Strengthening Community Capacity to Address the 'Parallel Pandemic' of Gender-Based Violence-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Through a Survivor-Led Support Program
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Overview
The intersecting experience of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Brain Injury (BI) is lacking research, awareness, policies, and resources, despite the commonality and complexity of this intersection. WomenatthecentrE, alongside pan-Canada project partners, identified this gap in research, care, and policy. The Cross Sectoral Solutions project addresses this gap through the adaptation, piloting and evaluation of an evidence-based, trauma and violence-informed, interdisciplinary, and survivor-led pilot program for GBV survivors with suspected BI. Our presentation will retrospectively and reflectively share experiential, evidence-based, and practice-based lessons learned, best practices, and recommendations from the development and delivery of the Cross Sectoral Solutions pilot program. The objectives of the presentation are to: build cross-sectoral community capacity; provide insight for survivor-led work; build the knowledge basis for gender-based violence and brain injury; and provide insight for interdisciplinary program and research initiatives that center GBV-BI survivors.Speakers
Dr. Gifty Asare
First generation Ghanian (Kwahu Nation) immigrant born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada WomenattheCentrE Gender based violence (GBV) Activist. Gifty is a doctoral graduate of Psychology and Neuroscience at York University. She completed her masters in Psychiatry at McGill university and a Bachelors in Neuroscience at Concordia University. Her expertise is in neuroimaging and neuroclinical interventions in younger and older adults. She has previously worked as a neurofeedback and biofeedback technician aiding in the rehabilitation of TBI survivors. She was a WomenatthecentrE chapter’s co-chair supporting women-identifying survivors of GBV on University campus.da finds it to be a precious way of supporting integration and discovering tools of resilience for everyone.
Kelsey Dundas
Kelsy Dundas (she/her) is an abolitionist feminist working towards and on dreaming, collective liberation, and transformative survival for sustainable and abundant todays and tomorrows. She has a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Social Work from Dalhousie University and a Master of Social Work from York University. She is currently a Program Manager at WomenatthecentrE, leading two initiatives to respectively strengthen community capacity to address the ‘parallel pandemic’ of gender-based violence (GBV)-related brain injury (BI) through a survivor-led support program and build internal team and community capacity to support survivors of GBV.
