In 2011, the British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health partnered with the Girls Action Foundation, and researchers from the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health, the Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence, York University and the University of Montreal on a study of Girls’ Perspectives on Girls’ Groups and Healthy Living.
In this study, we wanted to learn about the following three areas:
As the evidence in this issue brief clearly indicates, many advances have been made to improve the status of girls in Canada, yet significant real-life challenges remain especially for girls who are marginalized. In addition to those related to gender stereotypes, self-esteem, violence, mental and physical health, education and career prospects, many girls are affected each day by systemic barriers related to poverty, rural or remote location, racialization, immigration status and the colonization of Indigenous communities.
The Native Youth Sexual Health Network (NYSHN) is in partnership with Girls Action Foundation for the Indigenous Young Women - Speaking Our Truths, Building Our Strengths national project. Led by a peer Advisory made up of 10 Indigenous young women, coordinated by NYSHN directly, this project focuses on Indigenous young women’s leadership, empowerment, solidarity-building, and ending violence. This project seeks to meet young women where they are at; emphasizing the reality that youth ideas matter and that youth are experts in their own right!
The Redefining Leadership Guide provides an in-depth look at the importance of redefining leadership to specifically support girls and young women from racialized communities in Canada.
In October of 2011, the Girls Action Foundation invited a few of us to sit together over three days to see what might emerge. Each one of us has been working towards some vision of social justice in our own communities and with others through dialogue, participatory theatre, storytelling, popular education, and direct action, amongst other strategies.
Do you want to make a difference in your community and take action in your own life? Do you want to start something fierce? With the help of activists and change-makers from across the country, we’ve put this zine together for young women who want to organize, take action, and change the world.
The second edition of Start Something Fierce includes content from both the Elle Project 2008 and the Indigenous young women’s leadership project. While the Elle Project has been in place for a few years, we now have a new project, Indigenous Young Women: Speaking Our Truths, Building Our Strengths, implemented in partnership with the Native Youth Sexual Health Network (NYSHN)1. We wanted to create a new version of this zine, incorporating fresh perspectives from the Indigenous Young Women’s Gathering that took place in Saskatoon in November 2011.
Girls Action Foundation compiled this research review in order to increase access to recent research about Canadian girls and young women who live in rural communities.
Through our work at the Native Youth Sexual Health Network across North America and during this process we have come to understand that our expressions of ideas and emotions are so much more complex and beautiful than even English allows us to show. Films, photos, spoken word, poetry, painting and storytelling - all are here and create a connected picture of Indigenous women’s leadership on this land. They speak about traditional roles before colonization began, how it continues and the creative ways we are finding to understand and implement those roles now - something we feel is absolutely central to addressing the challenges we face as Indigenous peoples.
This publication is part of a larger collaborative project called Indigenous Young Women: Speaking Our Truths, Building Our Strengths.
In this revealing report, Girls Action Foundation presents results of an exclusive national survey conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion, plus research on girls’ lives. Startling barriers and disparities exist for today’s girls, including high rates of depression, harassment in schools, and over-sexualized images of young women.
Do you want to make a difference in your community and take action in your own life? Do you want to start something fierce? With the help of activists and change-makers from across the country, we’ve put this zine together for young women who want to organize, take action, and change the world.
