GBV Summit: From Epidemic to Action
Be the Peace Institute and Partners*
Funding from Nova Scotia Status of Women
April 7-8, 2025 | Oak Island Resort & Conference Centre
*scroll on to see the complete list of our partners
Logo design: Claire Worthington Zemaitis
On April 7- 8, 2025, 160 people from a variety of communities, social identities, lived experiences and professions across the GBV sector in Nova Scotia gathered at Oak Island Inn for the GBV Summit: From Epidemic to Action, to listen, learn, connect and refresh.
We need to come together now. We can all get better at simultaneously honouring our beautiful difference and our common humanity. Recognizing shared purpose across contexts, organizations and orientations helps us to formulate innovative strategies to address the GBV epidemic at the systems level.
Through a mixture of roundtable presentations, somatic grounding, Open Space Technology conversations, breaking bread, and a bit of fun (karaoke, painting and yoga), we came together and continued to develop sector-wide strategic priorities.
The material was often heavy, speakers’ viewpoints sometimes triggered, and we are all capable of inadvertently causing harm. We mourn our mistakes, renew our commitment to do better, and make space for discomfort.
Elders from indigenous, African Nova Scotian and women’s sector communities lent us their guidance, wisdom and kindness over the two days. Laughter and song offset moments of despair and outrage. Friendships were struck and a few Big Ideas were born.
Periodically taking moments like the one provided by the 2025 Summit allows for rejuvenation, sense-making and the strengthening of relationships and trust across the sector.
No one organization or profession, acting alone, can solve the wicked problem of GBV. This is a time for collective action. We have the research and understand the job to be done. Now we must do it, together.
A surprise April snowstorm cut short our planning and while we identified areas of focus, we still need to develop action plans. The work will continue through ongoing and new Working Groups; exploring issue-specific partnerships; and perhaps hosting a small strategic planning session in the fall.
Read on and stay tuned for more including our Summit Report!
Summit Program
Created & compiled by: Katie Rennie-DesChamps. Click on the image to access the full program
Summit Welcome & Agenda
Click on image to access full presentation
This event was made possible in collaboration with …
Stay tuned for more outputs including the full Summit Report…!