York University Awarded the 2023 Collaborations for Change Seed Grant
Collaborations for Change is thrilled to announce York University (YorkU) as the 2023 recipient of the Collaborations for Change Seed Grant. This competitive grant is awarded to a project that demonstrates a commitment to meaningful collaboration and evaluative rigour, with the potential to improve student mental health at Canadian post-secondary institutions.
The awarded project, “A Community and Student-Centered Approach to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Intervention,” seeks to create a reintegrative program for students who have caused harm through behaviours of sexual or gender-based violence. Differing from the Partner Assault Response Program (PAR), and the Circles of Support & Accountability (COSA) initiative, this intervention will be tailored to the post-secondary campus environment to meet the unique needs of a diverse group of emerging adults. Using a holistic approach, the program will continue to provide supports for survivors, while also delivering counselling support and educational programming to individuals who have caused harm through sexual or gender-based violence.
The intervention will be designed and delivered collaboratively, ensuring the campus community and student-centered lens are incorporated. In addition to internal collaborations at YorkU, external partnerships have been established with the Office of Sexual and Gender Based Violence Support & Education at the University of Guelph, and the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office at the University of Waterloo. Funds for this project will be used to design, implement, and evaluate this unique intervention to determine its transferability to other post-secondary settings.
The Collaborations for Change Seed Grant is an initiative of the Collaborations for Change Conference, a partnership between the Best Practices Network in Higher Education and the University of Calgary’s Campus Mental Health Strategy with support from the Canadian Association of College and University Student Services (CACUSS). The Conference aims to bridge research and practice on post-secondary student mental health through engaging campus staff, clinicians, researchers, and students.