Ending gender-based violence
Last updated on September 16, 2026
Everyone deserves to feel safe and secure in their home and community.
And yet gender-based violence happens in communities of every kind, urban and rural. It happens at work, at school and in the home.
Indigenous women and girls, immigrants and newcomers, racialized people, transgender, gender diverse people and others in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, as well as those with disabilities, are especially targeted with violence.
Gender-based violence action plan
Gender-based violence has serious and lasting impacts on individuals, families and communities across British Columbia. It costs the province more than $1 billion each year and creates pressure on health care, policing, housing, social services, employers, and the justice system, while also affecting people's ability to work and participate in the economy.
Recognizing the need for coordinated action, British Columbia launched Safe and Supported: B.C.’s Gender-Based Violence Action Plan. Released in December 2023, the three-year action plan brings together partners across government, service providers, and communities to strengthen supports, advance prevention efforts, and address the root causes of violence.
Broad engagement with Indigenous partners, service provider organizations and advocates supported the development of this plan. Read more about what was discussed at three engagement processes led by the SFU Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Naqsmist and Métis Nation BC.
B.C.’s action plan is backed by significant investments that help prevent and respond to gender-based violence. These include expanding access to safe housing for women leaving violent situations, improving rural cellphone service to make travel safer, and investing in skills training and affordable child care to support women’s economic independence. The Province also provides more than $60 million annually in victim services and violence against women programs.
An additional $62 million in federal funding over four years, provided through the National Action Plan to End Gender‑Based Violence, is supporting the implementation of B.C.’s Safe and Supported action plan. Learn more in the Canada-British Columbia Agreement, which outlines how this funding is helping reduce wait lists, strengthen community-based services, and improve access to supports for underserved communities. See this full list of initiatives B.C. has implemented with federal funding in the first three years of the agreement.
Research shows that investing in prevention, early intervention and survivor supports can reduce long-term costs while improving safety and well-being for British Columbians.
Since launching the Action Plan, B.C. has made progress in prevention, survivor supports, Indigenous-led initiatives and system coordination. Read about some of the results achieved to date.
Four priorities
B.C.’s Safe and Supported action plan sets out four priority areas that guide the Province’s response to gender-based violence by increasing resources for critical services and supporting new initiatives that respond to what British Columbians have told us is needed to address gender-based violence.
1: Increasing safety and supports for survivors
B.C. is making significant investments in services and infrastructure that are helping to keep people safe and offer help when they need it.
Supports for survivors
- Providing annual funding for more than 475 victim services and violence against women programs, including 70 sexual assault services programs, 22 of these specifically for Indigenous survivors, and five sexual assault centres.
Housing for survivors
- Doubling the number of women’s transition housing spaces to 3,000. As of March 31, 2026, there are 1,508 units for women and children fleeing violence delivered or underway; 1,460 of those are funded by the Women's Transition Housing Fund.
Support with navigating family law processes
- Extending the Safe Supports Program to help people affected by intimate partner violence navigate family law processes in rural, remote and northern communities. Recent evaluations of the program reported Safe Supports participants consistently feel more informed, supported, and empowered to make decisions.
Stopping the sharing of intimate images without consent
- Making online spaces safer through the Intimate Images Protection Act and support services addressing the sharing of intimate images without consent. Amendments that came into effect in 2026 strengthened protections for victims, including increasing the maximum compensation available through a Civil Resolution Tribunal order from $5,000 to $75,000. As of May 31, 2026, the Civil Resolution Tribunal has received 627 disputes and resolved almost 500 of them, with the remainder still in progress. The Intimate Images Protection Service provides emotional support, resources, and information to victims.
Improved access to supports and care
- The Crime Victim Assistance Program expanded supports to victims of crime, family members, and witnesses through enhanced counselling, expansion of the offences covered and increasing benefit rates. These enhancements were implemented on January 1, 2024.
All-hours crisis line
- With funding from Women and Gender Equality Canada, enhancing Salal Sexual Violence Support Centre’s crisis line to provide 24/7 provincewide, comprehensive, specialized gender-based violence support, including risk assessments and immediate safety planning.
Funding through the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence has also had a significant impact in B.C. by directly funding community organizations to address waitlists and increase capacity to support survivors.
