COURAGE IN THE FACE OF HATE is coming to Kitchener-Waterloo!

Tuesday, 6 December 2011, 18h30
Individual Interviews: Wednesday, 7 December 2011, by appointment.

Focus Group Location:
Room 208
KW Counselling Services
480 Charles Street East
Kitchener, ON

Calling all members of the LGBTQ community who have been assaulted, bullied, harassed, victimized or abused based on their real or perceived sexual orientation and/or gender identity to stand up together and speak out against hate crimes.

Share your experiences during a focus group and individual interviews.

**The focus group will not be filmed, as they are safe spaces for those affected by hate crime to share their experience.**

The interviews will be filmed to be used as part of an education lesson plan for high school students across the country.

Each participant will receive a stipend for their participation. Food will be provided.

Help in the fight to abolish hate crimes!

Interested participants must register their attendance:

stophate@egale.ca
1-888-204-7777 ext. 26

Or, complete the following form to register:

* Required fields

In our continued fight to prevent discrimination, bullying and hate crimes based on sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression, Egale is proud to announce the launch of the Courage in the Face of Hate (CFH) project.

Courage in the Face of Hate aspires to reduce isolation amongst victims of hate crime, decrease the overall number of hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression, and build knowledge and awareness of the impact of victimization.

The CFH team will conducting focus groups and individual interviews with victims of hate crime based on their real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression.

Hate crime can be defined as any crime which is motivated by hate. This can include crimes such as vandalism of property, verbal assault, physical assault, harassment, and even, in some instances, cases of bullying in schools and work places.

The victim focus groups will create a network and community of shared experience where victims can tell their stories, helping victims on their journey to self-restoration, and recommend helpful services and interventions for victims. The interviews will focus on the individual experience with hate crime and will be an opportunity for victims to share in depth their stories and work to overcome the trauma of their victimization.

Both the focus groups and individual interviews will be filmed and the footage from them, along with Egale's research, will be used to compile a video which will be distributed to high schools across Canada, along with an accompanying lesson plan that will help facilitate and guide discussion in classrooms around the occurrence of hate crimes based on a person's real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression. Through the video and accompanying lesson plan, we hope to educate and engage young people across the nation to help in the fight against hate crime.

The project is a joint venture between Egale Canada and Prof. Barbara Perry, a leading Professor of Criminology with the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Prof. Perry is a specialist in hate crime research and prevention and she will be facilitating the focus groups and individual interviews. In addition, the video footage and information collected by the CFH project will be used by Prof. Perry in her research.

Let us stand together in the fight against homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and bullying.

Egale Canada is Canada's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) human rights organization. Egale's primary objective is to help create a Canada free of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, discrimination, as well as bullying and hate-crimes based on sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression.

Egale acknowledges the generous support of the following organizations: