Submitted by the Province of Manitoba
advance of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women Dec. 6, the Manitoba government is providing new supports to help protect victims of crime, including gender-based violence, announced, Dec. 4, by Justice Minister Cliff Cullen and Sport, Culture and Heritage Minister Cathy Cox, minister responsible for the status of women.
“The Manitoba government is committed to assisting victims of crime, including gender-based violence, through provincial programming and by supporting the work of community agencies,” said Cullen. “We recognize that supporting victims of crime and addressing gender-based violence requires collaboration across government departments and with people in our communities who are impacted.”
Today, the ministers released the province’s new Framework to Address Gender-based Violence and, to help support the framework’s priorities, announced $5.6 million for agencies that provide support to victims of crime. Both announcements support the recommendations of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) National Inquiry Calls for Justice.
The framework was created by Manitoba’s Gender-Based Violence Committee of Cabinet, established in 2018 to provide a whole-of-government approach. The framework will guide the integration of services and co-ordination of policies, legislation and initiatives across government.
“The increased stress of COVID-19 has resulted in an increased likelihood of violence with intimate partners and relationships at home, and it is especially important that we take concrete action to address gender-based violence in all its forms,” said Cox. “Our framework focuses on prevention, support and intervention to ensure actions are responsive, inclusive and community-informed moving forward. We’re pleased to make a substantial investment of dedicated funding to help support the priorities and actions of the framework.”
The framework, which is rooted in research, principles and recommendations of several reports and advice from community stakeholders, aims to prevent gender-based violence by challenging the pervasiveness of abuse and addressing the underlying attitudes and norms that perpetuate it.
Government committed to taking action in the following areas over the next three years:
• addressing root causes and systemic drivers of gender-based violence;
• providing direct assistance to survivors and victims of gender-based violence to make sure they get the right help at the right time to reduce the impact of the violence and support healing; and
• intervening and supporting people who have committed gender-based violence to help end the cycle of violence.
The province is issuing a call for proposals to divide $5.6 million in available funding in the following two categories:
• Indigenous-led agencies developing projects to address violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people, a key MMIWG inquiry recommendation; and
• community-based organizations developing projects to support victims of crime including proposals for new and expanded work with victims of crime, gender-based violence, or in response to MMIWG inquiry recommendations.
The ministers noted the open call for proposals is inclusive to a wide variety of community-based organizations to ensure the greatest impact on the diverse needs of victims of crime. Projects selected will help ensure victims of crime receive a range of community-based supports, which could include culturally based, trauma-informed supports such as counselling and healing, legal information, crisis services, peer support and advocacy.
The $5.6 million comes from a reallocation of surplus funds from the Victim’s Assistance Fund. More information about the call for proposals will be communicated to eligible agencies in the coming weeks.
Manitoba’s Framework to Address Gender-based Violence is available at www.gov.mb.ca/msw, along with a What We Heard document detailing stakeholder engagement at http://engagemb.ca.
