National Community of Practice Toolkit

"If you're interested in ways to start, sustain or deepen a gender-based violence prevention initiative, this toolkit provides concrete tools, activities and curriculum."

This toolkit explores facts regarding gender-based violence (GBV) in Canada and provides background on understanding gender identities. "Women's organizations in Canada and globally continue to pave the way for tangible change in promoting women and girls' full human rights, including the right to live free of all forms of violence." To that end, creation of this toolkit was coordinated by White Ribbon, with in-kind contributions from 9 National Community of Practice (NCoP) partners, and is funded by Status of Women Canada. Objectives are to:

• provide a space to profile the dynamic engaging men and boys programming arising from the 9 NCoP project partners;
• explore concrete ways in which male- and female-identified individuals, those who identify across the gender spectrum, and broader communities, can work together to prevent GBV;
• offer practical guidance for practitioners (at various experience levels) who would like to develop, implement, and evaluate programming that explores gender and healthy masculinity, with the ultimate aim of preventing GBV and addressing its root causes; and
• add to the evidence base of promising practices for GBV prevention.

The toolkit includes violence prevention programmatic case studies, key results, lessons learned, tools, and activities which can be used in communities, organisations, or the reader's own life. It provides an online forum to showcase innovations, activities, and models which engage men and boys in diverse contexts to promote gender equality, healthy masculinities, and equitable non-violent relationships.

This toolkit is part of the growing number of organisations, individuals, and groups of male allies that are showing solidarity to anti-violence and gender equality in Canada and beyond. In October 2013, White Ribbon began facilitating the NCoP, which includes organisations with projects funded by Status of Women Canada's "Working Together: Engaging Communities to End Violence Against Women and Girls". The organisations include: Alberta Council of Women's Shelters (ACWS), Broadway Neighbourhood Centre, Centre d'accueil et d'accompagnement francophone des immigrants du Sud-Est du Nouveau-Brunswick (CAFI), Changing Ways, Chrysalis House Association, Les EssentiElles, Nova Vita Domestic Violence Prevention Services, Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, and Students Commission of Canada. The following principles inform their collective work in the CoP: foster accountability; focus on girls' and women's safety and security; see work with men and boys as complementary to work with women and girls; acknowledge accomplishments; and affirm a diversity and intersectionality approach when exploring gender.