Department for Women and Gender Equality Announce Funding for WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre’s Five-Year Meaningful Inclusion Project

Department for Women and Gender Equality Announce Funding for WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre’s Five-Year Meaningful Inclusion Project

For Immediate Release 

Vancouver. August 27 2019.

On August 27th, 2019, the  Honourable Maryum Monsef, Canada’s Minister of International Development and Women and Gender Equality, announced $985,000 in funding over five years for WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre’s Meaningful Inclusion project. Funded through the Department for Women and Gender Equality’s Gender-Based Violence: Promising Practices to Support Survivors and Their Families funding stream, WAVAW’s Meaningful Inclusion project will allow for the continuation of specialized services tailored to all trans, non-binary and Two-Spirit survivors of sexualized violence. The project will culminate in a Promising Practices Blueprint to support other organizations in the anti-violence sector to refocus their service delivery in solidarity with these marginalized communities.

“Trans, nonbinary and Two-Spirit people experience a disproportionate amount of sexualized violence,” says Dalya Israel, WAVAW’s Executive Director; “and yet historically there were no culturally-safe and gender-affirming sexual violence support services accessible to this community. Through this project, we will be able to continue our work building trust with these communities, and ensuring that the sexual assault support services we are developing are responsive to their needs”.

In 2017, WAVAW embarked on a three-year Inclusion Project funded by the Department of Justice, which allowed BC’s largest rape crisis centre to become the first sexual assault centre in the Lower Mainland to expand their service delivery to be inclusive of all marginalized genders, including all cis and trans women, and all trans, nonbinary, and Two-Spirit people. In addition to expanding existing 24-hour crisis support, hospital and court accompaniments and group and one-to-one counselling to be accessible all survivors of marginalized genders, WAVAW developed by-and-for queer and trans support services to reduce barriers that these communities face in accessing support.

“There is still work to be done,” says Felix Gilliland, WAVAW’s Inclusion Coordinator “and through this funding, we will be able to continue the rigorous evaluation, community dialogues and program delivery required to be accountable to trans, nonbinary and Two-Spirit survivors. This funding will allow us to expand the reach of our Inclusion Project, and will allow us to travel to more remote communities across the province and partner with small, grassroots, LGBTQ2 organizations and service providers to ensure that we are engaging with diverse perspectives and reaching as many survivors as possible”.

WAVAW’s Meaningful Inclusion Project will commence April 1st, 2020, and include a five-year, $600,000 fundraising campaign to ensure the program is delivered in its full capacity.

About WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre

WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre is a non-profit charitable organization that formed in 1982 in response to the high demand for support services for survivors of sexual assault. Over the past 36 years, WAVAW has grown from a one-woman operated Crisis Line, to the largest rape crisis centre in British Columbia. A feminist, anti-oppressive, decolonizing rape crisis centre operating on unceded Coast Salish Territories, WAVAW is committed to supporting survivors with shared experiences of gendered oppression: women, Two-Spirit, trans and/or non-binary people.

WAVAW is also dedicated to deconstructing systemic violence in our society. WAVAW conducts educational outreach in the community, going to schools and post-secondary institutions to provide anti-violence workshops open to all genders to build communities free from violence.

WAVAW’s Programs and Services

WAVAW provides the following services to support survivors of sexual assault:

  • One-to-one Counselling
  • Support Groups
  • 24- Hour Crisis Line
  • 24-Hour hospital accompaniment
  • Court and police accompaniment
  • Indigenous-specific services

All of WAVAW’s services are free-of-charge and confidential.
24-Hour Crisis Line: 604-255-6344

Media Inquiries and Additional Information
Emily Oswald
Manager of Fund Development
emily@salalsvsc.ca 604.655.6228 x240

  • On August 27, 2019