Women at the centre of many forms of oppression

Certain groups of women, often marginalized, find themselves at the centre of more than one system of oppression. These groups, not homogenous but including many realities, including immigrant and refugee women, racialized, First Nations, living with disabilities or living in poverty, seniors, gender or sexually diverse. The CALACS takes special care to work towards inclusion, since members of such groups are often more vulnerable to sexual violence, as well as other obstacles that make it difficult to go public regarding such violence. In the case where a the person is dependent on care or financial dependence, makes a woman living with a disability or experiencing poverty more vulnerable to sexual violence or even sexual exploitation. In the same way, an immigrant who doesn’t speak either French or English, or a woman who has limited mobility will have even greater trouble seeking help.

However, even though we know that certain realities are invisible, we have noticed that these groups are not very present and involved in the service requests we receive and the places we are active. This makes it all the more important to ensure the promotion and accessibility of our organization.

Inclusive practices

For many years now, the CALACS has worked to place inclusion at the centre of its practice. Since our organization works mainly with women, the notion of inclusion starts with the acknowledgement of the diversity of their realities. For example, women living with disability, immigrants and lesbians experience particular forms of oppression. Such oppression can increase their vulnerability to sexual violence or mean that the resources they try to access are poorly adapted to their needs. We wish that every woman feels welcome to access our services and participate in our organization.

The notion of inclusion means the creation of a safe and welcoming space, there the multiple realities and experiences of oppression of women are taken into account, and not erased. Some examples of the strategies we put into practice: training staff and partners about different realities, making our offices physically accessible, using the services of an interpreter, and creating promotional and educational materials in many languages. Our outreach work with women who at the crossroads of more than one form of oppression is also indispensable.

Ensuring inclusive practices means that all of our workshops, café meetings, and trainings use examples from a variety of life experiences. Our training and promotional materials contain diverse examples of body types, ages, sexual orientation and ethno-cultural groups. We work hard to ensure that groups of women who are often marginalized are also represented on our board of directors.

In short, the CALACS makes inclusion a part of all its facets of activity, all the while constantly reflecting on its practices, since it is a process in constant evolution.