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Advocacy
Contact email: gemcentre@uvss.ca
The Gender Empowerment Centre is a collectively run drop-in centre open to all self-identified women, non-binary, and gender non-conforming students and community members. The GEM Centre provides a space to organize, network, access resources, study, and relax. The GEM Centre is committed to anti-oppressive education and activism and provides workshops and events on topics from sexual health to harm reduction. The Centre houses a resource ilbrary for public use and provides free menstrual, safer sex, and harm reduction supplies, as well as free pregnancy tests and access to emergency contraceptives.
Contact email: socc@uvss.ca
The UVic Students of Colour Collective is a group of self identified students of colour operating as an advocacy group out of the University of Victoria. We attempt to defy the mainstream and act from the margins placing issues of race, gender, and colonization into an anti-racist framework which builds our work, action, and political endeavours.
UVic Pride Collective
Contact on Instagram: @pridecollective
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/pridecollective
UVic Pride Collective advocates for 2SLGBTQIA+ folks at UVic and in the broader community. Visit our lounge in the SUB to learn more, and browse our queer lending library! In collaboration with GEM, Pride Collective hosts volunteer-run Community Circles to support a wide array of student and community demographics (including 2SLGBTQIA+, gender-diverse, BIPOC, and disabled students). Facilitators are student volunteers who self-identify with their circle and undergo training to best uphold the Community Circles and Safer Spaces policies.
Pride Collective also runs a chest binder program as part of their gender-affirming programming. A selection of chest binders are free to take for any community member who cannot obtain one safely, cannot afford one, or otherwise needs/wants one. Binders are kept in the Collective’s gender-neutral washroom. Size guides, measuring taps, mirror, and other care and safety instructions are provided.
Contact email: uvicssd@uvic.ca
The Society for Students with a Disability is the recognized representative advocacy group for UVic students who self-identify as having one or more disabilities. We offer various services and resources for all students and alumni with disabilities. We are here to create a safer space to build a healthy support network for all students with disabilities on the UVic campus, raise awareness and education opportunities about the challenges that students with disabilities face, and make recommendations to the University of Victoria community about how to remove these barriers.
We also offer adaptive technology usage and training opportunities, advocacy assistance on and off campus for all disability-related issues, and disability-related events on-campus. We are also here to prevent, expose and eliminate institutional discrimination on the UVic campus. We advocate for the full and equitable participation of all students with disabilities in all aspects of the University of Victoria community.
Anti-Violence Project
Contact email: info@antiviolenceproject.org
UVic Anti-Violence Project strives to provide anti-oppressive and sex-positive services, support, educational workshops, advocacy, and action on- and off-campus to people of all genders in order to address and resist gender-based and all forms of violence. AVP offers regular Understanding Consent Culture workshops, Supporting a Survivor workshops, and Men’s Circles, which aim to challenge gender-based violence and dominant constructions of masculinity.
AVP is here to help you find support. Asking for help is one of the hardest things to do. When you are asking for help about an issue that might feel really private, confusion and/or embarrassing, it is important to get support that is non-judgmental, without pressure, and informed. The AVP regularly runs support hours, and can refer you to any necessary emergency info and crisis resources.
Native Student Union
Contact email: coordinator@uvicnsu.ca
The Native Students’ Union is an organization run for and by Indigenous students at UVic. Since circa 1969, Indigenous students have been coming together to form community, support each other, advocate for Indigenous rights and wellbeing, and just exist together at the institution. The NSU runs events and programs, manages a student space with services, and advocates for Indigenous student success and wellness at UVic. The NSU Council leads the NSU in running and developing these services. Our website outlines the programs we run, upcoming events, and includes resources and supports for new Indigenous students, as well as a resource and learning list for settlers.
Harm Reduction Centre
Contact email: wellnesspromotion@uvic.ca
The UVic Harm Reduction Centre (HRC) provides students with harm reduction education, plus safer substance use and safer sex supplies. Our aim is to make it as easy as possible for students to access harm reduction supplies and educational materials on campus. Free supplies available at the HRC include those for safer injection, drug injection prep, safer snorting, safer smoking, external and internal condoms, lubricant, syringes, rubber gloves, sharps containers, Fentanyl testing strips, and Naloxone kits. Free Naloxone kits are also available in the Campus Pharmacy and at the Wellness Centre. We offer anonymous supply pick-up on our website.