Celebrating our Grantees!
Through Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada’s (ARCC) Small Grant program, we’re very proud to have supported over 30 groups and activists since 2020! Each received between $200 and $1800 to support their event or project related to reproductive rights. In 2022, we increased the maximum individual grant to $1000, and several groups or individuals have applied more than once.
We’re thrilled to share the following success stories from groups about how ARCC‘s funding helped with their advocacy work. Thank you for sharing your stories with us! (More will be added as they come in.)
Grantees
- University of New Brunswick Reproductive Justice Society (Jan 2024)
- Abortion Support Collective, Victoria (Jan 2024)
- Niagara Reproductive Justice (Sep 2023)
- Ottawa Abortion Doula Collective (July 2023)
- Cowichan Valley Reproductive Rights Group (Mar 2023)
- New Brunswick Abortion Care Network (Jan 2023)
Grant purpose: To make condoms and pregnancy tests available for free in dispensers in washrooms on campus.
The UNB Reproductive Justice Society is a collective on the UNB Fredericton campus
organizing for increased access to reproductive healthcare and education for students. Our
mission is to encourage the student body to be proactive about their reproductive and
sexual health.
We operate five condom dispensers and three pregnancy test dispensers on the UNB
campus. The $1000 Small Grant from ARCC went directly toward this initiative. This
enabled us to provide UNB students with free condoms and pregnancy tests in washrooms
across campus. During the Winter 2024 semester, we supplied over 5500 condoms and
over 1100 pregnancy tests to our students.
The Abortion Support Collective (ASC), Victoria BC (Instagram @asc.abortioncollective) received an ARCC Small Grant of $1000 in January 2024. As of April 2024, this grant has been used to fund:
Phone Line [$500.00] (basic phone plan for 6 months and initial network costs): ASC’s phone line allows clients to connect with a collective volunteer within 48 hours to arrange direct doula services or other abortion support. In the coming months, ASC intends to also launch a warm line, where a volunteer abortion doula can be reached by phone and text during the advertised hours for informational support, connection to national and community resources, and to set up direct support services through ASC.
Abortion Care Packaging Event [$213.00] (business card and abortion zine printing, abortion care package supplies): ASC held our first abortion care packaging event on February 21st 2024, in community with allied reproductive justice organizers. Volunteers created 32 packages, designed to offer low-touch support and connection to folks accessing medication abortion. Packages contain the following practical and companioning supplies, as well as information support and the ability to reach out to ASC for further support if desired:
- Menstrual pads donated by a community partner
- Rael Herbal Heating patch
- Ginger and Peppermint tea bags
- Mini Abortion Zine (English/French) created by ASC co-founder Sauvanne (@delaluna_doula) and Birth Mark Abortion Team doulas (@birthmarksupport)
- ASC business card (all printing by local shop Zap Copy (@zapcopy))
- Affirmation card with a community love note from the packaging volunteer
Care packages are hosted at Foundry Victoria (@foundryvictoria) through the midwifery team and at the Vancouver Island Women’s Clinic – two of the main abortion providers in the South Island area.
Reserve [$287.00]: Funds held in reserve, intention is to put this toward the next round of care packages as they are accessed and/or extending phone services if the warm line is well utilized.
Grant purpose: To print materials with information on abortion access and supports in Niagara including translation costs, to produce Niagara Reproductive Justice (NRJ) materials such as stickers and buttons, and to buy essential supplies for abortion care kits.
NRJ is a small volunteer group with fluctuating capacities but since July 2023, we have expanded our Abortion and Reproductive Support Network (ARSN) and accomplished a legislative milestone in Niagara. Political interest in NRJ increased in summer 2023 when we learned of a few St. Catharines city councillors who were interested in passing a by-law to restrict the distribution of graphic anti-abortion flyers to people’s homes in the city. NRJ rallied around this and postered around Niagara to bring awareness to this cause. This doubled our general printing budget needs to $400. In part due to our advocacy efforts, the by-law was passed on September 25, 2023!
In the last year, our team supported 35 people in accessing abortion in Niagara, including providing transportation to and from appointments as far as Toronto. Our network has grown by tabling at various events, building partnerships with health and service organizations in the region, and through word of mouth. The grant allowed us to increase our ARSN printing budget to $300 so that we could print and distribute our materials to a broader audience, and it also allowed us to pay for some of our materials to be translated into Spanish, French, Farsi, Pashto, and Mandarin. Having translated materials has become increasingly important as more and more refugees arrive in Niagara Falls and as the local anti-choice crisis pregnancy centres turn more of their resources to targeting newcomers. Lastly, we increased our abortion care kit budget to $300. This was an easy decision for us because we could tangibly see the benefits of the kits, and our inventory of the most important items was decreasing quicker than anticipated.
As a volunteer-led grassroots group with no staff, we are only able to incur expenses by receiving grants like the ARCC Small Grant, and through fundraising. The impact of the Small Grant program has been critical to NRJ‘s operations. With our general printing budget, we have been able to build awareness about anti-choice organizations in the region – leading, in part, to the passing of a by-law in St. Catharines restricting the distribution of anti-abortion flyers. It also allows us to present ourselves at tabling events in a more professional way, making it easier for people to understand our materials and build relationships with us. With our ARSN printing budget, we were able to reach a wider audience of clients, ranging from newcomers to refugees to students.
The final portion of the grant was used for the post-abortion care kits. This was impactful because our clients often receive very little support from the people around them and do not have the ability to acquire the small but necessary items like menstrual pads. Being able to provide a care kit is one more way that we can ensure our clients feel cared for post-abortion. We have already distributed all kits that were assembled using the grant.
