This Conference Is Making a Specific Call — and It Might Be for You
The #IAmSahraBulle Conference is open to everyone. But this week, we want to speak directly to a particular group of people: Black women, Indigenous women, immigrant and refugee women, women with disabilities, and LGBTQ2S+ women who have something to contribute to the conversation about gender-based violence.
We are not inviting you to the margins of this conference. We are inviting you to the centre of it.
The 2026 theme is "From Awareness to Action: Ending Violence in Our Homes, Schools, and Communities." That theme cannot be addressed honestly without the voices of those who experience gender-based violence at disproportionately higher rates and who face compounded barriers when they try to seek safety, support, and justice. Race, immigration status, disability, sexual orientation, language, and economic vulnerability all shape how violence happens and how institutions respond to it. We want sessions that name these intersections directly and offer communities something to act on.
The Sahra Bulle Foundation's 2026 call for proposals includes a specific and structural priority: proposals that centre the experiences of marginalized and racialized women are very important. This is written into the CFP. It is a commitment rooted in who this conference exists for.
What this means in practice: if you are a Black woman working in GBV prevention in Windsor or beyond, we want your proposal. If you are an Indigenous woman offering a healing approach rooted in cultural knowledge or land-based practice, we want your proposal. If you are an immigrant or refugee woman who has built community support structures that the formal system could not provide, we want to hear about it. If you have lived experience with disability and gender-based violence, what institutions get wrong, what actually helps, that is exactly what this room needs.
Artists, spoken word performers, community organizers, frontline workers, researchers with community-facing work, knowledge keepers, and advocates with lived experience: the call is open. We welcome proposals in workshop, interactive presentation, sharing circle, arts-based session, and panel discussion formats. You can also pitch something that does not fit neatly if it responds to the theme with purpose and care, we want to see it.
You do not need academic credentials. You do not need prior conference experience. You need real knowledge, a genuine commitment to trauma-informed facilitation, and something you believe will move people from knowing to doing.
The Foundation's program team is available to help you develop your proposal before you submit. Reach out to info@sahrabullefoundation.ca and we will respond within three business days.
The submission deadline is July 15, 2026. The conference takes place November 26, 2026 at Vanier Hall, University of Windsor, held during the UN's 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
Submit your proposal at https://www.sahrabullefoundation.ca/conference
Her story demands more than remembrance. It demands that we build something real — together.
Education. Accountability. Community.
#IAmSahraBulle