Carol Bilson

Facilitation, program development, research, and human rights consulting

Carol’s research is centred around the development of social programming that promotes a culture of social inclusion, safety, respect, and collaboration. Her methodologies are informed and rooted in Community building, Intersectional Feminism, and Decolonial practices.

Close up of Carol Bilson smilling.

PhD student in Social Dimensions of Health at the University of Victoria.

Carol is a Latina/x (Aurocana-Mapuche/ Spanish/German) woman from Wallmapu Chile, and her pronouns are She/Her/Ella.

In respectful recognition of the Peoples, Languages, Lands, and, Waters of the W̱SÁNEĆ, Songhees, Esquimalt Nations on whose homelands I reside.

Fifteen years of program development

Cultivating Healthy Relationships in Boys and Male Youth, ages 11 to 15

Cultivating Healthy Relationships in Boys and Male Youth is the culmination of one more feminist effort to address the socially destructive issue of gender-based violence, which remains frightfully pervasive in our society today.

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This program was designed to explore and strengthen relational skills in boys and male-identifying youth within their communities, amongst their peers, and most importantly, within themselves. Essential relational skills are developed first by exploring external influences in culture and society (Community); secondly, by moving inwards to examine the microcosms of individuals’ peer interactions (Peer); and finally, by discovering the internal values and characteristics (Self) that are crucial in cultivating healthy relationships.

Cultivating Healthy Relationships in Boys and Male Youth

Co-Creating Decolonial Futures

Decolonial Triangle diagram, partial.

This interactive workshop is designed to help participants from every background understand their role and responsibility within the ongoing context of colonialism; as well as to empower participants to find tangible strategies to enact reconciliation within their everyday work and personal lives. The workshop explores the history and impacts of colonization across Canada/Turtle Island. Using both a systemic analysis and culturally-informed perspectives we guide participants in deepening a sense of understanding, compassion, and agency in dismantling harmful systems of oppression.

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Workshop Participants Learning outcomes

  • Learning the importance of self-location
  • Understanding social power and privilege in the colonial context
  • A historical foundation of the colonization of Canada
  • Understanding how political systemic authority was established
  • Economic structures that contribute to colonization
  • Social Values and Beliefs that emerged from the colonial culture
  • Developing pragmatic and relevant methods for creating cultural safetyReplyReply AllForwardEdit as new

All day training

$5000.00 / Connect with me for course scholarships

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Curricula development

Ushered in multiple sexualized violence awareness campaigns, developed train-the-trainer consent workshops, and initiated the first educational restorative process for men who assault on campus.

Developed the first male-identified support group (UVIC Men’s Circle). Carol has developed multiple community workshops on colonization, anti-racism, and gender-based violence, including her most recent work an 8-week program Cultivating Healthy Relationships in Boys and Male Youth.

Worked with Intertribal Health Authority (ITHA) to develop an Indigenous men’s health and wellness program for men struggling with substance use and intimate partner violence.

Education coordinator

Carol has worked in communities as an education coordinator. She works on complex issues of intimate partner violence with a trauma-informed lens. She worked as the Education Coordinator at the Victoria Women’s Transition House Society (VWTH) where she trained staff, volunteers, fellow community members, and service providers.

Carol worked with the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre to develop a resource list for transformative justice. This project was co-led with Lane Foster, Manager of Sexualized Violence Prevention and Support at the University of Victoria.

Investigations and Equity consulting

  • gender-based violence
  • anti-oppression facilitator
  • conflict management
  • survivor support
  • workplace intervention
  • human rights investigations
Boys stand shoulder to shoulder outside.
Updates

The importance of relational skills in boys and male youth

 In 2013 through my role as director of the University of Victoria Undergraduate Student Society sexual assault centre, The anti-violence project I was given the unique opportunity to work with young male students who had caused sexualized or gender-based violence on our campus. It was working with those young men that I became profoundly aware…

Several people, women, stand shoulder to shoulder in an increasingly blurry distance.
Updates

Ignite Change, sexual violence prevention month at SASC

This May is Sexual Violence Prevention Month. Let’s act now to create a world free from gender-based violence and oppression! Get our poster (PDF). Pledge to take these three calls to action to ignite change in our community: Action 1: Support Survivors. Make a donation – it will be doubled! An anonymous donor is matching up…