Special Projects

Over more than 25 years, the Foundation has become a national leader in its work toward gender equality. We raise public awareness by speaking out about the barriers women and girls face. We also connect what we learn from our funded programs to the development of provincial and national projects and strategies.

Some of our regional and national projects include:

In June 2019, at the Women Deliver conference in Vancouver, B.C., the federal government announced a significant investment in funds for women’s organizations to create a “long-term, sustainable funding legacy to accelerate gender equality in Canada.” The Canadian Women’s Foundation is one of three organizations to receive $10 million in matched funding from the Department for Women and Gender Equality (WAGE). This means that WAGE will match up to $10 million in funds raised by the Foundation for gender equality initiatives in rural, remote and Northern areas serving women and girls, as well as to address emerging issues affecting women across Canada. The Foundation looks forward to expanding its work in these areas.

Learn more about the matching partnership to advance gender equality.

After the #MeToo Movement went viral, the Canadian Women’s Foundation partnered with Aftermetoo, a national movement to activate change on sexual violence in Canada, to address the increased demand on sexual violence support services across Canada.

In 2019, the Foundation also collaborated with Aftermetoo and Aboriginal Peoples Television Network to address workplace sexual harassment through tools, resources, and training for federally regulated employees and employers — all housed in a one-stop online platform called Rosa. The project, called Roadmap to Future Workplaces, is supported in part by the Government of Canada.

In 2017, Status of Women Canada selected the Canadian Women’s Foundation to convene, facilitate and oversee the Gender Equality Network Canada. Over three years, this Network of about 150 women leaders from across the country will create an action plan to advance gender equality in Canada.

Learn more about the Network’s leaders, recent news and updates.

Launched in 2019, the Black Innovation Fellowship aims to address key barriers Black entrepreneurs face while getting new businesses off the ground. The Canadian Women’s Foundation is a founding partner of the Fellowship, which is run by Toronto Metropolitan University’s DMZ startup accelerator.

This is a first-in-Canada program that provides startups led by Black entrepreneurs with:

  • Startup network support and additional programming
  • Access to Black mentors and experts
  • Access to events, industry, capital and alumni networks
  • Access to affordable housing and meeting spaces

The Foundation is proud to be supporting women entrepreneurs through the Fellowship, and providing leadership and personal development training. More information and how to apply to the Black Innovation Fellowship.

Although teen healthy relationship programs are offered across Canada, there is a need for more coordinated efforts to link and support these programs. That’s why the Foundation is working toward change at a national level through Building the Field of Teen Healthy Relationships, a three-year program that began in 2015.

Supported by Status of Women Canada, the initiative is bringing together community programs, academics, policy-makers, funders, and youth to share successes and challenges, as well as to discuss the future of teen healthy relationship programming. Learn more about Building the Field of Teen Healthy Relationships.

The Foundation’s Girls’ Fund supports many programs that involve group mentoring, and our evaluations have shown incredible results. Group mentoring not only connects girls with an older role model but also with three or four peers.

Girls say mentoring helps them celebrate their strengths, become more outgoing, gain confidence, and feel like they can achieve their dreams. Given the power of mentoring, the Foundation wanted to empower more community organizations to offer it.

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.

When we first created the toolkit, we asked five organizations to pilot it. We invited them to use the toolkit to create a program from scratch and to track their learnings. We checked in with these groups, analyzed their feedback, pulled out the trends and gaps, and then returned to the drawing board to create new or adapted content.

Just to be sure the content was on track, we also consulted with an advisory group of international researchers, practitioners, grantees, evaluation experts, and our partner on the project, the Alberta Mentoring Partnership.

Now that the toolkit has launched, we look forward to seeing the magic of mentoring spread to more girls in communities across Canada.

The Landsberg Award is an annual award presented by The Canadian Journalism Foundation in association with the Canadian Women’s Foundation. It celebrates a journalist who is raising awareness about women’s equality issues in Canada and aims to inspire an increase in the media coverage and voice of women in Canada.

The award is named after Michele Landsberg—award-winning Canadian journalist, author, social activist, and feminist—to acknowledge the tremendous impact that she has had as an advocate and role model for all women in Canada. We hope the award will inspire relentless, fearless journalists to consider Canadian news from a women’s equality perspective.

Learn more about The Landsberg Award.

2021 Award
Toronto Star journalists Alyshah Hasham and Wendy Gillis won their work on several submissions:
2021 Landsberg Award Winner Wendy Gillis2021 Landsberg Award Winner Alyshah Hasham

2020 Award

Columnist and feature writer Elizabeth Renzetti won for her writing in the Globe & Mail on various gender-related topics:
Violent misogyny is a threat to half our population. We need to call it what it is: Terrorism
Why has Canada had so few female first ministers?
Even in space, women can’t escape the flaws of biased design

Journalist Elizabeth Renzetti

2019 Award

Journalist Connie Walker received the 2019 Landsberg Award for CBC News: Missing & Murdered: Finding Cleo.

Connie Walker wins the 2019 Landsberg Award, co-presented by the Canadian Women's Foundation

The Michele Landsberg Community Award recognizes an organization doing exceptional work to empower young women to find their voice and raise awareness about gender equality issues in Canada through media. The award is named after Michele Landsberg, award-winning Canadian journalist, author, social activist, and feminist.

2018 Winner: YWCA Halifax Youth Advisory Council, Alternative Heritage Minutes

Partnerships

Affordable child care is essential to achieving gender equality. That’s why we’ve joined organizations endorsing Child Care Now’s smart and sensible Affordable Child Care for All Plan. It’s the road map Canada needs to universal, quality child care. For women, access to quality, inclusive, affordable child care increases access to employment and enhances economic security. Child care can help move women out of violence and poverty and into security and independence. The Plan focuses on building a system with affordable parent fees, public expansion, and a skilled workforce delivering quality care. Learn more about Child Care Now and the Affordable Child Care for All Plan.

We are a member of Up For Debate, a national alliance of organizations dedicated to women’s rights and gender equality. Up For Debate calls on all federal political party leaders to participate in a national debate on women’s rights and gender equality. The alliance is also urging federal party leaders to make real commitments to end poverty, end gender-based violence, and support women’s rights and equality-seeking organizations. Learn more about Up For Debate.

Save the Date

The Canadian Women’s Foundation has partnered with Women’s Shelters Canada to host a hybrid (virtual and in-person) National Summit in Ottawa in March 2023. This knowledge-sharing event will give GBV organizations from across the country a space to exchange lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and come up with strategies to shockproof our communities.