{"id":443,"date":"2025-07-20T23:12:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T03:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rcsac.org\/?page_id=443"},"modified":"2025-07-22T14:47:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T18:47:56","slug":"we-stand-with-survivors","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/rcsac.org\/en\/we-stand-with-survivors\/","title":{"rendered":"We Stand With Survivors"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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History of the We Stand with Survivors Campaign<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Women\u2019s Sexual Assault Centre Renfrew County, received a 3-year project grant in 2017 from Status of Women Canada (SWC), to develop a rural model for female survivors of sexual violence with the focus on Renfrew County. The We Stand with Survivors (WSWS) Campaign was created as the foundational component of the 5-part model for survivors in rural communities. It was a direct result of meeting with, and listening to, survivors across Renfrew County, who clearly stated that they did not feel seen, heard or believed as survivors of sexual violence.<\/strong> <\/strong>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWe designed a street sized banner and had it professionally made, stating \u201cWe Stand with Survivors\u201d in both French and English, and included our agency logo on each side.\u00a0 Our goal was to run an annual campaign during the month of May (Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Ontario), hanging the banner in local communities across Renfrew County, as well as, asking local businesses to hang a We Stand with Survivor laminated poster in their storefront window.\u00a0 We also created a brief 3 question survey to follow up with the businesses when we picked up the banner and posters, as one way of determining the success of the campaign, and we invited local media to participate.\u00a0 We grew the campaign annually \u2013 with the same communities participating and adding a new community to the campaign each year.\u00a0 At the end of the SWC project in 2021, we had 3 communities who had committed to being part of the yearly campaign (Eganville, Pembroke & Arnprior).\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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The Women\u2019s Sexual Assault Centre Renfrew County was awarded a 2nd grant in 2021 from Women & Gender Equality Canada (WAGE)<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAs part of this WAGE project, we continued to grow the WSWS campaign and successfully added new Renfrew County communities. (Women of Steel in Chalk River, & Municipality of Petawawa).\u00a0 As part of the growth and expansion of the WSWS campaign, we also invited a rural sister agency outside of Renfrew County to join us for the first time in 2022.\u00a0 Lanark County Interval House was the first agency to come on board. In 2023, several other Ontario agencies joined the campaign.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Due to the incredible success of the WSWS campaign, we recognized the importance of continuing to grow this campaign, as the WAGE funding came to an end in March, 2024.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Women\u2019s Sexual Assault Centre Renfrew County made a commitment to find ways to continue to build on the growing momentum of this WSWS campaign. In 2024, we added 2 more Renfrew County communities (Barry\u2019s Bay & Renfrew), and were extremely pleased to grow beyond our Ontario border, with the addition of agencies in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland\/Labrador.\u00a0 That momentum continued into the 2025 WSWS Campaign with the addition of the Renfrew County Municipality of Head, Clara & Maria partnering with us, bringing our Renfrew County total to 8, as well as several other Ontario agencies.\u00a0 \u00a0We continued to grow across Canada, as agencies in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec and Prince Edward Island joined the WSWS Campaign.\u00a0 Each new agency\/community who joins the campaign, creates the banner that is specific to their community, but we do ask that the banner does display the \u201cWe Stand with Survivors\u201d wording.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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We are currently in conversation with multiple agencies across Canada who are interested in joining the 2026 We Stand with Survivors Campaign!<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Successes<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe We Stand with Survivor Campaign began as a small local awareness campaign, as one way to let local Renfrew County survivors know that, \u201cWe See them, We Hear Them, We Believe them\u201d.\u00a0 <\/strong>The first banner was hung in the community of Eganville, in 2019, on the bridge over the river, on a street that is the thoroughfare to the biggest part of Renfrew County.\u00a0 The feed back we received from both survivors and the community was heartfelt and encouraging. One survivor told us \u201cmy heart sings each day I cross the bridge and see that banner\u201d.\u00a0 When I asked one of the businesses that hung our poster, if the campaign had elicited any conversation in the workplace, I was told yes\u2026 \u201cWe knew there was a survivor\u2019s monument in the park in Eganville and none of us had ever visited it \u2013 we organized a brown bag lunch, and we all went to the monument\u201d.\u00a0 Those were powerful statements!\u00a0 Those and many other comments inspired us from the very beginning and we knew we had to keep growing.\n\nAs we grew, our plan was to invite Sexual Assault agencies from across Ontario to join the campaign, but we decided to include Women\u2019s Shelters and Women\u2019s Centres across Canada after they informed us, they too, would like to be part of the campaign, as many of the women they support are also survivors of sexual violence and they felt it was an excellent way of letting them know they support them as well.\n\nMany of the agencies are either located in rural communities, some quite isolated, or have a mandate to support parts of rural community in their catchment areas.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAs we grow across Canada, we continue to receive regular feedback from other communities, and the wealth of information that\u2019s shared is both meaningful and helpful. We share our successes, and the information is invaluable, as we learn from each other, the different ways we can grow the campaigns in our own unique communities.\u00a0 Pictou County Women\u2019s Resource Centre & Sexual Assault Centre, in Nova Scotia, were the first to add their QR code to the banner, and the results were amazing for them.\u00a0 Many of us have added our QR code now as a result of this shared information.\n\nOther agencies are now starting to grow their campaign locally, by increasing the number of communities hanging the banners for them, and others are choosing to move their banner to different communities in their catchment area each year.\u00a0 Lanark County, for example, has hung their banner in 3 different communities over 4 years.\n\nThe media in our community now reaches out to us to talk about the current years campaign, instead of us reaching out first.\n\nWe have communities contacting us, asking how they can get a We Stand with Survivors banner.\n\nWe have agencies asking if they can use the banner outside of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.\u00a0 For example, taking it to different venues, i.e. Home Shows etc.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Community\/Agency Participants<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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