Rooting Resilience around the World – Women and girls with disabilities ENGAGE
Just over five years ago, DAWN Canada received funding from the Canadian Women’s Foundation to seed perhaps the most important work we have ahead of us to realize systemic change.
Girls without Barriers, is now in the second phase of development, alongside the partnership initiative we have at our Montreal Head Office, with the Canadian Centre for Rehabilitation and Work (CCRW), Youth the Future, also in its second phase. These initiatives, with these amazing partners are giving us the baseline research that is needed to begin the work, policy reform and education urgently needed to improve the situation of girls, young women and non-binary people with disabilities.
We are now in the second year of a seven-year SSHRC grant, with the Live, Work, Well Centre at the University of Guelph. Engendering Disability in Development (EDID) brings together an incredible network of partners with a focus on building our capacity and leadership. Feminist disability-led research, education and policy reform is a key objective of all the partners.
We are delighted to share today’s news of the ENGAGE Project and to be partners in this initiative, led by Dr. Thuy Nguyen, Decolonial Studies at Carleton University. “By building these collective learning networks across unique cultural and historical backgrounds, we will be centering the voices and experiences of young women and girls with disabilities in ways that foster more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable communities in the Global South.” The ENGAGE project aims to support the work of the women and girls with disabilities to engage with their immediate community’s policymakers in order to promote a more inclusive and just society.
The convergence of these initiatives on December 3, 2021, is not accident and represent a turning point. We begin the next 35 years of service, clear and focused on Rooting Resilience, Rooting Change and ultimately Rooting Justice. Please take a moment today to celebrate the more than half a billion women and girls around the world for whom today, is OUR day.
