JOIN THE CONVERSATION – REGISTER BELOW FOR UPCOMING COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SESSIONS
The Immigrant Women National Network (IWNN); an initiative of the Newcomer Students’ Association (NSA), in partnership with The Canadian Arab Institute (CAI) are hosting 3 community engagement sessions to better understand GBV among immigrant and refugee women. We invite GBV service providers, GBV front-line workers, immigrant women survivors, and GBV researchers to take part in these sessions to provide their valuable input to the Federal Government’s development of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.
Gender-based violence, specifically violence against women, has remained a prevalent problem in Canada. To tackle this problem, the Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) department of Canada is developing the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. YWCA Canada has generously funded several community organizations, including CAI and NSA, to run this community engagement initiative. This opportunity allows our organizations and the communities we represent, serve and work alongside, to provide input into this action plan.
Each session will focus on the needs and priorities of a different demographic:
Focus on immigrant & refugee women
Focus on Arab immigrant women
Focus on young immigrant & refugee women in post-secondary education (ages 18-35)
The information gathered from these sessions will be submitted without names or identifying markers. Survivors are not expected to share stories of trauma; simply their recommendations to policymakers based on their knowledge, skills and lived experiences.
Once the sessions are complete, the information gathered will be compiled into a report and submitted to YWCA Canada. The findings will help WAGE develop the National Action Plan. This is an important opportunity for immigrant and refugee community members to ensure that the distinct intersectional needs of our community are recognized and addressed within the plan.
In the current understanding of GBV, there are numerous data gaps and more work needs to be done to have a fully intersectional understanding. GBV amongst the immigrant and refugee community consists of its own distinct challenges that have to be identified and addressed.
NEWCOMER STUDENTS' ASSOCIATION 