End of 2020 summary
2020 presented AVP and communities near and far many challenges. We were able to navigate many of the necessary pivots to continuing our fight against gender-based and sexualized violence and our aim to promote care and consent. We wanted to take this time to quickly highlight some of the things we were able to accomplish closing out the year!
Support
In addition to shifting from in person to telephone and email support, this fall we also began offering support via video conferencing. If you or anyone that you know is interested in accessing support please call 778-400-5007 or email us at and let us know what your preferred mode of communication is.
AVP constantly strives to offer the best support possible to UVic students and the greater community. To this end, we’ve also released a survey to gather feedback from you regarding ways that we can better serve your needs. There is still time to be a part of this conversation by visiting the following link and offering your thoughts:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1NlG8nRWCSLKl_7EvvzlbnR_RGq6mdTpw13x46pLyLDA/viewform?edit_requested=true
Education
During 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we successfully shifted our Understanding Consent Culture and Supporting a Survivor workshops online using Zoom platform while still prioritizing interactivity and creating space for meaningful discussion. We even partnered with BC Campus to run a webinar that was advertised to post-secondary students across BC.
Over the Summer and Fall semesters we ran 15 workshops including a series entitled Unlearning Together, which invited other community organizations to run workshops that were offered for free. This community workshop series featured 3 workshops on topics such as gender diversity, harm reduction, substance use and consent as well as boundaries and self/community care. We will be offering another instalment of this series this spring as we had really great engagement!
The Men’s Circle @ UVic started back up with fall with biweekly online meetings that will continue next term.
Advocacy
Anti-Violence Project Education Coordinator, Paloma sat on the UVic Policy Advisory Committee this summer and fall term to advocate for students and survivors during the review of the UVic Sexualized Violence Prevention and Response Policy. In addition to our advocacy on the committee, we held a conversation café at the start of October to collect feedback from current and former UVic students on the policy. The new policy will be ratified in the new year!
A glimpse ahead
AVP is committed to supporting and expanding our communities. We will be hiring in the new year for several positions including the Volunteer and Outreach Officer and the Community Coordinator! Also, our student position offered through the UVic Work Study program continues to be open. If you would like to join our team, stay tuned for updates!
As our Open Houses planned for this month was canceled due to low registration numbers we will be rescheduling this event in the new year. This will be an opportunity for folks in the community to learn more about our programs and services but also to share how we can improve! If you are interested in learning more please contact us at
