The HerStory digital archive contains years of photos, articles, and reports from the Antigonish Women’s Resource Centre and Sexual Assault Services (AWRCSASA). This archive highlights the decades of hard work, activism, and community-building that have shaped a vibrant local feminist movement. Explore the stories of grassroots organizers, uncover the herstory behind key projects and programs, and learn about the advocacy efforts that have supported women, girls, and gender-diverse people in Antigonish and beyond.
Preserving and sharing this herstory in a digital archive ensures that the knowledge, passion, and resilience of this community remain accessible and inspire future generations of feminist organizing.
Since it’s conception, the AWRCSASA have worked tirelessly to support victims of sexual assault and violence and raise awareness in community. Through collaborations with partners in our broader community, such as St. Francis Xavier University and Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation, we’ve helped develop programs and projects to respond to the needs of our community. A major component of this work is sexual violence prevention and bystander intervention, which we encourage through the peer facilitated Waves of Change program in Nova Scotian post-secondary institutions.
The young people of our community are strong leaders and the future of this advocacy work. Through Healthy Relationships for Youth and many other programs and projects over the years, we strive to empower young minds to assert their agency and become champions of feminist advocacy. Whether the programs are run by us grown-ups or steered by phenomenal peer mentors, working with the youth of our community is a privilege that we do not take for granted. To explore these various programs and projects, check out the documents below to uncover the herstory of our work with youth.
Poverty, and poverty reduction work, is a feminist issue. Women are disproportionately affected by poverty due to systemic inequalities in wages, caregiving responsibilities, and access to resources. From housing support to social assistance advocacy, the AWRCSASA has been supporting poverty reduction work in our community and planted the seeds for further community organizing. Women’s fiscal and economic empowerment is tied to their liberation, making this poverty reduction work an important pillar of our feminist advocacy and support.
Supporting women and our broader community would not be possible without also supporting the health of our community. Building a healthier community and addressing health issues from a feminist perspective is imperative to give people the tools they need to be the change they want to see in the world. Be it though community groups or our very own Lindsay’s Health Centre for Women, we know that working towards a healthier community means working towards the social change that we strive for.
Connecting with each other and our community partners lays the foundation for all the work that we do. In coming together, we’ve built a community based on positivity, inclusivity, and support for one another. The following documents highlight the many ways in which we come together to address issues within and beyond our community.
The advocacy work that we do would not be where it is today without resilience, adaptability, and perseverance. Through funding cuts, community pushback, and other hurdles that we’ve jumped, we’ve kept on going. Good work speaks for itself, and we continue to do this good work while rolling with the punches. The stories of the AWRCSASA’s perseverance are a testament to our commitment to feminist advocacy, always.
The AWRCSASA officially opened in 1983, but our roots were planted years earlier. In 1975, during International Women’s Year, a group called Women in Transition began raising awareness of women’s issues and building a network of support in Antigonish. This budding feminist movement emerged alongside the rapid modernization reshaping rural communities. From those early seeds grew a network of women committed to creating services and sparking change. To understand the herstory of AWRCSASA, explore the ground from which it grew in the documents below.
To commemorate all the good work being done through the AWRCSASA, we publish annual reports highlighting the various projects, programs, and partnerships that we engage in throughout the year. These snapshots in time provide a useful overview of our work over the years and remind us of how far we’ve come as an organization.
Communication with our members and the community at large has always been a key part of our work. Through newsletters, AWAre articles, calendars of events and more, we like to keep you posted about the change we’re working on and the changes happening around the world. To hear the news through the voices of women, explore the documents below to follow the extensive publications that we’ve put out over the years.
Our timeline posters serve as a creative and visual representation of each year that we’ve been of service to Antigonish and surrounding communities. To see the hard work and good times that we have at the Centre, explore these timeline posters and get to know us better!
