BraveSpaces Public Education Program

The BraveSpaces Public Education Program promotes systemic change and removes barriers by creating a shared knowledge base focused on criminal justice, mental health systems, and sex workers’ rights.

Embrave is developing the BraveSpaces Public Education Program which has been funded through Women and Gender Equality Canada’s Women’s Program. The program will result in trainings, resources, and tools to standardize knowledge across the gender-based violence (GBV) sector and increase community access to education about the role of systems and institutions in relation to GBV, systemic oppression, and marginalization. The objective is to promote systemic change and remove barriers by creating a shared knowledge base of systemic violence in the GBV and social services sectors, focusing on criminal justice and police systems, psychiatry and mental health systems, and sex work and workers’ rights.

The program will span 3 years and unfold in 4 stages.

Community Consultations

Community consultations will be done to create a program made for and by the community. Both survivors of violence and organizations which support them are consulted through town halls, surveys, and focus groups. A decolonialized approach and consultations with the Indigenous community will be incorporated into the program’s development. We are also partnering with leaders in the sex worker’s rights movement to incorporate a sex worker’s rights perspective into the program. Our consultants and evaluator will provide feedback throughout the course of the project at various stages.

We have had a graphic recorder present at several community consultation events and below are the visual summaries of what was expressed by survivors and organizations which support them.

Research and Development

The second stage will involve research and development of the curriculum and training program. The training will consist of three modules: criminal justice and police systems, psychiatry and mental health systems, and sex work and worker’s rights. The training will be virtual and utilize creative mixed media to produce an engaging final product.

Pilot Training

The pilot stage of the program will deliver the early draft of the training to partner organizations. Feedback will be gathered from participants and consultants to refine the final product.

Have questions?

To learn more contact:
Luxana Ramesh
[email protected]

Launch Program

In year 3 of the project, the training and resources developed will be delivered more widely to organizations in the gender-based violence sector. Ultimately, the goal is to educate those who support survivors of violence on the impacts of systemic violence posed by criminal justice and police or psychiatry and mental health systems as well as systemic violence experienced by sex workers. As a result, we hope to see less experiences of systemic violence among survivors in the gender-based violence sector.