Our Mission

We support survivors of sexual violence.

​We listen, facilitate healing, and celebrate resiliency. Using an intersectional feminist approach, we work to transform systems which promote gender-based violence. ​

Our Vision

Our vision is a world without sexual violence and oppression.

Our Values

1. Sexual violence is both a crime and a human rights violation.

• Survivors are never responsible for assaults committed against them.
• Full responsibility for any sexual assault lies with the perpetrator.
• Any sexual act between a child and an adult constitutes sexual assault, the responsibility for which lies solely with the adult.
• Sexual assault can have a profound impact on survivors’ lives - physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. 
• Each individual, our community, and our society has a responsibility to both provide support to people who have been sexually assaulted and to work toward ending sexual violence.

2.  Survivors of sexual violence have the right to control their own bodies and their own path to healing.

• Survivors have the right to access feminist, trauma-informed supports and services.
• Survivors have the right to confidentiality.
• Adult survivors have the right to choose whether or not to report an assault to authorities. 
• Every person has the right to full access to reproductive health care and reproductive justice.

​3.  An expression of social inequality, sexual violence is a gendered issue; the vast majority of sexual assaults are perpetrated by men against women and children. This violence takes place within a social, political, cultural and economic context of women’s historical disadvantage and oppression.​

• Prevailing social attitudes often normalize and perpetuate sexual violence.
• Institutions such as law enforcement agencies, the judicial system, and the medical system are often sexist and punitive and can work to re-victimize survivors. 
• In order to bring about broad-based social change, prevention-oriented education and feminist advocacy are essential.
• The work required to end both the causes and effects of sexual violence needs to be led and directed by women and non-binary individuals because of the power imbalance between these groups and men in society.
• A feminist analysis recognizes that men’s socialization processes can serve as barriers to male-identified survivors reaching out and receiving support; we are committed to making our services accessible to all genders.

4.  All forms of oppression are damaging. Sexism is but one of the intersecting oppressions used to violate and control. The prevalence and impact of sexual assault is compounded by these oppressions.

• Others forms of oppression include, but are not limited to, racism, heterosexism, classism, ableism, ageism, homophobia, transphobia, and discrimination based on cultural, ethnic or religious background. These oppressions, which are systemic and pervasive on individual and organizational levels, establish and maintain unequal power relationships in society. 
• It is essential to our vision and direction that we recognize the historical contribution to the anti-sexual violence movement made by women with intersecting identities; criticism that the feminist movement has excluded them is valid and these voices must be heard at our Centre.

5.  We promote the self-care and wellness of those working at our Centre; this is a political tool that sustains us in our work.

A SURVIVOR SPEAKS...

“I slept the whole night for the first time since I can remember after I reached out.” – ​SASC CLIENT