OCTEVAW - A Connector in Anti-Violence Activism
Before I started working on the smallest steps, I hadn’t really heard about most of the anti-violence organizations in Ottawa. But one organization I had heard of was the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women (OCTEVAW).
If you’re located in Ottawa and you’re trying to figure out where you might fit in the anti-violence movement, OCTEVAW should be the first place you start. That’s because they are connected to pretty-much everyone in the Ottawa anti-violence community.
OCTEVAW is a non-profit, non-partisan coalition of organizations and individuals working collaboratively to end gender-based violence. As a coalition, they are made up of partner members including women abuse and rape crisis agencies; victim services; child protection services; representatives of area hospitals; representatives of the justice system; health and counselling services; academic researchers; and other concerned community members (Told ya they knew everyone!).
A small but mighty team, OCTEVAW partners with their members to support a wide variety of really impactful projects. From their #JustGotWeird campaign and R.I.S.E. app tackling sexual violence among youth, to their Tech Without Violence project to help prevent cyberviolence, their projects are all about empowering the community so we all have the resources and knowledge we need to end gender-based violence.
For the smallest steps, OCTEVAW has been a wonderful partner. True to their mission to unite organizations and individuals towards ending gender-based violence, OCTEVAW has been a connector between the smallest steps and the wider anti-violence community. Through their support, we have been able to engage with several anti-violence event organizers over the past year, which has provided us with the access we needed to film at these events.
OCTEVAW’s social media feeds on Twitter and Facebook have been an incredible source of local, national, and international news and information about gender-based violence initiatives (seriously, follow them now!). And their support of our Indiegogo campaign back in April 2019 allowed us to reach a much wider network of activists than we initially had access to.
I highly recommend you check them out!
Sincerely,
Nicole Bedford
