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I sort of fell into this work, as many of us do, and what keeps me in it is the brilliance of those that I work with. The willingness of others to be vulnerable with me, to be brave enough to ask for help and to challenge themselves will never cease to amaze me. I also love how many avenues exist for prevention and response work – education, accountability and community engagement, to name a few, can be such meaningful facets of this work!

I get to do many different things in my role, but primarily, I support survivors directly through counselling and case management, do gender-based violence education and programming in the broader Laurier community, and sometimes I even get to design the sweet stickers, taco stress balls and other funky merchandise you see around campus!

Self and community care are amongst the most important things to create sustainability in gender-justice work! I like to keep a full toolbox of ways I care for myself, but some highlights include holding firm boundaries around work hours, engaging in community organizing and solidarity movements, embracing moments of lightness with my loved ones, petting cats, saying no to things, and making lots and lots of art.

The hope of establishing compassionate mindfulness connections in supporting anti-oppression-focused approaches that blend accountability with the intention of healing disempowered communities.

Providing individual trauma-informed counselling and advocacy as well as support resources creation, group facilitation, and outreach initiatives. Currently, I am working on creating three separate psycho educational tools on the following three topics in relation to sexual violence: Ambiguous Loss, Cultural Betrayal Trauma, and Despair.

Learning and sustaining the practice of self-compassion because it gives me the strength to care for others. When I feel connected to my essential humanity, it’s easier to relate to self and others with appreciation and kindness.

I feel like this work found me. As a young advocate, I often felt disempowered within many systems. Navigating that experience showed me the importance of accessible, kind support when facing these systems. I approach this work with humility and gratitude every day. I see most of the world's problems as systems built for certain people, functioning exactly as they were designed to. Gender-based violence and harm are no exceptions to this. I'm passionate about helping to highlight these inequities and offering support to those affected by them. 

In my role, I support survivors through counselling, system navigation, and advocacy, focusing on the Brantford area. I also provide gender-based violence education and programming at Laurier. I can support students with academic support and work on building community connections to strengthen our collective resources.

For me, self-care means creating the time and space to truly rest. It can look like wandering through thrift stores or simply spending quality time with loved ones. Self-care for me can be listening to podcasts or having long conversations on the phone. Community care is about showing up for those I care about and meeting them where they're at. I'm a good listener, and I find fulfillment in offering an ear and being a supportive presence in their lives. Self-care and community care are deeply interconnected for me - I can't have one without the other. 

Community keeps community safe, not government entities. Knowing many folx who have been impacted by gender-based harms of all kinds, I believe there needs to be a shift from only responding to and supporting those impacted by harm, but supporting those who have or may cause harm to break the cycle. In my work as a counselor, I often have clients share their experience surviving harm, causing harm, or both. The stigma and shame associated with these experiences often leaves those impacted feeling alone and isolated and I consider it an honour to be trusted to walk along side folx on their journeys of healing and/or accountability. 

In my role I primarily support those who have caused harm through accountability coaching. I speak to classes about gender-based violence, sexual harassment, and other topics related to community safety. I am also collaborating with friends and colleagues at Laurier and beyond on creating and facilitating support groups for male identified folx. 

Mariame Kaba says "[H]ope is a discipline..." that is one of my favourite quotes and reminds me that good things cannot be left to chance but require deliberate efforts. When things seem overwhelming (which could be daily) those words are reminder not only of the work to be done but the progress that continues to be achieved. It is a reminder to get out of my head and seek out beauty, joy, rest, and imagination.

I believe that curating a consent culture is a vital part of resisting all systems of oppression. This work is incredibly important for us to build more a pleasurable, consensual, and caring world.

Currently, my main focuses include writing the weekly Healing Justice Newsletter, social media content curation and supporting workshop facilitation/administrative work.

Spending time in nature, making space for creativity in community and creating intentional time for rest.