Working Towards a World Without Violence

Sexualized violence can only be prevented when the whole community commits to creating a culture of respect where everyone has the right to sexuality without violence.

Project Respect

Project Respect is the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre’s multiple award-winning gender-based violence prevention program. Founded in 1999, Project Respect supports youth to develop knowledge and skills to practice respectful relationships and enthusiastic consent (only yes means yes) and to engage in social action to end sexualized violence and create inclusive communities.

Our Approach

Critical Thinking and Root Causes. Project Respect engages youth to break the silence around sexualized violence by critically exploring its root causes, such as power and gender expectations, and drawing connections among the multiple forms this violence takes.

Youth-driven. The young people that are part of Project Respect play an important role in driving all of our work – from visioning to project delivery and evaluation.

Intergenerational. At Project Respect, we are focused on inter-generational community engagement as the key to shifting away from a culture of violence and toward a culture of consent and respect.  In our youth-led social action initiatives, we work from a youth-adult partnership model through which adult staff and community mentors work in solidarity with youth leaders to understand and respond to violence through innovative projects that engage communities.

Social Action. Our innovative strategies for mobilizing youth anti-violence activism and creating social change toward safer more inclusive communities have been recognized locally, provincially and nationally.  Examples of our youth-led activities include: blogging, street art, media production, community dialogues, guerilla theatre, social action camps, peer workshops, and youth-facilitated trainings for teachers.

Youth Team and Community Partners Jumping for Joy on site at the Community Mural they co-created

Our Current Projects

Our prevention education in schools has expanded to include youth-led social action and have a broader reach in our community!

Community-based Prevention Projects

Youth Council  Youth Council empowers youth by supporting their personal and collective visions for a future without sexualized violence, while also promoting youth-centered and consent-based practices.

Black Youth Empowerment (BYE): Project Respect, a division of the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre’s Prevention Program, and the Girls and Femmes with Afro-textured Hair (Victoria, BC), began a collaboration in September 2020. The goal was to introduce Black Youth in high school, in Victoria, to program content from Project Respect. The focus of the group was to ensure that the information that we are sharing was culturally relevant. The primary question is, “How does the content resonate with our group’s Black identities and experiences?”

The Black Youth Empowerment group recruitment and workshops are currently on pause due to lack of funding.

To learn more about Black Youth Empowerment and what we offer, follow us on Instagram (@b.y.e.victoria) or read more…

Black Youth Empowerment (BYE) Logo: The youth group elected to not have a write up about the logo. They want people to interpret it as they wish. The logo was created by Jade LaFayette, a youth.

School-based Education Programs

School-based Workshops  Project Respect offers a workshop that engages youth in exploring the root causes of gender-based violence and thinking critically about messages they receive from the media and their peers about sexuality, violence, boundaries, and consent. Read more…

Safer Spaces Training: Pro-D for Teachers and Youth Service Providers  Project Respect’s youth-adult team developed and facilitates workshops for educators, school administration and youth service providers! These workshops offer space for adults who work with youth to develop the knowledge and language to be active bystanders and create safer, gender-inclusive environments. Read more…

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