Supporting people at high risk of intimate partner violence or exploitation
- Community-based Intimate Partner Violence Units (formerly called Domestic Violence Units) have offered more than 1,700 additional clients quicker service, counselling, and rental subsidies. Intimate Partner Violence Units are specialized teams of community-based victim service workers, child protection workers, and police officers who work together to coordinate responses when the risk of violence is high.
- The Human Trafficking Unit, a partnership between victim service workers and police, has helped more than 100 victims of sexual exploitation and human trafficking and trained more than 2,300 new supporters in the system to recognize the signs of human trafficking.
Increasing access to counselling
- Virtual and in-person counselling capacity of Stopping the Violence Counselling programs across B.C. has been expanded, making services more accessible to under-served communities, including the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, seniors and people with disabilities, and in rural/remote areas of B.C.
Critical response grants and training for Women's Transition Housing Programs
- Funding for 90 non-profit providers of women’s shelters and transition housing to purchase needed furniture and supplies, make accessibility upgrades, and support survivors’ financial independence.
- New training to support shelter, housing and homelessness service providers to identify and address gender-based violence, with particular attention to the higher risks faced by Indigenous women and the connection between gender-based violence and brain injuries.
2: Lifting up Indigenous-led approaches
Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people face disproportionately high rates of gender-based violence. Lasting solutions must be Indigenous-led, reflecting the strengths, cultures, and priorities of Indigenous communities.
Gender-based violence has significant human and economic costs, increasing pressure on health, justice, and social service systems while affecting community well-being and economic participation. Investing in Indigenous-led solutions strengthens communities, improves outcomes, and helps reduce long-term public costs.
That is why the Province is investing in Indigenous-led prevention, healing, and safety initiatives to support stronger, safer communities.
Indigenous Justice Centres
- Six new Indigenous Justice Centres opened in 2025, in partnership with the BC First Nations Justice Council, making a total of 15 physical centres and one virtual Indigenous Justice Centre across B.C. These centres address systemic barriers faced by Indigenous Peoples in the justice system by offering free legal representation and support services for criminal and child protection matters directly at the community level.
All-hours culturally appropriate crisis line
- Funding from Women and Gender Equality Canada is enhancing the Indian Residential School Survivors Society’s crisis line to provide 24/7 provincewide, comprehensive, trauma-informed and culturally safe gender based violence support, including risk assessments and immediate safety planning for Indigenous survivors and families.
In recognition of the disproportionately high rates of gender-based violence experienced by Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people, the Province is supporting Indigenous-led initiatives with federal funding under the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. Indigenous-led approaches are essential to advancing reconciliation, building community resilience, and helping prevent future social and economic impacts.
Improving justice outcomes
- The BC First Nations Justice Council is advancing Strategy 11 of the First Nations Justice Strategy through the development and implementation of the Indigenous Women’s Justice Plan, and has codeveloped cultural competency training with the Surrey Police Service. The Council is also piloting the Indigenous Justice Centre Aunties Program, which provides culturally grounded, wraparound support to Indigenous survivors as they navigate justice-related systems and services. Through advocacy, accompaniment, cultural support, system navigation, and connection to community resources, the program helps reduce barriers and supports survivors in accessing justice in ways that are safe, respectful, and responsive to their needs.
Supporting Indigenous-led violence-prevention programs
- Through the Path Forward Community Fund, provincial and federal investments are supporting more than 100 Indigenous-led projects across the province that focus on community safety planning, capacity building, and Indigenous-led solutions to violence against women, girls and 2SLGBTQIA+ people.
- Development of a new Missing Indigenous Person Notification pilot project, led and piloted by Indigenous organizations and communities.
Giving Voice to Community Healing
- Forty-five First Nations governments, Métis chartered communities, Indigenous non-profits and Indigenous friendship centres received Giving Voice Grants in the latest round of funding to deliver culturally safe healing and prevention programs that respond to the needs of Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit and gender-diverse kin impacted by GBV.
Reawakening Cultural Practices to Take Action on Gender-Based Violence
- More than 135 projects funded through the Cultural Practices Grant program that supports First Nations cultural practices and coming of age ceremonies in recognition that culture is an important protective factor in preventing and healing from gender-based violence.
Supporting Safer Communities for Métis Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People
- Métis Nation BC is expanding access to gender-based violence supports for Métis people across the province. This includes culturally safe counselling and providing survivors with comfort kits that contain personal hygiene, safety, and cultural comfort materials.
