About The Anti-Violence Project
The Anti-Violence Project is an on-campus sexual assault resource center located on the unceded and unsurrendered territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən speaking peoples and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples at the University of Victoria, where our office and support room are located in the Student Union Building B024 and B024.
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We provide support, education, and advocacy on all interconnected forms of violence with a focus on gender-based and sexualized violence. We are committed to addressing and ending gender-based and sexualized violence on campus and beyond, and support both survivors and people who have caused harm of all genders.
Our Values
We are committed to the support, prevention, and awareness of gender-based and sexualized violence through our services and programs, and value having open conversations on the roots of violence, consent, sex positivity, and more.
We centre restorative justice, intersectional feminism, and anti-oppression in our work and value fostering a culture of care and accountability. We view gender-based and sexualized violence as interconnected and inseparable from all other forms of violence, such as racism, colonialism, homoantagonism, and cissexism.
Our Programs & Services
We support those who have experienced violence and those who have caused harm through our peer support services. Our support room SUB B024 is available during office hours Mon-Thurs 10:30am-3:30pm and Friday 11am-4pm if you need a quiet private space, and support hours are held Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri 11-3pm and by appointment on Wed by emailing avppeersupport[at]uvss[dot]ca.
We offer free workshops and events open to all students, staff, faculty, and community members. Topics include consent, men’s wellness, anti-oppression, boundaries, sex positivity, supporting a survivor, reproductive justice, and more.
Hosted regularly, the men’s circle is a place for men and masculine-identified folks to get support and community, while sharing their experiences, challenges, and wins in their lives. Check our social media or the calendar on the website homepage to see upcoming circles
- We offer services to all people of all genders who have been impacted by gender-based violence, either by directly experiencing it, by causing harm to someone, or by supporting or knowing someone who has experienced it
- We promote prevention through workshops, information, resources, education, events, materials and actions
- We have a library of resources available to anyone to take out and utilize
- We do a 40-hour volunteer training program every year for anyone interested in being part of the Anti-Violence Project team
- We promote an anti-oppressive approach to anti-violence work that seeks to recognize the interconnectedness of forms of violence and the different ways that gender-based violence manifests in society, based on various systemic and institutionalized forms of violence
- We promote a sex-positive standpoint in opposition to the unhealthy and violent portrayals of sex and sexuality
- We strive to recognize and honour resistance to violence in all of its forms
- We recognize the limitations of the current system and seek to support people to navigate through and make empowered decisions about their courses of action
- We work with people who have caused harm and are seeking to make reparations, become informed and change their harmful behaviour, as part of our work towards ending violence by working with people who have committed violence
- We recognize that much of the work we strive to do has been done by many people and communities for time immemorial, and in many different ways