Ending the Silence: Responsive Community Support and Resources for Gender Based Violence

On Friday, February 5, 2021 the Newcomer Student Association (NSA) in collaboration with the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) under the 2020-2021 Immigrant and Refugee Communities Neighbours, Friends and Families (IRCNFF) Campaign hosted the second session of its 3-part webinar series, Ending the Silence. The focus of this session was on Responsive Community Support and Resources for Gender-Based Violence. The session was moderated by Dr. Alka Kumar—Manager of Research and Policy at NSA. The three panelists included two NSA team members—Dr. Rahbari-Jawoko (Ryerson University Professor and Manager, Strategic Initiatives at NSA) and Jaspreet Kaur—(NSA Manager, Programs and Events, Newcomer Resilience Award recipient and research contributor to Domestic Violence in Immigrant Communities: Case Studies project) as well as Sidrah Ahmed-Chan, a public educator, researcher and writer with expertise in survivors of Islamophobic violence. The panelists drew from their professional and practice expertise and respectively commenced their presentations with discussion of the various ways intimate partner violence (IPV) generally manifests in a relationship and called attention to what is needed to mitigate challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and existing community capacity building tools and resources.