Policy and Systems Change Work
The Policy Lab for Economic Justice is CCFWE’s national hub for policy leadership to drive system change on economic abuse, financial safety, and women’s economic security.
We work to strengthen the laws, policies, and institutional practices that shape survivors’ safety, dignity, financial independence, and long-term recovery.
Through survivor expertise, research, and cross-sector collaboration, the Policy Lab helps move economic abuse from a hidden issue to a recognized public policy priority across government, financial systems, justice, workplaces, and community services.
The Policy Lab turns lived experience, research, and community knowledge into practical policy and systems change.
Our work includes:
The Policy Lab centers CCFWE’s core values in our targeted cross-sectoral policy action to advance economic justice.
CCFWE works with government partners, regulators, private sector leaders, particularly the financial sector, task forces, non-profit organizations, and frontline service providers to strengthen the systems that shape women’s safety and economic security.
Our work bridges survivor experience, research, policy, and decision-making. We bring lived realities into spaces where laws, policies, programs, and institutional practices are designed.
We work with our National Task Force for Economic Justice as well as the CCFWE Research Institute. We also mobilize research from CCFWE’s Centre for Intersectional Research and Education on Justice and translate evidence into practical, scalable policy solutions grounded in real-world experience.
We are a non-partisan organization pushing policy and systems change across all levels of government. Click the jurisdiction to see what work we’ve done.
Engaging with global institutions, such as the United Nations and World Bank, and our International Coalition Against Economic Abuse, we contribute to international policy frameworks on economic security
Working with parliamentary committees, federal ministries, and national policy processes to advance legislative and regulatory change
Supporting policy development, regulatory reform, and service system alignment across regions
Engaging local governments on policies and systems that directly impact community-level economic security and service access
The mission of the Policy Lab is to strengthen Canada’s policy and legislative response to economic abuse and economic security and safety by connecting survivor expertise, applied research, and multi-sector collaboration to influence decision-making at all levels of government. It does this by:
