Knowledge Hub Presents - February 18, 2025
Cross-Sectoral Solutions - Part 2
The intersecting experience of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Brain Injury (BI) is lacking research, public and survivor awareness, comprehensive policies, and supportive programming and resources, despite the commonality and complexity of this intersecting experience. WomenatthecentrE, alongside pan-Canada project partners, identified this gap in research, care and policy. Cross Sectoral Solutions, with funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada has adapted, piloted and evaluated an evidence-based, trauma-informed, interdisciplinary, and survivor led pilot program for GBV survivors with suspected BI. This presentation will showcase both the project, and highlight tools and resources that were developed as a survivor-led cross-disciplinary team, mobilizing our experiential and practice-based knowledge.
Learning objectives:
- Understand the purpose and outcome of Cross Sectoral Solutions Initiative
- Understand the development, purpose, and application of the Supporting Gender-Based Violence and Brain Injury Survivors Toolkit
- Understand the development, purpose, and application of the Responding to Disclosures of Violence Toolkit
Presenters
Kelsy Dundas is an abolitionist feminist working towards collective liberation and transformative survival for sustainable and abundant todays and tomorrows. She has a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Social Work from Dalhousie University and a Master of Social Work from York University. She is currently working towards her Project Management Certificate with the University of Toronto. She is a Program Manager at WomenatthecentrE, leading Cross Sectoral Solutions, an initiative to strengthen community capacity to address the ‘parallel pandemic’ of gender-based violence (GBV)-related brain injury (BI) through a survivor-led support program, capacity building and knowledge mobilization. Beyond this role, she has many years of leadership experience in various social justice spaces, focused on building community food security, delivering accessible programming, generating and editing socio-political social media content, and supporting community-driven and equitable development processes.
Nikki Plant. As a survivor living with a brain injury, Nikki’s commitment to exploring the intersection of TBI and GBV resonates deeply. She advocates for tailored support, awareness, and transformative change within this often-overlooked intersection through this project. Nikki believes that authentic change arises when survivors’ voices are at the centre of every endeavour, a principle that also echoes in her work on the SurvivorsatthecentrE Guidebook, where she champions the importance of fostering survivor-centred approaches within GBV organizations. Nikki believes the journey to lasting change begins with survivors at the forefront, shaping the inception and development of every program and policy.
She has completed her SSW at Sheridan College and is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Social Work at McMaster University.
Rifaa is an advocate, counselor and community researcher with extensive experience addressing gender-based violence. Her work focuses on improving outcomes for non-status, refugee and immigrant (NSRI) survivors. She served as a Peer Navigator in the Cross-Sectoral Solutions TBI-GBV Project.
Learn more about the Cross-Sectoral Solutions project.
