Bridges is a 3 year (2006-2009) project supported by the University of Western Ontario and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Using a feminist, strengths-based and social justice model, and working from each woman’s strength, Bridges addresses the barriers that exist in current educational systems and seeks to facilitate growth and experiences of success for women who have experienced abuse at the hands of their intimate partners and who would like to work toward literacy and the completion of their secondary school education.

Bridges is an alternative education program that features women-only classrooms, learning designed from the needs of survivors of trauma, supportive individual and group counselling, childcare and transportation, and above all, a commitment to each woman’s right to mutuality and to be an active participant in a dynamic, caring, and connected community.

 

Our Vision

To encourage women to continue in their education in order to promote self worth. To increase the safety and well being of women who have been in relationships, or are currently in relationships, where there exists woman abuse. To facilitate understanding and awareness of the impact of violence on a woman’s life-course, including education, employment and economic independence. To hold the woman abuse perpetrator, not the victim, responsible for the violence and for stopping it.

© 2006 Bridges