| Purpose : |
Women's Y project consists in implementing an 8 weeks prevention program that addresses interpersonal and systemic violence in the lives of girls and young women aged between 12 and 18 years old. Over the 3 years of this project, Women's Y hope to reach up to 300 girls in Anglophone and Francophone school and community sites, adapting the content when necessary in order to best meet the participant's varying needs.
The project team determined workshops themes such as systemic violence, violence within and between groups and violence in dating, sex and romantic relationships, based on phase I and other Canadian research, their daily work with girls, and the preoccupations of phase II advisory committee (mainly young women and youth workers).
Once they have delivered the program for a full two years in a variety of sites, the Women's Y will share their experiences, strategies and approaches with other groups. Training sessions will target women working with girls in various milieus and sensitize them to girls' special needs. Trainees will be encouraged to adapt the Women's Y program to best serve the girls they work with, and /or to embark on other gender-specific activities that support girls' sense of autonomy, self-esteem and personal safety. A primary objective of this training is to render the program more sustainable by sharing the capacity for its delivery with other centres and institutions. This multiplier effect will reduce the Women's Y dependency on external funds for the continual delivery of the program, and empower other adults working with girls to support them in new ways.
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