OUR HISTORY
Women who were looking for services and working for societal change founded the Antigonish Women’s Resource Centre & Sexual Assault Services Association in 1983. Our organization remains woman-positive, appreciating the multi-issued and complex lives of women, girls, Two-Spirit, trans and non-binary people, whose diverse experiences provide lessons in resilience and in resistance.
A Timeline of AWRCSASA Highlights
...the 1980s
1985 – 1986
Helped organize the Rural Women Together Conference at St. Francis Xavier
1986 – 1987
Organized the first annual Coady International Institute’s Women’s Picnic
1987 – 1988
Collaborated with the Naomi Society to establish the Antigonish and Area Interagency Committee on Family Violence
1989 – 1990
Organized Antigonish’s first Take Back the Night March
...the 1990s
1990 – 1991
Established the Adolescent Health Project. Produced A Community-Based Needs Assessment on Adolescent Health in Antigonish
1990 – 1991
Created the Single Moms’ Support Group
1991 – 1992
Completed community-based research on Affordable Housing. Produced No Place for Home
1991 – 1992
Offered the Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Therapy Group
1991 – 1992
Provided community workshops on developing workplace sexual harassment policies
1992 – 1993
Organized and co-sponsored Poverty Awareness Day
1992 – 1993
Organized the Society for Affordable Community Housing in Antigonish
1993 – 1994
Provided numerous presentations on sexualized violence
1994 – 1995
Initiated the Women and Community Economic Development Project
1994 – 1995
Completed community-based research on sexual violence response through the two-year Sexual Assault Project. Produced Beginning with Us: A Community Response to Sexual Assault and Sexual Abuse in Antigonish and Working together to Address Sexual Violence in Antigonish: A Community Model
1994 – 1995
Established the Antigonish Sexual Assault Crisis Line
1995 – 1996
Established the People Assessing Their Health Project, which worked with the communities of St. Anns, Whitney Pier, and Guysborough County to create community health impact assessment tools
1995 – 1996
Co-organized the Groundwork: Women in Community Development Conference
1996 – 1997
Brought community together to establish a Youth Centre following the Adolescent Health Project
1996 – 1997
Produced Cooking Over Time: A Collection of Recipes and Stories of Women from Antigonish Town and County
1997 – 1998
Sponsored the Naming Our Reality: Women and Economic Change Project
1997 – 1998
Developed the Teens Take Action Program, which worked with senior high school students to deliver a dating violence awareness workshop to grade 9 students
1997 – 1998
Offered the Income Tax Preparation Program for low-income women and their families
1998 – 1999
Produced A Community Response to Women’s Poverty Report
1998 – 1999
Established two groups for young women: Exploring Our Lives and Young Women: Lives on the Line
1999 – 2000
Offered two programs for women’s employment: Re-Entry Readiness Program for African Canadian Women on Social Assistance and Enhancing Women’s Employability: Re-Entry Program for Women on Social Assistance
1999 – 2000
Participated as a research site in the Links Project, a national project coordinated by the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres
...the 2000s
2000 – 2001
Initiated the When Bullying Becomes Sexual Harassment Project, a peer sexual harassment awareness project. Produced resources for educators
2000 – 2001
Established the Youth Social Justice Group
2000 – 2001
Developed and offered the On the Road to Employment Program, a workplace re-entry program for women
2000 – 2001
Helped organize and participated in weekly World March of Women 2000 Events from International Women’s Day (March 8) to the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (October 17)
2001 – 2002
Partnered with the Pictou County Women’s Centre and Every Women’s Centre on the Social Assistance Reform in Nova Scotia: Is It Working for Women? Project
2001 – 2002
Established the Rural Youth Healthy Relationships Education Project, which provided a 12-session healthy relationships program for students in grades 7, 8, 9, and 11. The program was the foundation for our Healthy Relationships for Youth Program
2001 – 2002
Created the Inspire Program for grade 8 girls
2001 – 2002
Offered Antigonish’s first Women’s Free Store
2002 – 2003
Initiated the Ways and Means: Antigonish Women Seek Strategies to Address Affordable Housing Need Project
2002 – 2003
Completed the Assessing Youth Homelessness in Antigonish, a participatory action research project
2003 – 2004
Partnered with the Pictou County Women’s Centre and Every Women’s Centre on the Follow-up to Social Assistance Reform: Making It Work for Women! Project
2004 – 2005
Partnered with the Pictou County Women’s Centre and Every Women’s Centre on the Social Assistance Reform in Nova Scotia: Moving Forward a Woman Positive Public Policy Agenda Project. Produced two reports Struggling to Survive and Survival Strategies drawn from policy reform recommendations from women on employment support and income assistance in Nova Scotia
2005 – 2006
Established a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program
2005 – 2006
Led the creation of the Antigonish Sexual Assault Response Team
2005 – 2006
Partnered with the Guysborough Antigonish Strait Health Authority and a local physician to open the Lindsay’s Women’s Health Centre
2005 – 2006
Partnered with St. Francis Xavier University’s Human Rights and Equity Office on the LGBT Community Safety Initiative, which worked with university and community organizations to hold Positive Space, and allyship training
2005 – 2006
Began the Overcoming Resistance Project, a women’s support project
2006 – 2007
Established rural outreach services through the Justice Matters for Women: Rural Outreach in Guysborough and Antigonish Counties Program
2006 – 2007
Established the Healthy Relationships for Youth Program, a 12-session, skills-based, youth facilitated, violence prevention program for grade 9 students
2006 – 2007
Held the Feminist Activism in Conservative Times Conference
2007 – 2008
Completed the Face to Face: Building Intersectoral Collaboration to Improve Policy Responses to Single Mothers’ Education and Training Needs Project
2007 – 2008
Brought community together under the Housing Initiative for Youth in Antigonish Project to look for supportive youth housing
2008 – 2009
Partnered with the Pictou County Women’s Centre and Every Woman’s Centre on the Violence against Women and Girls: A Rural Response Project
2008 – 2009
