Resources and Tools
The Canadian Women’s Foundation shares reports, resources and tools that are designed to help strengthen the capacity of organizations serving women, girls, and gender-diverse people. We also bring together experts from the sector to share best-practices and address emerging challenges. When the sector is strong, the movement toward gender equality is strong.
You can link to these sector resources below, and please get in touch if you can’t find what you’re looking for: communityinitiatives@canadianwomen.org
“Women’s equality will not be reached in Canada without the work of the women’s sector addressing the root causes of inequality like violence and economic barriers. There also needs to be a strong women’s movement of equity-seeking groups advocating for change and providing expertise on gender-based analysis from a position of autonomy. Canada cannot do without the services they provide.”
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Reports and Learning Resources
Become a Signal for Help Responder
The risk of gender-based violence has increased during the pandemic, and the necessary safety restrictions have made it harder for those in abusive situations to reach out for help. In response, the Foundation has launched the Signal for Help, a silent hand signal that can be used in a video call without leaving a digital trace. But it’s also critical that as many people as possible know how to respond and support someone who gives the Signal.
That’s why the Canadian Women’s Foundation created the Signal for Help Responder’s Action Guide. This tool helps loved ones, friends, coworkers, and neighbours recognize abuse, and helps them respond with supportive, stigma-free conversations.
Women and Gender-Diverse Migrant Workers in Rural Canada
This research was funded by the Canadian Women’s Foundation to better understand the conditions that women and gender-diverse workers with precarious migration status face in rural Canada. The research explores the experiences of migrant workers in the various streams of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program – including the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP), the Caregiver Program, and the Stream for Lower-Skilled Occupations – focusing specifically on workers in the domestic and agricultural sectors. The research aims to amplify experiences further exacerbated by processes of racialization, gendering, and stratifications of class affecting women and gender-diverse folks by highlighting the conditions migrant workers face, and identifying the structural and systemic factors that breed these conditions.
Women and Gender-Diverse Migrant Workers in Rural Canada
A Toolkit for Inquests and Community Consultations on Gender-Based Violence
In 2015, in rural eastern Ontario’s Renfrew County, Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam were murdered in one morning by a man with whom each had had a past relationship. This triple femicide shocked the community and the province. Later, as part of a provincial inquest into the murders, End Violence Against Women Renfrew County received funding from the Canadian Women’s Foundation to support community engagement before and during the inquest and to develop a resource for women’s organizations in rural communities across the country.
That resource is: We Remember: A toolkit about inquests and community consultations for feminist organizations in rural communities based on the 2022 CKW Inquest in Renfrew County
Social Media and Sexual Assault
This collaborative project between the Canadian Women’s Foundation and the McGill iMPACTS project investigates the connections between social media and action for social change in the context of sexual assault on Canadian post-secondary campuses.
Social Change and Mobilizing Change for Community Impacts: Literature Review, 2022
Social Change and Mobilizing Change for Community Impacts: Results Report, 2022
Webinar: Building Campus Activism: Students Organizing Against Gender-Based Violence
Teen Healthy Relationships
Leading for Change: National Evaluation of the Canadian Women’s Foundation Teen Healthy Relationships Program (2013-2017)
- Download the English highlights report.
- Download the French highlights report.
- Download the full report.
Healthy Relationships 101: An Overview of School-Based Healthy Relationships Programs (2012)
Teen Healthy Relationship Programming: National Learning Strategy (2013)
Healthy Relationships: Preventing teen dating violence (2011)
Anti-Trafficking
Sexual Exploitation/Trafficking: Essential Learnings from the Grassroots
Anti-Trafficking Grants Program Evaluation Summary 2016-2021
The Canadian Women’s Foundation addresses the conditions that make sexual exploitation/trafficking possible in Canada, including gender injustice, poverty, precarious housing and homelessness, racism, and the impacts of colonialization and intergenerational trauma. These systemic factors form the root causes of all forms of gender-based violence. This summary is based on a multi-year evaluation of these programs’ learnings and impacts, conducted by InsideOut Policy Research.
Violence Prevention Reviews
In 2011, the Canadian Women’s Foundation conducted a review of our work in the area of violence prevention. The goal of the review process is to continue to enrich and enhance our long-term strategy for preventing violence against women. The following scans were produced within the framework of the review process in order to inform the Canadian Women’s Foundation and stakeholders on the current issues affecting the sector.
Women with Disabilities and Abuse: Access to Supports (2011)
Prepared by: DisAbled Women’s Network (DAWN) Canada
Violence Against Women with Disabilities – Violence Prevention Review (2011)
Prepared by: Vecova
Violence Against Aboriginal Women: Scan & Report (2011)
Prepared by: Manon Lamontagne
Report on Violence Against Women, Mental Health and Substance Use (2011)
Prepared by: BC Society of Transition Houses
Scan on Funding Policy Initiatives to Respond to VAW (2011)
Prepared by: Canadian Network of Women’s Shelters & Transition Houses
Tip Sheets
If you know someone who is experiencing violence, these tips will help you take effective action. This series of tip sheets was created by the Canadian Women’s Foundation in partnership with The Canadian Network of Women’s Shelters and Transition Houses. Funding for this project has been provided by AVON Foundation for Women.
