Honourable Mention: “Draw the Line” Public Education Campaign

Today I want to expand on a bilingual public education campaign that serves as an excellent example of collaboration between Francophone and Anglophone organizations in order to achieve a common objective. The common objective here is to educate Ontarians on how to intervene in situations of sexual violence against women through a public campaign called Draw the Line.

This campaign implements social marketing strategies to empower citizens to make a difference by providing them with critical information on how to intervene safely and effectively in such situations. What’s more, the Draw the Line campaign helps challenges common myths about sexual violence to help change attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate such harmful and inacceptable actions. The initiative is founded on evidence-based research on best practices in public education as well as extensive consultations with survivors of sexual violence, service providers, and grassroots organizations such as the centres d’aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel [sexual assault aid centres] (CALACS).

Launched in May 2012, Draw the Line was developed through collaboration between Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes [Ontario action against violence against women] (AOcVF) and the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres, with the intent to represent the ethnic, linguistic, cultural, sexual and economic diversity of Ontario effectively.

The Honourable Mentions Series is a series of 15 blog posts that the Commissioner is releasing to individually highlight initiatives by government ministries and agencies that demonstrate efforts to expand the delivery of high-quality French-language services, as listed in his 2012-2013 Annual Report. The full list of honourable mentions and the relevant blog posts are available here.