In addition to our core academic team, iMPACTS has several partnerships with educational institutions, community and corporate organizations, and McGill faculties. Addressing sexual violence on campus and in society is a complex undertaking and involves efforts in education, law, policy, advocacy, health and social services, arts and culture, and digital media. As such, our partnerships span multiple sectors. You can read more about them by clicking through the tabs below.
Educational Institutions
The IMPACTS Project is proud to have the following educational institutions as partners in our research against sexual violence.
- Acadia University
- Atlantic School of Theology
- Cape Breton University
- Concordia University
- Dalhousie University
- Douglas College
- Emily Carr University of Art + Design
- Lakehead University
- Langara College
- Mount Saint Vincent University
- Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
- Rowan University
- Saint Mary's University
- Simon Fraser University
- St. Francis Xavier University
- Université Sainte-Anne
- University of Alberta
- University of Birmingham
- University of Central Lancashire
- University of King's College
- University of Manitoba
- University of Ontario, Institute of Technology
- University of Ottawa
- University of Toronto, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work
Community and Corporate Organizations
The Canadian Women's Foundation
The Canadian Women’s Foundation is Canada’s public foundation for women and girls. Since 1991, the foundation has invested in more than 1,300 community programs across Canada and is now one of the ten largest women’s foundations in the world. Through community support, the foundation helps empower nearly 30,000 women and girls to move out of violence, out of poverty and into confidence. Under iMPACTS, the Canadian Women's Foundation contributes to research and practices around media-making and policy-making, ones that promote the sustained reduction of sexual violence and rape culture. Anuradha Dugal, Director of Violence Prevention Programs at the Canadian Women's Foundation, will be leading the partnership and engagement with iMPACTS.
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. Under iMPACTS, Facebook has had the opportunity to engage with other interested organizations and partners on the issue of preventing sexual violence. The corporation has also contributed to iMPACTS by 1) giving opportunities for our researchers to engage with the platform on research projects, 2) supporting dissemination of information on the platform's community standards and online safety, and 3) keeping our project members up to date on new developments and opportunities to engage with innovation on the issue of sexual violence. Kevin Chan, the Director of Public Policy for Facebook Canada, leads Facebook's engagement with our project, and acted as the Chair of the Advisory Board for the first 3 years of the project.
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 recognized internationally as a leading digital safety & citizenship organization. Since 2009, the IROC2 has directly educated over one million parents, educators, law enforcement, and students across the United States and Canada through its award winning Digital Safety Workshops & Assemblies titled, Public and Permanent®. Under iMPACTS, the IROC2 has assisted in 1) 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., 2) giving various presentations of an award-winning Live Event for students, faculties, and professional groups, and 3) providing access to their on-demand video channel for 20 schools. Richard Guerry, founder of IROC2, has lead the engagement with iMPACTS.
METRAC works with individuals, communities and institutions to change ideas, actions and policies with the goal of ending violence against women and youth. Through services and programs, the organization focuses 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, have lead the engagement with iMPACTS.
Galleries Ontario / Ontario Galleries
Through advocacy, professional development, and network-building, Galleries Ontario is a registered non-profit organization that works to advance and empower Ontario public art galleries. It does so by encouraging co-operation between member galleries and museums and assisting in the development of visual arts centres in the province of Ontario. Zainub Verjee, Executive Director, has lead the collaboration with iMPACTS and has served as a member of the iMPACTS Advisory Board.
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. The company is committed to multiethnic and diverse casting, and its activities include productions, play and playwright development, publications, and an Artists and Community project. Under iMPACTS, Teesri Duniya uses theatre to critique, analyze and understand deep-rooted sexualized norms in universities. In so doing, it hopes 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, has lead engagement with our project.
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. Its mandate is to offer excellence and accessibility in the presentation of visual arts, to provide a welcoming environment that encourages artistic development, and to nurture a sense of community among artists and society at large. Natasha Reid, the Executive Director of the Visual Arts Centre, has lead engagement with our project.
West Coast LEAF is the first and only organization in British Columbia dedicated to promoting women’s equality through the law. West Coast LEAF has 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. Kasari Govender, Executive Director of West Coast LEAF, has lead their collaboration with our project.
Founded in 1875, the YWCA Montreal 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." 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. Their work is focused on 4 key areas of action: housing services, employability services, youth services, and community services. The YWCA's engagement with iMPACTS has been led by Ann Decter, Director of Advocacy and Public Policy at YWCA Canada.
Faculties at McGill
The largest faculty at the University, Arts is committed to remaining at the forefront of intellectual inquiry in our continually changing world. Within the Faculty of Arts, iMPACTS draws from the expertise of the Department of Art History and Communication Studies and from the School of Information Studies. Co-investigator Dr. Carrie Rentschler is a feminist media scholar and project lead for Activism in Arts and Popular Culture.
The Faculty of Dentistry is committed to maintaining a leadership role in oral health education, in scientific research and in the promotion of oral health and quality of life in the whole population, with an emphasis on the needs of under-served communities and individuals. Using the McGill Faculty of Dentistry as a case study, our project will address concerns on student norms identified by the Dalhousie Task Force Report (Backhouse et al., 2015) and drawing on research findings, improve McGill Dentistry’s policies and curriculum on social awareness and ethics to address rape culture. The co-investigator from the Faculty of Dentistry is Dr. Richard Hovey.
The mission of the Faculty of Education is the advancement of knowledge and its applications to the development of human potential in a variety of learning environments and over one's life span. Our project is housed within the Faculty of Education's Department of Integrated Studies in Education (DISE). Dr. Shaheen Shariff, Project Director of this grant, teaches leadership and policy at DISE. Other co-investigators within this department include Dr. Mindy Carter, Dr. Claudia Mitchell, Dr. Lisa Starr, and Dr. Elizabeth Wood. In addition, Dr. Ada Sinacore and Dr. Victoria Talwar from the Department of Educational & Counselling Psychology are co-investigators on the IMPACTS Project.
McGill’s distinctive legal education is one of the best in the world. It crosses boundaries of language, jurisdiction, legal tradition, discipline, and culture. The Faculty of Law at McGill has been involved in McGill University's Policy Against Sexual Violence and forms an essential part of our project in helping to review provincial and national legislation around sexual violence, university policies around sexual violence, and in improving legal literacies amongst all stakeholders. Co-investigators from the Faculty of Law at McGill include Dr. Colleen Sheppard and Dr. Marie Manikis. In addition, Dr. Nandini Ramanujam is a collaborator in this project.
Founded in 1906, the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University is ranked as one of the world’s top international business schools by BusinessWeek, Canadian Business, Forbes, The Economist and the Financial Times. Dr. Brian Rubineau is a co-investigator from this project, and will contribute to the development of leadership and management skills within our cohort of researchers.