Partnered with St. Francis Xavier University and the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women to organize the Hypersexualization of Girls and Women: Deepening Our Analysis and Understanding Conference
2008 – 2009
Hosted the Heat Poverty Awareness Event for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (October 17). Brought community together to create the Antigonish Emergency Fuel Fund
2009 – 2010
Organized the Girl Talk: Responding to Violence against Women and Girls Provincial Forum
...the 2010s
2010 – 2011
Collaborated with the Sisters of St. Martha’s Social Justice Committee to create the Antigonish Poverty Reduction Coalition
2011 – 2012
Implemented the two-year Resisting Violence: Rural Women and Girls Take Action Project
2011 – 2012
Organized the Making the Connection: Hypersexualization and Violence against Women and Girls Workshop
2011 – 2012
Developed the Healthy Transitions Resource on sexual violence prevention and healthy relationships for grade 11 and 12 students transitioning out of high school
2011 – 2012
Started the Money Matters: a Financial Literacy Program. Produced easy-to-use financial information resources
2011 – 2012
Worked with the Antigonish Poverty Reduction Coalition to develop a five-year Action Plan for Poverty Reduction in Antigonish
2011 – 2012
Acted as a home and sponsoring organization for the Antigonish Affordable Housing Initiative
2012 – 2013
Produced the My Community Wants to End Violence against Women Video under the Resisting Violence Project
2012 – 2013
Partnered with St. Francis Xavier University on the two-year project, Engaging Young People to Prevent Violence against Women. Student teams conducted campus safety audits, focus groups, and a campus wide survey on gender-based violence and sexual violence producing recommendation reports
2013 – 2014
Collaborated with the Antigonish Community Transit Society to conduct a feasibility study, create a business plan, and pilot a project to address community transportation needs
2013 – 2014
Organized programming for International Women’s Day and Week that would be repeated in following years, with a keynote, march, breakfast, and a feminist show
2013 – 2014
Expanded the Healthy Relationships for Youth Program from the 10 schools in the Strait Regional School Board to 10 additional schools across the province
2013 – 2014
Partnered with Students Nova Scotia to introduce the province’s first bystander intervention program, Bringing in the Bystander, to train campus and community members, under the Engaging Young People to Prevent Violence against Women Project
2013 – 2014
Initiated the Feminist Therapy Program. The program was the foundation for our Specialized Sexual Violence Trauma Therapy Program
2014 – 2015
Partnered with Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation on the two-year project, Responding to and Preventing Sexual Violence, which focused on culturally relevant, revitalizing, and safe approaches to addressing sexual violence. Adult and youth community members provided recommendations in focus groups, shared skills and knowledge in educational support sessions, and participated in healing activities, such as circles and art workshops
2014 – 2015
Developed the Newcomer Support Program, providing support for newcomers and immigrant women in our region
2015 – 2016
Created the Mi’kmaw Community Engagement Toolkit on Sexual Violence, a workbook to address sexual violence for Mi’kmaq communities and community members drawn from the many learnings of the Responding to and Preventing Sexual Violence Project in Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation
2017 – 2018
Partnered with Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation, St. Francis Xavier University, and the Strait Regional School Board for the three-year Advancing Women’s Equality: Partnering to Transform the Context and End Sexualized Violence Project. The cross-community collaboration informed deep and broad thinking about the issues of sexualized violence and change work in rural communities. Three forums were held for community members and stakeholders
2017 – 2018
Local women leaders Annie Chau, Nancy Forestell, and Molly Peters participated in the three-year Gender Equality Network Canada to inform the development of a National Action Plan on gender equality
2017 – 2018
Began development of the Waves of Change Program, a made-in-Nova Scotia, peer facilitated bystander intervention program for post secondary institutions
2017 – 2018
Led the No More Campaign in response to #MeToo for the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, which engaged local leaders to pledge actions against violence against women through social media
2017 – 2018
Executive Director Lucille Harper attended the 62nd annual Commission on the Status of Women: Empowering Rural Women and Girls (CSW62(2018)) at the United Nations
2017 – 2018
Healthy Relationships for Youth – Strait Regional School Board Coordinator Erin Wynn selected to represent Central Nova in the Daughters of the Vote Initiative
2017 – 2018
Conducted a campus wide climate survey at St. Francis Xavier University on sexualized violence under the Advancing Women’s Equality Project
2018 – 2019
Welcomed Wyanne Sandler as the incoming Executive Director and celebrated Lucille Harper’s years of social justice work as the outgoing Executive Director
2018 – 2019
Expanded the Healthy Relationships for Youth Program and translated the program to French to include schools in the Conseil Scolaire Acadien Provincial
2018 – 2019
Executive Director Wyanne Sandler and former Executive Director Lucille Harper were selected to the Minister’s Advisory Council on Gender-Based Violence for the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development
2018 – 2019
Collaborated with the Strait Regional Centre for Education on a capacity-building consent education program for youth from grade 7 to 12 students under the Advancing Women’s Equality Project
2019 – 2020
Began the Circles of Support and Change: Transferring Successful Rural Indigenous Practices to Other Rural Contexts Project drawn from the Responding to and Preventing Sexual Violence Project in Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation
...the 2020s
2020 – 2021
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, changed how we work to follow public health guidelines
Held the first virtual vigil for the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women (December 6)
2021 – 2022
Project Coordinator Karla Stevens elected to represent Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation as part of the Nova Scotia Native Women’s Association
Annual Collages
Visual overviews of events, accomplishments, and news relating to AWCSAS for each year since inception.
