Victoria International Development Education Association O/A VIDEA

Purpose

Through this 31-month project, VIDEA will scale the Shared Wisdom promising practice project to strengthen the Gender Based Violence (GBV) sector. This approach will be introduced to 8 Indigenous communities - Iqaluit, NU, Nunatsiavut, NL, Fort Vermilion, AB, Thorhild County, AB, Lytton, BC, Lil'Wat, BC, Whitehorse, YT, and Yellowknife, NWT. It will address the root causes of GBV against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQ+ people. This will be achieved through the identification of systemic barriers and the development of interventions strategies and tools to strengthen the GBV sector. This work will be done by youth leaders and their communities to better support Indigenous people to heal from, address and prevent GBV. This project will be developed in partnership with Indigenous youth and their communities. To do so, the project will support Indigenous youth leaders to develop processes to engage their communities in culturally-relevant prevention, healing and wellness activities - especially for men, boys and 2SLGBTQ+ people - to identify systemic barriers and community-informed solutions to GBV. Indigenous youth leaders will begin with developing and delivering an accessible, intersectional, culturally-relevant community-needs assessment and baseline surveys to better understand strengths and barriers related to GBV. This will guide youth leaders as they develop and implement comprehensive, intergenerational community engagement strategies that include Land-based learning and healing, community events, creative spaces and Indigenous wellness and healing activities, especially for men and boys, and 2SLGBTQ+ community members. VIDEA will support the youth-led development of innovative resources to share information on the promising practice with others so that they may replicate it or expand upon it. The supplement funding will allow the project to add two new communities: Thorhild County, AB and Whitehorse, YT, and to expand programming in the third Northern community already included in the project, Yellowknife, NWT. This supplement will provide boys and men with a culturally relevant, land-based healing and leadership experience grounded in knowledge, identity, and intergenerational learning.