All in all, we are incredibly grateful for ARCC‘s Small Grant as it helps us reach more clients and continue to raise awareness about harmful anti-choice organizations in Niagara.
Grant purpose: To help cover costs of the group’s “Birthday Bash” fundraiser, including honorariums for the DJ and art facilitator, the event space rental fee, art supplies, and contributing to the production of Ottawa Abortion Doula Collective (OADC) swag and promotion of the event.
On Saturday, July 8th, 2023, the OADC hosted a “Birthday Bash” fundraiser and event, celebrating four years of supporting abortion access in the Ottawa region. With generous support from ARCC, we were able to put on a great event, connect with the community, and increase awareness about our collective and the services we offer.
The event was held at the Art House Cafe in Ottawa’s Chinatown. It included a local DJ, a silent auction featuring a wide range of products and handmade items donated by local businesses and artists, games (abortion trivia), and OADC swag (t-shirts, stickers, homemade bath bombs, etc.) for purchase by donation.
The Birthday Bash event also included two vulva art workshops facilitated by local artist Anyu Sun. Anyu guided participants through the use of watercolours to connect with themselves, regain power over the representation of their bodies and challenge cultural taboos around vulvas. In addition, a local Argentinian activist set-up a table at the event showcasing images from the recent green wave abortion-rights movement in Argentina and across Latin America. Attendees were encouraged to decorate their own green solidarity handkerchief.
The event was a great success. It brought together our volunteer abortion doulas, family and friends, local abortion and sexual health care providers, and supportive community members. The event also engaged many others who did not know about the collective. After expenses, we were able to raise over $3,000! These funds will help us cover the collective’s modest operating expenses (gas, taxi and parking reimbursements, care package supplies, etc.) moving forward.
Without the generosity of local businesses and artists (including those who donated to the silent auction and the Art House Cafe for hosting us), community organizations, and the grant from ARCC, this event would not have been possible. The OADC Birthday Bash was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate all we have achieved and share more about the collective with the Ottawa community.
Grant purpose: To fund bringing the film “Happening” to Duncan, BC for International Women’s Day in March 2023 and paying for a venue. Also to pay for printing of a sexual health pamphlet.
Happening is the story of a young university student in France in the 1960’s, following her dream of becoming a teacher and writer when she becomes pregnant. In France, terminating a pregnancy was a criminal offence not only for the woman but anyone who would help.
Today we find ourselves facing the attempts to take away women’s right to abortion and throwing society back into those dark times given the overturn of Roe v Wade in the US and, in Canada, the increasing right wing dialogue of the Conservative Party and its leader re abortion. In the Cowichan Valley, BC, we found clear evidence of this when a Crisis Pregnancy Centre (CPC) opened an office in Duncan shortly after the overturn of RvW. A group of women formed who had lived through and knew the hardships and dangers of outlawing abortion, including nurses, public health and sex education workers, and a high school teacher. We decided to show the film Happening to alert people in the community to the history of abortion rights among other initiatives.
We did a lot of outreach prior to the film. We contacted public health, other women’s groups in the Cowichan Valley, a school board trustee to publicize the event, our MP, MLA and Mayors in Duncan and North Cowichan all of who were supportive of our advocacy work with ARCC. Also, we contacted the local media, especially The Discourse which ran several articles for us on the arrival of the CPC in Duncan and the fact that there are more anti-abortion facilities than health clinics dealing with abortion on the island. Our strategy was to alert the community about the true agenda of CPCs without being adversarial and to publish information on access to contraception and abortion and to alert the community to the history of the incredible hardship when women did not have the right to abortion or even contraception!
At our event, we showed the film with an introduction to it by Joyce Arthur who set the context of then and now. Afterwards, we had a panel discussion with Joyce, a public health nurse, and a sexual health educator. Our NDP MP was unable to attend but supports our advocacy work and we continue to communicate with him on this issue; he is informing the NDP Critic for Women’s Equality of our efforts at a national level.
As a member of our group said: “I think the impact for all who saw it was to reinforce how important it is for us to maintain the rights we have. To go back to abortion being illegal could have devastating results for some. Some of us – the older guard – can remember those situations. But younger people who have always lived with legal abortion probably have not contemplated the results of not having it available. “ (Faye Griffith)
The ARCC grant allowed us locally, not only to show the film, but also to publicize the event and to help fund the creation of pamphlets with the local public health authority which included essential information on access to contraception and abortion and abortion counselling. Also, as a consequence, our group has made contacts with other women’s groups here so that we can support each other and in the future may be able to put on other events.
On behalf of our group, we would like to thank ARCC for the grant and, also, for Joyce to be able to come here and support our group with information, contacts, and strategies to move forward. Joyce’s presence has been essential and a great motivating force behind our advocacy work.
Grant purpose: Supporting a January 21, 2023 all-day meeting in Moncton for 20-25 care providers, including catering.
For the first time ever, interprofessional medication and procedural abortion care providers from across New Brunswick came together on January 21, 2023 to develop a strategic plan for implementation of bilingual, centralized referral.
The small grant, which we intended to use for a single introductory meeting, has actually supported the formation and launch of the formal independent network, the launch of a universal funding for contraception campaign, bi-monthly meetings, and several site visits across the province among members of the New Brunswick Abortion Care Network (NBACN) to build connections. The NBACN has collaborated and submitted a proposal for centralized self-referral processes, and by working together, members have improved responsiveness and services for out of jurisdiction travel for later gestational age care. It’s really been quite remarkable! Thank you for ARCC‘s support.
