Staff
trish pal, Support Coordinator
trish pal is a 2spirit (queer and genderqueer) Red River Metis person who spent a significant amount of their life on Cree and Blackfoot territory. They have been an uninvited visitor to Lkwungen, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ territories since the fall of 2008 when they came to work on their BSW, Indigenous Specialization. trish’s work is grounded in harm reduction and social justice through a decolonizing lens. When not at AVP, this prairie kid can be found seeking out sunbeams, organizing in the community, working at AVI, and cuddling their handsome catboyfriend Joseph the Brave.
captain snowdon, Outreach Coordinator
captain is super excited to have joined AVP as the Outreach Coordinator. captain lives uninvited on the territory of the Lekwungen and WSÁNEĆ peoples. Their background is in social justice, outreach, counselling, harm reduction, somatic sex education and sidewalk poetry. captain has an undergrad in women’s studies & sociology and a masters and doctorate in human sexuality. Currently, captain uses the pronoun they/them, identifies as a genderqueer- queer radical faery- faggot witch and is in love with the ocean. captain’s newest love is a poo-triever (golden doodle) named Bruce.
meg neufeld, Education Coordinator
meg has an honours science degree in geography, from UVic. They’ve lived and worked on Lkwungen and WSÁNEĆ territories since 2010 and love it here. meg has provided support services to survivors of violence for five years. Their work designing and facilitating curricula for AVP has been a really important contribution to the anti violence work that this office does. They are in love with learning, confused with gender, and so stoked to be a part of the amazing AVP team.
Paloma Ponti, Volunteer Lead
Born and raised on the territory of the Lekwungen and WSÁNEĆ peoples, Paloma Ponti is a cisgender settler woman. As a white presenting person of “mixed-race”, Paloma often struggles to locate herself while both acknowledging her Colombian roots and her own white privilege, and is consistently deepening her learning about this. Paloma began working on sexualized violence prevention at age 15 as a member of Project Respect’s Youth Social Action Team and Hollaback! Victoria, BC. She continues to expand her understanding of systems of oppression as a UVic Gender Studies and Social Justice Studies student and now in her work at AVP. She is constantly inspired by the strong feminists in her life including her rad grandmother who taught the first Women’s Studies course at UVic in the 1970s. When not swamped by work and school, Paloma loves weaving, knitting and attempting to play the ukulele.
Kenya Rogers, Sexualized Violence Policy Advisor
Kenya has been an uninvited trespasser on the territories of the Lekwungen and WSÁNEĆ peoples for over 3 years, but grew up on the territories of the Okanagan Nation. She is a political science student and got involved with the Anti Violence Project through the Let’s Get Consensual Campaign. AVP has revolutionized her understandings of sexualized violence and her own identity as a survivor. Kenya has worked on the Let’s Get Consensual Campaign over the last three years, and assisted in the provincial legislation of Bill 23: Sexual Violence and Misconduct Act. Through AVP Kenya continues to expand her lens and has found great strength in the community there. She aims to ground her work in anti-colonial and anti-oppressive frameworks, and hopes to bring these frameworks to institutional policy and decision making, as well as her community. In her spare time Kenya can be found whipping up Americano’s at the Munchie bar, watching films, organizing, and smashing the patriarchy.
Volunteers
Quin Djurickovic, Facilitator & Writer
Quin is a violence prevention worker at Peers Victoria and has been doing community organizing for seven years. They have a Bachelor of Physical Health & Education from Queen’s University and have been volunteering with AVP since the fall of 2016. Quin is into sunny days, jean vests, herbal tea, and heart to heart conversations.