a new lens ON GENDERED POVERTY
Toof often, poverty, homelessness, and gender-based violence are reduced to individual circumstances rather than understood as outcomes of the systemic inequities impacting women and gender-diverse people. These narratives shape collective understandings, obscuring both the underlying systems at play and the solutions needed to address them. Reframing the story enables us to confront the roots of gendered poverty and advance solutions toward a more just and equitable future.
We provide evidence-informed insights, expert commentary, and compelling client stories that showcase community-based, feminist-informed approaches. Our work restores agency, fosters resilience, and demonstrates how targeted interventions can drive lasting, meaningful change.
If you’re looking to elevate the conversation with credible data, community-centred perspectives, and lived-experience storytelling, we can help.
For media interviews and inquiries contact:
Julie Shultz, Associate Director, Stakeholder Experience
julie.s@upwithwomen.org
MEET FOUNDER AND CEO LIA GRIMANIS
Lia Grimanis turned her lived experiences of violence and homelessness into a mission: to help women and gender-diverse people rise from adversity.
For Lia Grimanis, the mission of Up With Women/Exponenti’elles is personal. At just 16 years old, Lia found herself navigating homelessness after her grandmother — her primary caregiver — passed away. Fleeing violence and abuse at the hands of her remaining family members, Lia spent countless nights couch surfing.
Her challenges were only compounded by late-diagnosed autism, which made it harder to recognize escalating violence or danger until it was too late.
After a family member threatened to kill her, Lia called a hotline and was directed to a shelter for survivors of violence. Initially overwhelmed and struggling with thoughts of suicide, she made a promise to herself while lying on her shelter bed: to one day help other women in her position rebuild their lives. She quickly set to work.
“My entire life has become focused on that promise I made to myself in the shelter. And I want my story to inspire others to believe they can do it, too.”
—Lia Grimanis, Founder and CEO, Up With Women/Exponenti’elles
