The Canadian Women’s Foundation: the Signal for Help

We are Canada’s public foundation for gender justice and equality. We advance this by growing support for grassroots feminist action, partnering with communities and organizations to improve conditions, and building diverse leadership and knowledge for sustainable change.

Since 1991, our generous donors and supporters have contributed more than $250 million to fund over 3,200 life-transforming programs throughout Canada.

The work of the Canadian Women’s Foundation and the organizations we support takes place on traditional First Nations, Métis, and Inuit territories. We are grateful for the opportunity to meet and work on this land. However, we recognize that land acknowledgments are not enough. We need to pursue truth, reconciliation, decolonization, and allyship in an ongoing effort to make right with all our relations.

Our vision: Every woman, girl, and gender-diverse person has the power, safety, support, and rights to thrive, today and tomorrow. 

About the Signal for Help:

If someone in your life told you they were experiencing abuse, would you know how to help?

There’s a lot of stigma and silence around gender-based violence in our society: too many people who experience abuse are shamed, silenced, and stigmatized, and too many people don’t feel they have the confidence or knowledge to support them.

That’s why we created the “Signal for Help” – a tool to help those experiencing gender-based violence. It’s a simple one-handed gesture someone can use, without leaving a digital trace, to communicate they need someone to safely check in and support them.

Today, it’s a viral, award-winning initiative that continues to be shared around the world, educating people about gender-based violence and what we can all do to support survivors.