Approach
Feminist approach
CALACS L’Ancrage works to improve women’s living conditions from a feminist perspective, among others by:
- respecting their autonomy;
- fostering their ability to reclaim power over their lives, bodies and environment;
- working to break down the guilt they experience in relation to sexual violence;
- enabling them to experiment with ways to release various emotions, including anger.
CALACS L’Ancrage recognizes the effects of various systems of oppression and discrimination (sexism, racism, colonialism, ableism, ageism, etc.) that hinder equality between women and men and among women. This feminist approach thus aims to understand the full scope of women’s lives.
Philosophy
CALACS L’Ancrage affirms that acts of sexual violence are acts of domination, humiliation and abuse of power, mainly committed by men against women, teenage girls and children. These acts represent a form of social control that keeps women subjected to unequal power relationships. Violence is a social problem that results from the patriarchy and occurs in social relationships, and is not the individual responsibility of the women, teenage girls and children who experience it. As a result, the solutions to put an end to violence must come from society and its various political, social, public, economic and legal entities.
Autonomous community action
As part of the Autonomous Community Action (ACA) movement, CALACS L’Ancrage meets the following eight criteria:
- Is a non-profit organization;
- Is rooted in the community;
- Maintains a participatory and democratic culture;
- Is free to self-determine mission, approaches, practices and orientations;
- Has been created at the initiative of community members;
- Pursues a self-defined social mission that fosters social transformation;
- Demonstrates active citizenship and takes a broad approach focused on the holistic nature of the issues being addressed;
- Is governed by a board that is independent from the public sector.
Participatory management
CALACS supports practices that seek to develop individual and collective empowerment. Participatory management aims to allow the people involved in an organization to take part in the decisions it makes in order to ensure its management and development. Concretely, this can mean fostering member and team participation in various endeavours, such as general meetings, working groups, the Board of Directors and so on.