Blog

  • Posted January 3, 2018

Our New Year Resolutions

Happy New Year! We hope that you had a lovely holiday season, and that the New Year is filled with love, light, warmth, and care for you. It’s the time of year when people are making New Year Resolutions, and thinking about what they’d like to achieve or commit to this year. As we go […]
  • Posted December 7, 2017

5 Ways that Victim-Blaming Fails Survivors of Sexual Assault

Post by Zoë B Why does sexual assault happen? How could someone do something so horrible to another human being? How do we make sense of this, especially when it happens to someone we know or love – or to ourselves? These are many of the questions that people may struggle with when thinking about […]
  • Posted November 21, 2017

We’ve had a huge victory!

As you may know, WAVAW provides immediate crisis support, support groups, and one-to-one counselling to survivors of sexual assault. Unfortunately, for the last five years, WAVAW’s wait time for one-to-one counselling has been two years. This is because of a lack of consistent, reliable government funding. In response to this we have been calling on our community […]
  • Posted November 2, 2017

What is Feminist Counselling?

If you are familiar with WAVAW’s services then you know that WAVAW offers free one-to-one and group counselling sessions for survivors of sexualized violence. You may also know that all of the counsellors at WAVAW work within a feminist, trauma-informed, anti-oppressive framework. But what does it mean to work within a feminist, anti-oppressive framework? It […]
  • Posted October 24, 2017

From #metoo to #iwill – What does real solidarity look like?

Post by Zoë B, WAVAW Volunteer   Over the past week, many survivors have found the #metoo campaign, originally started in 2007 by black activist Tarana Burke, to be useful in their healing process. Countless survivors have used the hashtag #metoo online as a way to bring up conversations about sexualized violence, find validation and […]
  • Posted October 13, 2017

So, How Many People Access WAVAW Services Anyway?

As a member of our community we know that you understand the importance of sexual assault services. You might be shocked to hear that some people are surprised that Vancouver needs these services. “Does that still happen?” someone asked a WAVAW employee offhandedly after she told them where she worked. The answer is yes, of course […]
  • Posted September 27, 2017

Stand up to Racism Rally at City Square, Vancouver

Guest post by WAVAW Volunteers, Tissa Rahim and Hannah Jarvis In wake of the recent white-supremacist riots held in Charlottesville, groups all over North America, with similar anti-islamic/anti-Semitic/overall racist principles, have crawled out from their reddit forums to take their cause to the streets. In Vancouver, a group called the WCAI, World Wide Coalition Against Islam, […]
  • Posted September 19, 2017

The Importance of Our Crisis Line

“What do you tell someone when they call your 24-Hour Crisis Line?” This is a question we get often. WAVAW’s Crisis and Information Line operates 24 hours a day, every single day of the year. Both survivors, and their friends and family members, can call us for support. We like to explain the importance of […]
  • Posted September 6, 2017

What does our Victim Services Team do?

I’m sure you have heard of WAVAW’s Victim Services program, but chances are you may not know exactly what our Victim Services team does. WAVAW’S Victim Services team does hospital, police, and court accompaniments, and they offer emotional support to survivors as they navigate these systems. But how is the emotional support a survivor receives […]
  • Posted August 13, 2017

Update: WAVAW’s Inclusion Project

As of April 1st, 2018, WAVAW’s services and programs are available to all Two-Spirit, trans, and non-binary survivors of sexual violence.  A few months ago, as part of our Inclusion Project, we added our pronouns to our signatures.  This was an important step for us.We are working to create a space where Two-Spirit, trans, and non-binary […]