Current Projects

MANifest Change:

MANifest Change is an OCTEVAW initiative that is grounded in the belief that men are part of the solution to ending gender-based violence. Through workshops that teach five core tenets, MANifest Change takes a strength-based approach that lifts up masculinity that connects men to others and critiques masculinity that requires men to prove their manhood by dominating others.

MANifest Change offers a workshop series to high schools, universities, and colleges. It also facilitates training sessions for workplaces, assisting businesses in improving their inward-facing culture as well as their outward-facing client service.

Interested in intensifying your allyship? Apply to volunteer with MANifest Change here.

Tech Without Violence:

Tech Without Violence is a collaborative project from OCTEVAW and Ottawa’s Purple Sisters Youth Advisory Committee, and operates with support from Canada’s Status of Women department. Tech Without Violence is an online hub providing information for young social media users as well as key recommendations social media platforms can use to address and prevent cyberviolence. It focuses on five main social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Tumblr, working with the overarching belief that all forms of gender-based violence and harassment can be prevented by harnessing the expertise of young women and LGBTQ youth, and through collaboration with the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.

Read about the Tech Without Violence prevention framework here.

Project Soundcheck:

Project SoundCheck™ is a sexual harassment and assault prevention initiative. It is a joint creation of the Sexual Assault Network and the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women. We want to bring our festivals, venues, and community together to challenge bystander apathy; the tendency to ignore incidents of sexual harassment and assault in large group situations where people feel less responsibility for others, or assume another person will intervene.

Project Soundcheck offers bystander intervention training, safety audits for your concert or festival, resource materials, and consulting services to create an individual messaging framework for your concert or festival.

Safer Campuses:

OCTEVAW received funding from Status of Women Canada for a project targeting students at four post-secondary institutions in Ottawa: The University of Ottawa, Carleton University, La Cité and Algonquin College. In partnership with the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre (ORCC), this project sought to identify and respond to the issues of sexual and gendered violence affecting young women and other marginalized people on Ottawa campuses.

OCTEVAW and the ORCC developed an app and a social media campaign to raise awareness about sexual violence on campuses, educate students on how best to intervene if their peers seem to be in an unsafe situation, and inform them of support services that are available to them.

According to the Canadian Federation of Students:

  • Campus sexual assaults are most prevalent during the first 8 weeks of classes.

  • More than 80% of sexual assaults happen by someone known to the victim.

  • At least 50% of campus-related sexual assaults occur during dates.

  • In Canada, young women aged 16-24 are at highest risk for experiencing sexual assault.

  • 4 out of 5 female undergraduate students said they had experienced gender-based violence in a dating relationship or intimate partnership.

The Media Hub:

Funded by the Government of Ontario, the Media Hub provides resources for members of the media covering instances of gender-based and sexual violence. The Media Hub informs journalists, producers, and other members of the media on how best to approach their coverage, from how to approach interviewing survivors, to covering instances of gender-based violence as part of a systemic issue and social problem, rather than an isolated and private incident.