How We're Making a Difference
At SACE, we’re focused on the impact we’re making on the lives of people who have experienced sexual violence, and on contributing to healthier communities.
This section of our 2025-2026 Annual Impact Report features highlights of how we’re making a difference, from professional, evidence-informed education and support to community development and engagement initiatives.
Professional, Evidence-Informed Services
Across Public Education programs:
Across Counselling programs:
Anti-Oppressive, Person-Centred Trauma Counselling
As a feminist, trauma-informed, and person-centered counselling program, anti-oppressive approaches are built into the framework of the counselling provided at SACE. Clinical team members participate in regularly scheduled anti-oppressive practice consultation and attend all-staff professional development arranged by the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, & Accessibility Committees. Additionally, where applicable, clinical team members connect with Indigenous knowledge keepers to support Indigenous clients in tandem with provision of psychological services, and Indigenous knowledge keepers continue to provide feedback to the clinical program about integrating Indigenous ways of healing with psychological practice. Finally, many of our current counsellors, including our new adult counsellors, integrate narrative therapy into their clinical approach. Narrative therapy is a depathologizing and post-structural approach to counselling, and thereby emphasizes social location and anti-oppression when working with all clients.
Staff Development Story: Queer Joy
Every year, SACE staff are supported in their ongoing learning and development through professional development opportunities. For example, this year the 2SLGBTQIA+ committee hosted an internal professional development session that consisted of staff experiencing queer joy through the art of drag. The staff saw demonstrations from drag artists Ladonna Cree and Billie Eyelash. After the performances, the team was led through some guided reflection questions centered on how we see expressions of queer joy and how queer joy enhances and impacts the work that SACE does.
Improving Outcomes
Tailored solutions to support professionals across a range of sectors in their efforts to address sexual violence.
Institutional Support participants shared:
"Education on sexual violence and consent is essential for the well-being of my students/ participants"
Education Impact Highlight:
Positively Shaping School Culture
SACE Education programming has long-term benefits for individuals, schools, and communities. Participants consistently report an increased understanding of consent, healthy relationships, respect for diversity, the importance of communication, and important bystander intervention skills. Over the long term, school admins report that SACE Public Education and WiseGuyz helps positively shape school culture, including significant decreases in misogyny from boys towards female students and staff. Participants apply their learning to their interactions with the whole student body and staff, which has a lasting impact on school culture. These positive impacts then ripple out to the larger community, equipping more young people with skills and support to foster cultures of consent and prevent gender-based violence.
At SACE, we know, without question, that the delivery of professionally researched intervention and prevention programs is the only way that we can make a dent in this issue of sexual violence that permeates through our communities.
In recent years, SACE identified a significant gap in education and prevention services available to community members. To address this, we have dedicated substantial time and resources to developing and delivering prevention education programming. WiseGuyz meets the urgent need for effective sexual violence prevention education for teen boys, providing positive role modelling for boys during grade 9, which is a critical time in boys’ development around these topics. We believe that this vital prevention work has the power to disrupt the cycle of sexual violence because it addresses the root causes and risk factors of the issue, such as harmful gender norms, power imbalances, and lack of consent education. Violence prevention initiatives like WiseGuyz work to stop violence before it occurs, creating lasting change across generations.
Over the years, it has become increasingly clear that spending significant time in one school across multiple departments can have a great impact on the overall school culture. This year, we hosted numerous sessions in schools that represent how SACE addresses school-wide culture: by providing Public Education and WiseGuyz to students while delivering Institutional Support to staff/coaches and to school board staff— ultimately reaching every level of the school community.
Cultivating Anti-Violence Allies & Leadership
Feedback On the WiseGuyz Program
Participants highlighted the value of open group discussions on topics like healthy relationships, gender stereotypes, emotional expression, and consent. These conversations were described as informative and meaningful, with responses such as, “Being able to have these heavy discussions in a supportive environment,” and “It sparked good conversations between me and my friends.” The chance to reflect and engage with peers on personal and challenging topics continues to be a defining feature of the program’s success.
“I noticed that a lot of the boys in my class are now more comfortable asking for and accessing some of our health programs. Like our free bins of personal hygiene items, at the beginning of the year they were all very shy when it came to speaking about their personal hygiene needs. I have also noticed that the boys don’t talk about each other in a negative light as much anymore, at the beginning of the year we would have issues with them swearing at each other and calling one another fat and other names consistently. The name calling has pretty much gone away by this point in the year. I have also noticed that a lot of them have improved their healthy boundary skills, stating their boundary to each other and respecting their classmates’ boundaries.”
– School Teacher
What did you learn/like about WiseGuyz?
How You Are Making a Difference
SACE is not alone in doing the work of addressing sexual violence in our communities. From education participants who equipped themselves to take action, to groupmates in counselling programming who helped their peers to feel understood, to the volunteers on our support lines and out at community events, to the many who through a fundraiser on our behalf, shared our content (or their own!) on the issue—there are so many ways to make a difference, and again this year our community SHOWED UP!
Learning how to take action
Providing support
Supporting SACE
Following the news of our funding reduction in March 2025, SACE experienced an outpouring of support and solidarity from our community, including numerous fundraising enquiries and media requests, and connections with new organizations and communities.
The Drag community has shown up for SACE in incredible ways this past year. Throughout the year, local Drag Queens have organized events, performances, and fundraisers in support of SACE, which has allowed us to raise awareness of our services and build deeper relationships with a community that is incredibly supportive of our agency.
We continued to receive a high level of engagement on social media from our followers in light of funding cuts in March. One follower commented:
“Thank you to the amazing SACE team for everything you do, your work is integral.”
Consider the impact one post can have: the majority of the donations we started getting after our funding announcement were inspired by our Instagram post. The same is true for the majority of third-party fundraisers.
We built a meaningful relationship with Wholesome Psychology: their practice supported prospective SACE clients when our waitlist was temporarily closed, they facilitated a professional development opportunity in support of SACE, and hosted a fundraising event that raised over $17,000 for SACE in November.
This year the Community and Agency Development (CAD) team has been proud of all their fundraising collaborations, but one in particular stood out when what began as the cultivation of a relationship with Amalgamated Mining evolved into an opportunity that far exceeded our initial expectations: this donor helped open the door to collaboration with a broader network of partners, and together we had the resources and shared commitment needed to create a public awareness campaign! We are thrilled to launch this campaign in May 2026.
