Bringing a feminist analysis to community violence against women collaborations and protocols

A couple of years ago, I was invited by a small, mostly rural community to speak at the launch of their sexual assault protocol.

This invitation came about as communities across Ontario were receiving funding to develop sexual assault, partner abuse and child abuse protocols and to develop and expand community collaborations.

While most of us working in the violence against women field shared a commitment to collaborating within our communities to improve the response to violence against women, many of us were uncomfortable with the degendering of violence against women that seemed to be an intrinsic part of these collaborations.

Some communities have been more successful than others in ensuring that the voices of survivors were brought to the table when collaborations and protocols were written. Those are the communities with strong, living collaborations and protocols that have effective accountability for all those providing services to women and children.

Unfortunately, some collaborations and protocols fill binders that sit, unopened and unused, on office shelves. In those communities, women and children are often underserved.

I used the occasion of this speaking invitation to talk about the importance of maintaining a feminist analysis in the development of community VAW collaborations and protocols.

Protocol Speech