As post-secondary institutions (PSIs) look towards a school year where “campus” itself will likely be extended into online spaces, it’s important to consider how gender-based violence will manifest differently, and how prevention efforts will need to adapt. It is important to build relationships with community-based gender-based violence (GBV) organizations i.e. sexual assault centres, violence against women shelters, Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit groups and LGBTQIS2 organizations. Our shared goal of ending gender-based violence requires collaboration between community organizations and PSIs. Here are six ways that gender-based violence organizations and PSIs can work well together:

It is easy to assume that our work on campuses to address and prevent gender-based violence will lessen as students return home to self-isolate, however, the reality is that home is not always a safe place for everyone.

Covid-19 has shifted work for so many of us and our team wants to be of support. As co-director Courage to Act, a national two-year project to address and prevent gender-based violence on post-secondary institutions I wanted to create a resource for people working in post-secondary institutions about meeting the emerging needs of campus community members affected by gender-based violence. It is not an exhaustive list but a start of ideas, hopes and questions, not definitive answers. This was created with the support of the 100 members of the Courage to Act: Communities of Practice.