Principal Investigator: Dr. Margaret Jackson
Co-Investigators: Dr. Marlene M. Moretti

This project partners social science researchers with the Vancouver School Board, and front-line community youth workers to conduct participatory action research with girls identified as high-risk for victimization and involvement in violent and criminal behaviour.

The key program under this project is ‘Girlz Group’ – aboriginal girls are hired as ‘consultants’ on the project to discuss their experiences of discrimination, victimization and violence in their lives. They work on projects designed to develop collaborative relationships with community agencies and life skills to reduce risk for victimization in their lives.

As part of this project, we are also interviewing aboriginal adolescent single mothers to explore the themes that emerge as they share their stories of their own childhood experiences and their motherhood with us. The Aboriginal Single Mothers Study is a collaboration with Crimonology professor Dr. Margaret Jackson and seeks to better understand the experiences of aboriginal single mothers who had their first child before the age of 19 through a lens of intersectionality – understanding the strengths of this population, as well as the obstacles to their success at the intersection of race, gender, age and socio-economic class.