What is Project Willow?
Project Willow works towards systems change on gender-based violence based on two experiences:
- The experience of gender-based violence among women (cis, trans, two-spirit and non-binary folks) who are experiencing homelessness and using emergency services.
- The experience of homelessness due to gender-based violence experienced among immigrant women (cis, trans, two-spirit and non-binary folks).
This project advocates for opportunities for systems change that enhances safety for these folks. It also explores ways of using non-punitive measures to achieve justice and healing. Because it is rooted in and guided by the voices of those with living experience, it includes activities like social research, listening sessions, design and change labs, and knowledge sharing activities. Finally, the project includes development of a five-year community safety and restorative justice plan focused on long-term change, set to launch in 2024.
Lead Agencies
This project is being led by three organizations local to Waterloo Region working to reduce gender-based violence and housing insecurity.
Community Justice Initiatives
CJI is a leader in restorative and transformative justice. They envision connected, peaceful communities where all conflict is resolved in a restorative way.
YW Kitchener-Waterloo
YW Kitchener-Waterloo is a leader in providing shelter and housing for women in Waterloo Region. They are dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by supporting physical and mental wellbeing, economic choice, and independence.
Coalition of Muslim Women
Coalition of Muslim Women in Kitchener-Waterloo is a leader in supporting immigrant women in the community who have experienced gender-based violence. They work towards a just, harmonious, and equitable community.
Guiding Agencies
Our steering committee includes representatives from the following organizations and initiatives. They include researchers, academics, non-profit leaders, administrators and care staff. Many of those on this committee are advocates on the issue of gender-based violence. And they reflect on shared lived and living experiences of gender-based violence, the punitive justice system, and the housing crisis.
Current + Upcoming Events and Activities
Part of working towards systemic change in Waterloo Region is inviting community involvement through current and upcoming events and activities. Then we work on the development of a five-year community safety and justice plan centred on the priorities and needs of women experiencing homelessness.
Activities
Research: Phase 2
Our second phase of research explores the experiences of racialized Muslim women in domestic violence situations, related to housing and temporary homelessness in Ontario. Then, we look at experiences of and barriers to shelter use, and the use and experience of alternative arrangements for housing and informal support networks. This research is being led by Coalition of Muslim Women Kitchener- Waterloo. Set to complete in the Spring of 2023.
Network of Neighbours
These workshops will focus on how you can help create safer public spaces and streets for women experiencing homelessness in Ontario. This workshop is rooted in Project Willow’s research, designed to engage the public who want to help reduce the harm of gender-based violence. Learn more about the training
Design & Change Labs
These labs give an opportunity for diverse perspectives to come together and tackle community issues. Because these issues are usually complex, require systems change, or might be in need of creative solutions or innovation. So we’re creating a safe place for diverse perspectives to come together and build pathways towards solutions and change. The labs for this project will be rooted in the voices of those with lived experiences and the suggestions for change they have put forward through our research. These are our way of coming together as a community to create high-impact change in the immediate future. Additionally, these help inform our five-year community safety and justice plan for ongoing work. Set to begin in 2023.
Listening Sessions
Listening sessions are a forum to invite your knowledge, curiosity and passion to be incorporated into this project. Join a 2-hour structured opportunity to listen and share with the Project Willow team your hopes, needs and concerns for this project. Then share what contributions you can make toward ending gender-based violence for women in our community facing housing insecurity. We recognize that within this community, there exists a wealth of firsthand, grassroots and professional knowledge of this issue, and a desire to participate in addressing it. All voices who come with the spirit of making our community safer for women are welcome. Completed in the fall of 2022.
Upcoming Events
Looking to get involved in Project Willow? Are you interested in being part of creating positive change for women experiencing housing vulnerability and/or homelessness? May we recommend attending one of our upcoming events?
Project Willow Network of Neighbours Training Sessions
This special Network of Neighbours training will focus on how you can play a role in supporting women, trans*, two-spirit and non-binary folks who are experiencing homelessness to enhance their safety and minimize gender-based violence experienced in public spaces.
If you have accessibility needs and wish to register via email please contact info@thefeministshift.ca.
Reports & Knowledge on Homelessness and Gender-Based Violence
Throughout the course of this project our research team, placement students, and support staff will be completing works of knowledge which then help inform our change making process. This work chronicles and explores highlighted topics as identified by women experiencing homelessness and those supporting them. All knowledge is open to members of the community. So, should you need any accommodations to engage in our knowledge work please contact us.
Research Report
“Don’t Tell Them You’re Homeless”: Experiences of gender-based violence among women experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region
This research report reviews the layered experiences of gender-based violence encountered among women, trans, two-spirited and non-binary individuals who have experienced homelessness within the past three years. It shares recommendations for enhancement to the emergency services and justice systems in Waterloo Region.
Literature Review(s)
Women Experiencing Homelessness: Layers of Violence
Explore the topics of gender and violence, such as: factors impacting the risk of violence, substance use, motherhood, structural violence, enculturation, and more. This review demonstrates the layers of violence and barriers to safety that women who are homeless experience both from individual perpetrators as well as from the re-victimization from accessing systems. Further, it acknowledges the work that communities can do to address these layers of violence.
Homelessness and the Masculinization of Spaces
Explored here are themes of women’s perceptions and use of public spaces, homelessness, homeless-specific service use and strategies used for navigating a masculine domain. This review describes how homeless and gender diverse women can find themselves in “a cycle of perpetual vulnerability.”
Restorative Justice and Gender-Based Violence
Learn how we could move away from a reliance on the criminal legal system, how restorative justice supports the safety, and the healing and justice needs of women impacted by gender-based violence. Then explore recommendations for a best practice.
Marginalized Women’s Experiences of Gender-based Violence and Homelessness
Explored here are themes of the experiences of gender-based violence within the Muslim, racialized and immigrant community, the impacts of immigration policies on gender-based violence, the vulnerabilities to violence faced by racialized women and their experiences of homelessness and the different shelter systems. This review illustrates how the cultural and systemic barriers to safety and justice that marginalized women experience, result in this form of ‘hidden homelessness’, impacting their ability to find access to safety and justice.
Presentations
Findings from Project Willow Listening Sessions
This video reviews themes and input from four listening sessions completed by Community Justice Initiatives Waterloo Region. These sessions explored the role restorative justice could play in safety, healing and justice for women and gender-diverse folks experiencing homelessness and gender-based violence and is part of Project Willow, a collaborative social and systems change project addressing the intersections of gender-based violence and housing vulnerability and homelessness.
Live Recording of Research Findings
This is a live recording of the research findings of the Project Willow research report titled: “Don’t tell them you’re homeless”: Experiences of gender-based violence among women experiencing homelessness in Waterloo Region.
Contact Information
Please feel free to get in touch with members of our project team to explore opportunities to get involved, ask questions, make suggestions, and/or for opportunities to collaborate.
Jennifer Gordon
Director of Advocacy
YW Kitchener-Waterloo
jennifer.gordon@ywkw.ca
Kate Crozier
Director of Programs
Community Justice Initiatives
katec@cjiwr.com
Racheal Walser
Advocacy Coordinator
YW Kitchener-Waterloo
racheal.walser@ywkw.ca
Sarah Shafiq
Project Willow Lead
Coalition of Muslim Women
sarah.shafiq@cmw-kw.org
Funding provided by Women and Gender Equality Canada
Women and Gender Equality Canada works to advance equality with respect to sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression through the inclusion of people of all genders, including women, in Canada’s economic, social, and political life. This funding was provided through the gender-based violence program funding stream.
