Men as Agents of Change: An Antiracist and Anticolonial Lens
A growing body of literature suggests that gender inequality and violence work in tandem with other forms of oppression. In the area of gender inequality, rigid gender/sexuality stereotypes and expectations can have negative consequences for men and boys, as they do for women, girls, transgender and two-spirit peoples. This toolkit explains how AMN has approached this work through an intersectional lens to uncover strategies that engage organizations and communities to work against inequities in their various forms.
A growing body of literature suggests that gender inequality and violence work in tandem with other forms of oppression. In the area of gender inequality, rigid gender/sexuality stereotypes and expectations can have negative consequences for men and boys, as they do for women, girls, transgender and two-spirit peoples. This toolkit explains how AMN has approached this work through an intersectional lens to uncover strategies that engage organizations and communities to work against inequities in their various forms.
Download the toolkit to learn more.
Strategies for Planning and Running Men's Groups
AMN has participated in an ongoing dialogue with various organizations and groups providing healthy relationships support to men throughout Alberta. The information contained in these toolkits is based on what we have learned from these groups along with insights from the Alberta Men’s Survey.
AMN has participated in an ongoing dialogue with various organizations and groups providing healthy relationships support to men throughout Alberta. The information contained in this toolkit is based on what we have learned from these groups along with insights from the Alberta Men’s Survey. The “Strategies for Planning and Running Men’s Groups Toolkit” was created by healthy relationships advocates in Alberta as a user-friendly guide for agency stakeholders and community leaders. This toolkit is intended to provide specific information related to the planning and implementation of men’s groups; to empower you in your efforts to assist men and ‘walk alongside’ them in their efforts to build and maintain positive and healthy relationships. More specifically, these strategies will help you increase attendance while enhancing the positive benefits that men derive from your program.
This toolkit is part of a multi-part series on working with men and boys.
Part I: Planning Your Group
This toolkit goes over important considerations for planning your group and barriers to getting help that sometimes need to be overcome in order to enable participation.
Download the toolkit to learn more.
Part II: Running Your Group
This toolkit provides suggestions and considerations for choosing topics and activities, as well as running and maintaining your group.
Download the toolkit to learn more.
Interactive Online Toolkit
This modular online version of the toolkit provides another more interactive way of approaching the Strategies for Planning and Running Men’s Groups toolkit for those not keen on PDFs or who do not need to print the material.
Conversations About Masculinities: Interactive Toolkit for Service Providers
A toolkit for service providers to connect with people on the topic of masculinities from a variety of perspectives.
This is a guide for community conversation about masculinities. The purpose of this guide is to help agencies and service providers invite community members into a dialogue about masculinities. Beyond encouraging men to make connections and share their diverse views and definitions of “masculinities”, this Guide seeks to encourage people to challenge and expand status-quo masculinity with the goal of creating healthy people and communities.
Download the toolkit to find out more.
Conversations About Masculinities: Interactive Online Toolkit
Desktop viewing is recommended.
Consensus Decision Making: A Guide to Men's Organizing Work
Men’s Action Network Calgary (MAN-C) developed this consensus decision-making protocol through our organizing work with men on healthy relationships and violence prevention. The Protocol is based on western social justice activism, Baha’i teachings and Indigenous-centered teachings. A few members created the Protocol and shared with members of MAN-C and later, Alberta Men’s Network for feedback and endorsement. We hope that this will be a useful resource for anyone involved in social justice organizing.
Men’s Action Network Calgary (MAN-C) developed this consensus decision-making protocol through our organizing work with men on healthy relationships and violence prevention. The Protocol is based on western social justice activism, Baha’i teachings and Indigenous-centered teachings. A few members created the Protocol and shared with members of MAN-C and later, Alberta Men’s Network for feedback and endorsement. We hope that this will be a useful resource for anyone involved in social justice organizing.
Consensus is often dismissed as being a time-consuming process, but in actuality it is faster, more efficient, and more reliable than the traditional methods of decision-making. Consensus compels the group to ‘out’ their concerns and disagreements from the onset, instead of harboring them or ‘beating around the bush’. Although a meeting that uses the consensus method may be longer than one where a majority vote is utilized, the non-consensus formats oftentimes do not create group ‘buy in’ on decisions. This kind of commitment by the group is often an essential element of the outcome and follow-through. Also, if there are group members who were voted down or remained silent about their disagreement with the decision, these issues will often pop up later in the process when the decision is being implemented.
Download the toolkit to learn more.
Healthy Family Relations: A Community Response to Domestic Violence
This handbook provides a quick overview of the building blocks to develop healthy and non-violent relationships and communities. It also gives community members some tools that they can use to become involved in violence prevention within their homes, communities, schools, faith communities and other places where they gather.
Binu Sebastian, MSW, RSW & Liza Lorenzetti, PhD (c), RSW
This handbook provides a quick overview of the building blocks to develop healthy and non-violent relationships and communities. It also gives community members some tools that they can use to become involved in violence prevention within their homes, communities, schools, faith communities and other places where they gather.
Download the handbook to learn more.
This handbook would not have come together without the help, support, and hard work of many people. We are grateful to North of McKnight community members and the North of McKnight Resident’s Committee in Calgary, Alberta for their generosity in sharing community knowledge and experiences. Special thanks to community organizers Atiya Ashna, Lalita Singh and Diane Altwasser for their support and collaboration during creation of this handbook. Many thanks to Anna Zakharova for handbook layout and finalization and Arya Boustani for the cover photo.