Building Internal Resilience Through Horses is supported by a three-year $464,983 contribution fund from Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). In 2015, PHAC announced the investment: Supporting the Health of Victims of Domestic Violence and Child Abuse through Community Programs. The projects funded under this investment connect the fields of health promotion and family violence prevention and feature trauma-informed health promotion activities for people who have experienced intimate partner violence or child maltreatment.

Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre was one of 150 agencies from across Canada to apply for the funding and one of 17 organizations to successfully receive the funding to date. The work and members of these community-based projects are connected to the Knowledge Hub, also funded by PHAC, which facilitates knowledge translation and exchange activities.

The Knowledge Hub is led by the Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children at Western University. It aims to: (1) establish a Trauma- and Violence-Informed Health Promotion Community of Practice among members of each project; (2) promote knowledge transfer activities for Community of Practice members and the broader community; and (3) develop common process and outcome indicators to evaluate trauma-informed health promotion through the investment.

Black and white photography by:
Lora Jude DeWolfe