Pilot Fund for Gender Equality in Canada

Pilot Fund for Gender Equality in Canada

London Community Foundation is pleased to announce its two inaugural grantees of the Pilot Fund for Gender Equality in Canada, a new collaboration between Community Foundations of Canada and the Equality Fund and supported by the Government of Canada. Twenty-six community foundations are engaged in the pilot, part of a broader program to advance gender equality in our country and around the world and the first step in a multi-year commitment to gender equality by the community foundation movement.

The learnings from the Pilot Fund for Gender Equality will ultimately inform the creation of a program that will support gender equality in communities from coast to coast to coast. By catalyzing the community foundation movement and the thousands of Canadians we connect with each day, we believe we can do more than just foster gender equality — we have an opportunity to begin removing the long-standing barriers to it.

Through our participation in the Pilot Fund, London Community Foundation has granted $45,000 to the following projects:

Atlohsa Family Healing Services

Building Our Bundles for Renewal: Okaadenige Wellness Retreat for Survivors – $20,000

Okaadenige, an Ojibwe word that means “he or she braids things,” represents Atlohsa’s three-strand approach to anti-human trafficking; prevention, awareness, and support.

The Okaadenige Wellness Retreat for Survivors is a week-long healing retreat dedicated to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous survivors of human trafficking, exploitation and sexual abuse. Based on the medicine wheel teachings, the retreat offers access to Indigenous-led programming and allows women to come together to talk about their trauma. It also helps them learn strategies to keep safe, exit the cycle of exploitation and abuse, and connect with Elders from the surrounding First Nations to learn cultural teachings.

Anova: a future without violence

Opening the Circle: Cultivating Women’s Leadership – $25,000

Opening the Circle advances gender equality by developing paths to leadership for women/trans women who are survivors of gender-based violence.

A survivor-led learning and support hub that cultivates leadership and advocacy opportunities for women in London, Opening the Circle supports and trains survivors as peer supporters along a certification track under Peer Support Canada.

Peer support is a meaningful vehicle for healing and community building. Through Opening the Circle, a space is created for women to share their stories and to value the lived experience that follows the traumatic reality of gender-based violence. As survivors, their lived experience becomes a sign of strength that can also light the way and support others.

To learn more about the collaboration between Community Foundations of Canada and the Equality Fund, visit www.communityfoundations.ca/cfc-partners-with-the-equality-fund-to-advance-gender-equality-in-canada/. More information about future opportunities to advance gender equality will be available later in 2020.

The Pilot Fund for Gender Equality is supported by a collaboration between London Community Foundation, Community Foundations of Canada, and the Equality Fund, with support from the Government of Canada.