#DesignedWithSurvivors
For too long, responses to gender-based violence have focused on reacting after harm occurs. #DesignedWithSurvivors asks a different question: What would public safety look like if it were built with survivors from the start?
Why This Work Exists
Violence against women and gender-based violence does not happen in isolation. It grows in social systems where warning signs are minimized, housing is unstable, and legal responses arrive too late. #DesignedWithSurvivors is BWSS’s ongoing work to reshape social and public safety through prevention, accountability, and survivor leadership.
This work brings together municipal advocacy, provincial policy change, prevention strategies, and frontline insights from survivors and advocates.
How the Work Has Evolved
Then:
Early conversations focused on naming systemic gaps and asking new questions about safety.
Now:
The work has expanded into concrete action advancing femicide prevention, strengthening risk assessment practices, pushing for survivor-centred policy change, and building partnerships across communities.
#DesignedWithSurvivors continues to evolve because safety must evolve too
Areas of Action
BWSS research centers survivor experience as evidence for improving anti-violence services and public safety systems.
Prevention
Stopping violence at the root and before escalation
Social and Public Safety Reform
Reframing how institutions respond to risk.
Justice & Accountability
Ensuring legal systems centre survivor safety
Community Leadership
Amplifying voices closest to the work.
Systemic Change
Shifting community, policy, funding, and practice.
Stories from the frontline
#DesignedWithSurvivors is shaped by victims, survivors, advocates, and communities across British Columbia and across Canada. From municipal conversations to provincial leadership to national dialogue, this work continues to grow through community lead interventions, media, public education, and community leadership.
Why It Matters Now
Social and public safety conversations often focus on enforcement after harm. #DesignedWithSurvivors centres live realities, prevention, care, and accountability recognizing that safety is built long before crisis.
Take Action
Stay Informed: Contact our Campaign Coordinator
Support Our Work
Learn more about prevention strategies
Safety Does Not Happen By Accident
It happens when systems are designed with survivors.
Stay informed, share the message & support the work.