Trent University

Purpose

This 28-month project will support a feminist response and recovery from the current impacts of COVID-19, through systemic change. Trent University will achieve this by developing, implementing, and evaluating an Indigenous women-led interactive and experiential training model for leadership and front-line staff that will create awareness of the many ways in which unconscious bias, and the attendant policies and practices, make Indigenous women more vulnerable to gender-based violence. At the end of the project, the organization will have contributed to addressing systemic barriers by advancing inclusive policies and practices and by addressing persistent harmful gender norms and attitudes to support women’s equality. Specifically, the project is housed at the First People House of Learning at Trent University, levering relationships with the Chanie Wenjack School of Indigenous Studies, the Ontario Native Women’s Association, First Nations and grassroots organizations. They will initiate systemic change by engaging with those who are responsible for existing institutions, policies and practices, and sharing diverse perspectives by which to examine their own role in preventing or perpetuating the crisis of gender-based violence against Indigenous women.