Building the Field of Teen Healthy Relationships is funded by Public Health Agency of Canada, as part of Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence. Learn more and view reports.
Economic Development Program Impact Report, April 2021
Learn about how your support empowered women on their journeys out of poverty through economic development programs tailored to their specific needs. These programs provide critical training and skills that help women overcome barriers to employment in diverse fields.
Building a Stronger Future: Economic Development Evaluation Highlights, 2009-2014
This highlights report summarizes the results of the Canadian Women’s Foundation’s Economic Development program evaluation from 2009-2014. During this five-year cycle, the Foundation invested about $6 million in an economic development strategy that aimed to help women living on low incomes to build sustainable livelihoods. Much of this investment went into 10 women-centred programs across Canada that reached more than 3,000 women. During this 5-year cycle, the Foundation also invested in two Aboriginal Partnership Grants. This report summarizes the Foundation’s approach, findings, successes, and learnings from all of these funded programs.
Beyond Survival: Helping Women Transition out of Poverty
This report presents the results of the Canadian Women’s Foundation Economic Development Collaborative Fund. The Collaborative Fund was a five-year $4.8 million program that provided financial and technical support to ten community programs across Canada that helped low-income women transition out of poverty and build a sustainable livelihood. This report explains our approach, describes our research process, summarizes our findings, and analyzes the key lessons for practitioners, and the and implications for funders and policy-makers.
Infographic: How Women Build Sustainable Livelihoods
Infographic: Economic Development Theory of Change
Girls’ Fund 2012-2016 Highlights report
Girls Fund 2009-2012 Evaluation Report
From 2009 to 2012, the Girls’ Fund supported 14 organizations across the country working with girls aged 9 to 13. These organizations participated in an evaluation of their programs and networks with the support of external evaluators. The evaluation looked at the process of implementing the girls’ programs, as well as the impact of the programs on girls’ lives.
Girls Group Mentoring Toolkit
With the generous support of The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, we developed an online girls group mentoring toolkit. Any organization can access this resource online and have the steps, tools, instruction and from-the-field-advice to develop a program in their communities.
This is an intersectional feminist peer mentorship program that was undertaken in Fall 2022. The Toolkit offers “How Tos” to guide future creation of impactful rural, remote and Northern gender justice peer learning spaces.
The Peer Learning Journey Pilot was developed and facilitated by Louise Pitre, Principal of Louise Pitre Coaching & Consulting Inc., Giizhik (Cedar) Crystal Fach, Founder, Diversity Ed, and Dr. AnnaLise Trudell, PhD, associate from Louise Pitre Coaching and Consulting Inc. This project was made possible by the financial contribution of WAGE Canada.
Leading for Change: A Report on the Canadian Women’s Foundation Leadership Institute Pilot Program
In 2012, the Foundation partnered with St. Francis Xavier University’s Coady International Institute to launch the Canadian Women’s Foundation Leadership Institute as a three-year pilot program. The vision was a women’s leadership institute that supports emerging women leaders in Canada’s non-profit sector, and promotes a broader, more inclusive approach to leadership. This report summarizes the evaluation data gathered throughout the pilot program, highlighting the Institute’s approach, successes, and lessons learned. It also touches on the plans for the next phase of this unique, innovative, and much-needed women’s leadership development program.
The Canadian Women’s Foundation’s Anti-Racist Intersectional Research Guidelines were developed to support our partners, collaborators, and staff to actively incorporate the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion into their practices. The Guidelines are intended as a functional tool to enhance the capacity of the Foundation to support our teams, partners, and collaborators to adopt anti-racist and intersectional approaches.
Webinar
Library
Library
April 20, 2022
Inclusion and Justice: Decolonization and Indigenizing
Dec. 15, 2021
Service Provider Roundtable: Supporting Afghan Women
Dec. 7, 2021
Solidarity with Afghan Women: A Policy Perspective
Nov. 29, 2021
Disability Justice is Gender Justice
Oct. 5, 2021
Intention to Action: Supporting 2SLGBTQ+ Communities
June 24, 2021
June 22, 2022
Queering GBV Prevention and Intervention: What Social Service Providers Needs to Know
June 20, 2022
Queering GBV Prevention & Intervention: What the GBV Sector Needs to Know
June 20, 2022
Youth Speak: Healthy Relationships in Communities
April 20, 2022
Gender-Based Violence in the Climate Crisis
March 18, 2022
Addressing the Missing Pieces regarding sexual violence among teens
Feb. 22, 2021
Feb. 17, 2021
Caregiving during the COVID-19 Pandemic
May 8, 2020
Impacts of COVID-19 on Girls and Youth: Live Stream
April 27, 2020