3: Breaking cycles of violence through prevention, healing and accountability
Preventing violence before it happens benefits everyone. By investing in education, awareness, and other prevention efforts, the Province is working to address the root causes of violence, break the cycle of harm, strengthen community safety, and reduce long-term pressures and costs across health, social, child welfare, and justice systems.
Guides to help K-12 students better understand consent
- Updated kindergarten-to-Grade 12 student health guides are supporting educators in teaching consent with an age-appropriate and non-discriminatory approach in the classroom.
- The erase (Expect Respect & A Safe Education) website provides resources, information and free training for students, adults and school staff about school and online safety, mental health and substance use, and diversity and inclusion. Training for students and families includes information on staying safe online, consent, and supports available if intimate images are shared without consent. The website also includes the erase Report It tool which has been designed to allow students to send secure, anonymous and confidential messages to be shared directly with school safety teams.
Resources and training for post-secondary students
- Launched the Sexual Violence Action Plan for post-secondary communities.
- A new Sexual Violence Policy Act strengthens consultation requirements, increases accountability and transparency in annual reports, reduces barriers for people when making formal allegations of sexual violence, and helps support institutions to develop policies that are guided by a trauma-informed approach.
- New training on technology-facilitated sexual violence and the impacts of sexual violence on Indigenous, graduate and international students, and a new toolkit for data and reporting to help institutions prepare and share annual reports on sexual violence prevention and response efforts.
Funding through the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence is expanding the reach of prevention programs and engaging men to foster healthy relationships with their partners and children.
Preventing Violence through Education
- Violence is Preventable programs reached more than 13,000 students and staff in the 2024-25 school year. The program brings counsellors to schools to deliver presentations about intimate-partner violence and connects K-12 students experiencing or witnessing violence to counsellors.
Enhancing Domestic Violence Intervention Programs
- Expanded 18 domestic violence intervention programs, like Caring Dads in the South Fraser Valley, which delivers counselling sessions in multiple languages for fathers working to break the cycle of domestic violence.
4: Learning from and monitoring our progress
The Province is committed to learning from what is working to prevent and address gender-based violence and collaborating with partners to shape and guide work underway across government.
Finding Ways to Increase Access to Justice for Survivors
- Advancing work on 13 of the 21 recommendations in Dr. Stanton’s report on addressing systemic and legal barriers for victims and survivors of intimate-partner and sexual violence in B.C.’s legal system.
Integrating Advice from Partners to Shape Next Steps
- Regularly engage with the Gender-Based Violence Action Plan Advisory Committee to provide advice on implementation of the Safe and Supported action plan and monitor progress on actions to address gender-based violence.
Through the National Acton Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, federal funding is enabling new initiatives that are testing innovative approaches to mitigating gender-based violence and looking at how to intervene earlier to prevent violence.
Gender and cultural safety plans for large industrial projects
- The Environmental Assessment Office has created clear, standardized requirements that can be included in environmental assessment approvals for large industrial projects with temporary work camps. These requirements are intended to help prevent and reduce the risk of gender-based violence by requiring companies to develop gender and cultural safety plans and violence prevention programs for workers. The Woodfibre LNG project, currently under construction near Squamish, is the first project to use this approach, and similar requirements are now being introduced for other projects.
Insights from a death review panel
- B.C.’s Chief Coroner convened a death review panel to review deaths from intimate partner violence and recommend action to reduce intimate partner violence related deaths in B.C.
Breaking down silos
Since the action plan’s release, several new reports, with recommendations, are helping to build momentum in addressing gender-based violence. These include Dr. Kim Stanton’s Systemic review of the legal system’s treatment of sexual and intimate partner violence, the Representative for Children and Youth’s “Don’t Look Away” Report, and the BC Coroners Service’s 2026 report “Our Time to Act”.
Read how government and the anti-violence sector are breaking down silos to work together on meaningful action to address these expert findings and to ultimately end gender-based violence. Collaboration and coordination are key to the Province’s ability to improve the system, close gaps and improve safety for everyone.
Support for survivors
Work is already underway to help advance and support the hard work being done by so many service providers and community groups so they are able to focus on providing care.
Read more about supports and services available to help people facing violence.
