Embrave Agency to End Violence is thrilled to announce the BraveSpaces public education program. This is a three-year project funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) and aims to reduce systemic violence among survivors of gender-based violence through the development and delivery of a public education training program to organizations that support survivors.

“The project addresses systemic violence that stems from the criminal justice system and policing, the psychiatry and mental health system, or systemic violence related to sex work and the rights of sex workers,” said Rebecca Rogers, Director of Communications and Advocacy Programs. “In our work with survivors, these areas of focus have been identified as being of greatest concern for systemic violence.”

Centering the voices of survivors and building a survivor-informed training program, to benefit survivors, is a priority at Embrave. The BraveSpaces public education program will engage with survivors as well as community organizations throughout this program in the form of town halls, surveys and focus groups. Information drawn from the lived experiences of survivors and support organizations will shape the content and structure of the training program. The goal is to reduce the experience of systemic violence among survivors through the creation of a shared knowledge base of systemic violence in the gender-based violence sector.

Messages from survivors of violence:

• As a racialized person, threatening to call the police during a “health check” is seen as a death threat. The community is unaware of alternative options on how to defuse the situations.
• I had no choice. No choice of my own treatment. No knowledge of the potential consequences of accessing the mental health system. Nobody helped me. No one was on my side.
• They should believe my story. This is my story. Not your story. I called for help and was arrested. They didn’t take my rape report. They assumed I didn’t look like a victim.

“We welcome the participation of survivors from the criminal justice system and the police, the psychiatry and mental health system, or sex workers who have had experiences of systemic violence in either system,” said said Luxana Ramesh, coordinator of the BraveSpaces project. “We would also like to hear from organizations in southern Ontario that support survivors. Those interested in contributing to the BraveSpaces public education program can do so by completing an online survey. Survivors will be compensated for their time. Eligibility criteria and surveys can be found below:

Survey of survivors https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7BRYBM5

Survey of organizations https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MVFL5GS

Read more about Embrave: from agency to end Violence at https://embrave.ca/