Battered Women's Support Services Launches Multi-Year Project, Colour of Violence: Gender, Race & Anti-Violence Services

VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 8, 2021 /CNW/ - On November 3, 2021 Battered Women's Support Services (BWSS) launched a new multi-year project called Colour of Violence. The project places racialized women and gender-diverse people at the center of anti-violence work and will examine the intersections of race and gender for Black, Indigenous, migrant/refugee, racialized women, and gender-diverse people experiencing gender-based violence in British Columbia.

The Colour of Violence project asks the necessary question: How can we end violence against Black, Indigenous, immigrant and women of colour in this province? Building upon the foundational work of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, BWSS will explore the extent to which gender and race influence systemic responses to gender-based violence.

Angela Marie MacDougall, Executive Director of BWSS, says: "It's critical Canada address all policies that may affect women's access to services and protections within a framework that takes into account the full dimensions of BIPOC intersectionality. BWSS's Colour of Violence project will explore the extent to which gender and race influence systemic responses to gender-based violence. We wish to make visible the experiences of racialized survivors so that anti-violence service provision, advocacy, and government policy centers these unique realities."

As part of this Colour of Violence work, BWSS launched an anonymous survey: Colour of Violence Survey: Intersections of Race and Gender for Racialized Survivors Experiencing Gender-Based Violence in British Columbia. The survey is now online and also accessible in a number of other ways listed on BWSS's website.

BWSS is seeking the participation of those who are:

• Black, Indigenous, immigrant/refugee, racialized
• Identify as a cisgender or transgender woman or femme, or as a gender diverse person
• Live in BC
• Are 19+

This survey is timed to contribute to discussion about proposed provincial anti-racism legislation for which the BC government is asking residents to share their views on, via an online portal by November 30, 2021. The survey focuses on issues of accessibility, safety, and the structural barriers of anti-violence services in British Columbia for Black, Indigenous, immigrant/refugee, and women and gender-diverse survivors of colour.

About BWSS

BWSS is a charitable organization at the forefront of the national conversation about domestic sexualized violence against women. Since 1979, working from an intersectional, anti-oppression, and feminist framework that promotes equality, BWSS has been intimately involved in providing education, advocacy, training, and support services to assist all women in its aim to work towards the elimination of violence.

SOURCE Battered Women's Support Services

For further press information, media assets or to schedule interviews, please contact: Zahra Alani, Account Manager, Coldwater Communications, C: 604.787.2930, E: [email protected]