Canada’s only non-profit dedicated to addressing Economic Abuse & Injustice

Helping Women Achieve Economic Empowerment

Based out of Ottawa, the Canadian Center for Women’s Empowerment (CCFWE) us here to break down the systemic barriers facing marginalized communities and survivors of Economic Abuse. Applying an equity-lens and informed by both research and liver experiences, our work focuses on prevention and response through meaningful community engagement.

Intersectional Feminist Approach

We ensure the safety, freedom, and equality of women and their children is at the heart of everything we do and considering the relationships between gender and economic power in all of our work.

Available in multiple languages: English, French, Arabic, Urdu, etc.

Informed By Evidence, Practice Expertise, And Lived Experience:

We ensure our work is informed by up to date evidence, practice expertise, and lived experience means being flexible and responsive, keeping track of new and emerging knowledge, and adapting to align with this.

Collaboration And Partnerships

We work well with individuals and grassroots organizations and networks. Ending violence against women requires large-scale, long-term effort and we recognize that we are but one agency that has a role in working to achieve change.

Our Mission

We collaborate with organizations and individuals to develop a comprehensive approach that enables marginalized domestic violence survivors to recover from Economic Abuse. It also addresses critical policy gaps that are preventing survivors from recovering and becoming economically secure and independent.

Our Vision

We envision a world where the policy, legal, social services, and financial systems enable Economic Abuse victim-survivors to easily access and receive the resources they require to liberate themselves from their financial burdens and achieve economic empowerment.

What is Economic Abuse?

Experienced by more than 95% of domestic violence victims, Economic Abuse is a seldom-talked-about yet prevalent issue faced by survivors of domestic violence in Canada.

OUR MANDATES

We collaborate with frontline and equity deserving service providers to help survivors heal from family violence, including generational trauma, and empower them by equipping them with the tools and support they need to overcome their experiences, build resilience, and a brighter future. Learn more about out Domestic Economic Abuse Financial Literacy program.

We acknowledge that economic structures, rooted in historical colonization, have contributed to ongoing systemic inequalities. Our daily efforts are dedicated to illuminating these issues, offering resources, and nurturing a community committed to dismantling economic barriers faced by Black women, immigrants and refugee.

We conduct community-based research to collaborate with equity deserving group, and financial institutions to address the research gap on Economic Abuse in Canada. Our research endeavors begin by comprehensively understanding the intricacies of the problem, drawing insights from a diverse range of disciplines including our national coalition members.  Moving beyond comprehension, we actively seek out promising practices that show potential in addressing the challenges associated with Economic Abuse. Our analysis goes further to evaluate how these practices can be applied within the framework of social justice and ecological considerations. Through our commitment to research excellence, we aim to uncover critical leverage points that can drive impactful policy change and research gaps in Canada and beyond.

Every year we organize national and international awareness campaigns with the aim of enhancing the capacity of equity deserving organizations. Our goal is to raise awareness about Economic Abuse among various stakeholders, including private entities, financial institutions, consumer lawyers, academia, and essential service providers. Additionally, our focus extends to supporting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. We are dedicated to developing evidence-based, survivor-centered, and culturally sensitive educational resources to assist service providers in identifying and responding to Economic Abuse and coerced debt.

We influence policymakers, private sector and financial institutions to remove structural obstacles, discriminations, racial inequality, oppression that impact the economic empowerment of visible minority survivors and equity deserving group in collaboration thought collective strategy with our National Taskforce. This includes advocating to  national comprehensive ecosystem of support services for Economic Abuse survivors, changing current patriarchal, racist and colonial structures and advocating for expanding the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence to ensure economic security. Read our policy submissions here.

We are facilitating collaboration among universities such us University of Windsor, governments, and communities forms an ideal triad for the seamless interaction between research, policy, and practice. Our approach involves working closely with a diverse range of stakeholders, leveraging data and highlighting promising practices to enhance capacity and drive impactful changes. Through these collaborative efforts, we aim to co-create solutions at various levels local, regional, national, and international ensuring a dynamic interplay between research influencing policy and practice, and practice shaping and informing research.

Values

Our Values