Our Prevention Priorities
At BWSS, we believe that violence against women and gender-based violence is not inevitable—it is preventable. But prevention requires more than just awareness. It means taking bold, coordinated, and sustained action across education, justice, community, and public systems.”
Violence against women and gender-based violence is a public safety emergency. Our prevention priorities are essential to building safer communities for everyone—especially women, girls, and gender-diverse people who are most often targeted and least protected.
We’re calling on the all levels of government, community leaders, and the public to invest in the following five priorities for meaningful prevention:
Dating Violence and Healthy Relationships Education
Every young person in BC deserves access to inclusive, age-appropriate, and culturally relevant education that teaches the foundations of consent, respect, and emotional safety. We advocate for curriculum that addresses gender inequality, power dynamics, and systemic violence—including how racism, colonialism, and homophobia intersect with gender-based violence.
Youth Ending Violence is BWSS’s long-standing, youth-led prevention program that engages young people to challenge gender-based violence and promote healthy relationships among their peers. For over 40 years, we have delivered this vital initiative without dedicated funding—sustaining it on and off through community commitment. Today, in the face of rising online misogyny and escalating violence, we are working to reenergize and expand this program to reach more youth across British Columbia..
Why this matters: Educating youth about respect, boundaries, and consent reduces violence in teenage relationships and lays the foundation for safer schools, campuses, and communities.
Mandatory, Standardized Risk Assessments in Criminal and Family Law
Violence is often predictable—especially when survivors report patterns of escalating threats or control. We are calling for nation and province-wide implementation of mandatory, gender-responsive risk assessment tools in both criminal and family court processes. These assessments must centre survivor safety and be used to inform bail decisions, sentencing, child custody, and protection orders.
Why this matters: Consistent risk assessments help prevent repeat violence, hold systems accountable, and protect women, girls, and gender-diverse people before harm occurs. Standardized risk tools help authorities intervene before serious harm occurs—preventing repeat violence, reducing femicide risk, and saving lives, especially in cases of escalating threats or coercive control.
Standardized risk assessments can play a critical role for Correctional Service Canada (CSC) and Provincial Corrections when making decisions about releasing violent men—especially in cases involving intimate partner violence (IPV) and gender-based violence (GBV).
Public Awareness for Victims and Survivors
We must raise the visibility of services and supports available for survivors of intimate partner violence, sexualized violence, and gender-based violence. Public education campaigns should challenge victim-blaming narratives, promote survivor rights, and affirm that help is available—no matter the survivor’s age, background, or circumstances.
Why this matters: When survivors know their rights and how to access support, they’re more likely to seek safety early—preventing crises and reducing harm to families and communities. Evidence shows that femicide risk is significantly reduced when women have access to community-based victim support services.
Community Education and Public Dialogue
Ending gender-based violence requires community engagement and collective accountability. BWSS delivers training and education to service providers, workplaces, schools, and community groups to deepen understanding of the root causes of violence and to build safer, more informed communities.
Why this matters: When we shift attitudes, challenge stigma, and equip people to intervene safely, we create a culture that no longer tolerates violence. Empowered communities recognize warning signs and intervene, making public spaces, schools, workplaces, and homes safer for everyone.
Prevention and Accountability Programs for Men Who Use Violence
Violence against women and gender-based violence is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men. If we are serious about prevention, we must address the root causes—not just the consequences—of that violence. That means providing meaningful, accountable opportunities for men who use violence to take responsibility, change their behaviour, and stop the harm before it escalates.
At BWSS, our prevention and accountability work with men is grounded in the principles of nonviolence, self-awareness, empathy, and social responsibility. This work never excuses or minimizes the violence men have used. Instead, it insists on accountability and long-term transformation, while exposing the systems—patriarchy, colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalism—that shape and enable male violence.
Through our initiative, The Violence Stops Here, we call on men, workplaces, families, and communities to take a stand. This work creates space for men to own their role in ending violence against women and gender-based violence—whether by changing their own behaviour, interrupting harm around them, or challenging the culture of silence and complicity that allows violence to persist. The Violence Stops Here brings prevention to the public: through dialogue, education, and action.
This work must never be funded at the expense of women’s and survivors’ services.
Any investment in programming for men must be in addition to—not instead of—the critical services that support women, girls, and gender-diverse survivors. Supporting men to change is not a substitute for justice, housing, safety, and healing for survivors. It is one part of a broader, coordinated prevention strategy.
Why this matters: Men’s use of violence is not only an individual failure—it is a social and systemic issue. Carceral responses alone are reactive and insufficient. True prevention means engaging men before violence escalates, while remaining unwavering in our commitment to survivor safety and leadership. Preventing future harm is a collective responsibility—and men must be part of the solution.
The impacts are real:
Girls report increased harassment, online abuse, and pressure in dating relationships.
Some boys who consume this content adopt harmful beliefs about consent, power, and masculinity.
Teachers, parents, and service providers are reporting a spike in disrespectful and abusive behaviours rooted in manosphere ideologies.
Why this matters: Public safety begins with how boys are socialized. If we don’t interrupt these toxic messages early, we risk fueling the very violence we are trying to prevent. BWSS’s prevention work focuses on equipping boys and men to reject harmful norms, take accountability, and become part of the solution—without centring them at the expense of survivors.