Changemakers in Waterloo Region

Our Strategic Plan

Dear Friends:

Thank you to all those who participated in our strategic planning process! SASC is pleased to share our Strategic Plan for 2017 to 2020. This Plan was approved by our Board of Directors on June 16 2017. Since 1989 we have been leaders and change-makers in Waterloo Region supporting survivors of sexual violence and working to transform systems which promote gender-based violence.

Our Plan provides our Centre with a roadmap for support, services, and organizational development for the next three years. It was developed with broad involvement from clients, community partners, volunteers, staff, and board members.

The planning process helped us assess both the challenges and opportunities we're likely to face over the next three years. It also set the context for the choices reflected in this Plan.

Four strategic directions emerged throughout this process to guide our Centre.

We want to structure our growth to support our continued health as an organization.
We want to continue to meet the needs of survivors of sexual violence by providing expert, innovative, effective, and timely services.
We want to have a strong, stable funding base and financial resiliency.
We want to live out our values as an intersectional feminist agency committed to social action and social justice.

We envision a future in which we have greater capacity, resources and community support to meet the growing and incredible demand for our services. In this future, assistance will be readily available to survivors when they reach out. A strong infrastructure, including financial and fundraising supports, will promote the expansion of our core services. This foundation will also allow us to be flexible to respond to the emerging needs and opportunities in our community.

There is tremendous value in the feminist, trauma-specific services that SASC offers to survivors. We provide a safe place. We walk beside survivors. We listen. We bear witness. We advocate. Sometimes, we agitate. We understand the complex systems impacting survivors’ lives; we help navigate. We use an intersectional approach, which means we respect how survivors’ unique social locations impact their experiences, how people respond to them, and what resources they have access to. We celebrate the amazing resiliency of those that use our services. We facilitate healing. We offer hope.

In the years ahead, we will continue to balance our direct supports for survivors with long-term solutions to sexual violence, and other forms of gender-based violence. Preventative work aimed at the root causes of gendered violence makes our collective future brighter. It gives those of us working and volunteering at SASC the energy, creativity and enthusiasm to continue moving our mission forward.

In solidarity,
Sara Casselman, Executive Director

Download and read our full Strategic Plan.

Strategic Plan