UVic’s Anti-Violence Project (AVP) uses a unique approach to gender-based violence that incorporates transformative education for men in addition to support for victims.
Carol Bilson has been a community educator for over twenty years and was inspired to start the AVP, an organization on campus dedicated to ending gender-based violence, through observing the lack of attention given to men as potential perpetrators of sexual violence.
From 2013 to 2016, Bilson founded and directed the AVP and set out to provide education for men based around preventing gender-based violence.
As it stands, the only legal action taken with men in terms of sexualized violence are punishing in nature, which Bilson believes is insufficient in reducing instances of gender-based violence on a societal level.
“It’s passive, because unless you are required to take programming in the jails, you could just sit there and not learn anything, not be transformed in any way, and not do any of the work required for you to become a safe person,” states Bilson.
The AVP’s strategy for approaching education catered to men is centered around unpacking problematic aspects of masculinity and how men can find self-worth from places other than fulfilling society’s expectations of masculine men.
“We need to remove this strong and deep individualistic pull that masculinity [has] and reintroduce them to a community-minded way of being,” says Bilson, “we have to think about what kind of men we want in our societies.”
When giving support to survivors of gender-based violence, the AVP uses an approach that is centered in recognition of the harm experienced by the client and the support is client-directed. From there, the AVP connects the victim with any other resources they need, such as assisting victims in finding mental health support from medical professionals.
However, working with members of society on the other end of the sexual violence spectrum requires a very different approach. Work with men on gender-based violence is much less oriented towards client-led support, but rather follows an educational discussion-based approach.
The reasoning behind these differing strategies is because male perspectives are unknowingly influenced by toxic masculinity and patriarchal narratives, and the main goal of the support given by staff is directed to deconstructing these biases and helping participants through the emotions that come up as a result of these large ideological changes.
The first men who the AVP worked with in this way were male UVic students who committed acts of gender-based violence, and each had consequentially been prescribed by the Office of Student Life to complete educational programming by the AVP.
Through the experience of working with these men, Bilson noticed that a group setting was beneficial as a source of solidarity and support for these people, which led to the creation of the UVic Men’s Circle at the AVP.
The Men’s Circle is a discussion-based community group open to all masculine-identifying people, and acts as a space for men to learn about societal structures upholding the patriarchy and challenge aspects of masculinity that are oppressive to both women and men.
“It’s this space where men and masculine-identifying folk can come and… find a community of folks who better understand some of their experiences,” says former AVP Community Organizer, Elaine Balogun. “Having these spaces for folks who are not widely encouraged to have those kind of conversations… is super important to shifting rape culture into more of a consent culture.”
Working directly with men can be challenging when dealing with the topic of gender-based violence. Resistance and defensiveness are often initial reactions from men that are completely normal and an expected part of the process for AVP support workers.
However, an important part of the process is that the men have to be willing to learn and change their ways of thinking. Without open-mindedness and willingness to both trust the process and work with the material, gender-based violence can’t be addressed on a societal level.
“Please know that the reason you’re here is because people want to be in a relationship with you,” says Bilson on what she would tell men in the circle. “I can guarantee you that if you do this work, you’ll have a better relationship with yourself.”
The AVP hopes to expand support hours for victims of sexualized violence and integrate new resources for people who have caused harm next semester, following integrate a new cohort of trained volunteers. Through addressing sexualized violence in both perpetrators and victims of harm, the AVP is working to make big changes in the future.
“It’s generational work. … There was a time where condoms were not a thing,” says Bilson, “the fact that we can now hand them out freely and no one is going to bat an eye… That shows to me that shifts in culture and value are possible, but they are long processes.”