Globally, response and prevention initiatives often gravitate toward response, focusing on the steps to take immediately after the incident has occurred. This pilot project, however, involves looking at sexual violence as the global public health, development, and human rights issue that it is, and beginning to think through the ways that Strait Area communities can prevent sexual violence from happening in the first place.

Our first project is a Community Resource Guide developed for all community members, which discretely incorporates resources that could be utilized in primary prevention (i.e. before violence has occurred), secondary prevention (i.e. immediately after violence has occurred), and tertiary prevention (i.e. long-term resources after violence has occurred).

In doing so, not only is the resource discrete, but it also has the capacity to reach, and plausibly assist, a much wider population. To date, a Community Resource Guide has been created for the Antigonish Area. This is the initial step of our pilot project, as we continue to meet, speak, and work with service providers from communities across the Strait Area, gathering information for Guysborough, Richmond, and Inverness’ guides.

The final guides will be posted here, and continuously updated, however, please check back regularly as a Strait Area Community Resource website will be created in the new year. Here, residents will be able to easily access the information on available services and resources presented in the guides through an independent website that connects them to needed services and information. For now, a link to our first guide, the Antigonish Town and County Community Resource List, is available here.