtain for them board and employment, attend generally to their temporal and moral welfare. This mission has always been relevant. Throughout the years, the YWCA Montreal has continually evolved, adapting itself to the changing needs of women and girls and accompanying more than 300,000 of them on new paths to a better future.

With the support of its Foundation, the YWCA Montreal concentrates its efforts to reduce gender and social inequalities and exclusion as well as all forms of violence against women and girls. Its mission is to work together to build a better future for women and girls. The YWCA Montreal is inspired by a vision of an egalitarian society where women and girls have the power and opportunity to realize their full potential. Their work is focused on 4 key areas of action:

• Housing Services
• Employability Services
• Youth Services
• Community Services

​The YWCA's engagement with our project will be led by Ann Decter, Director of Advocacy and Public Policy at YWCA Canada.