When you become a Fast Five Fundraiser, you ensure that the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre is there to provide critical services to survivors of sexual assault and childhood sexual abuse.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased risk for gender-based violence. While the pandemic touches all our lives, the urgent need to respond to those impacted by sexualized violence continues to grow.

Over the past year, the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre has seen a surge in survivors seeking crisis support and we need community support to sustain our services levels and stop our waitlists from growing.

We rely on donations to fund this important work, so every dollar counts! While some of our work receives government funding, we must fundraise over 60% of our budget every year.

Thank you for fundraising for the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre. Your support makes a difference in survivor’s lives.

Download our Fast Five Fundraising Kit with tips for successful fundraising, including email and social media templates.

Share the Fast Five Fundraiser banner on your social media pages and emails. The square image can be used as a profile picture or as a photo post to your social channels.

To mark sexual assault awareness month, I’m fundraising for the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre (VSAC). Your donation can help a survivor heal by providing access to life transforming services. VSAC needs support now more than ever to sustain emergency response to recent survivors and crisis support of those in critical need. Every dollar makes a difference.

#FastFiveFundraiser #SexualAssaultAwarenessMonth #SupportSurvivors

Believing survivors is powerful way to support healing. If a survivor shares that the have been assaulted they may fear that they will not be believed – often they may even have difficulty believing what happened; they will only tell you what they think they can trust you with. Let them know that you believe what they tell you about their experience. A calm, accepting, and encouraging response can help a survivor begin their healing journey. 

By denying, distrusting, or minimizing their experience, you will only strengthen their fears and push them back into silence. Victim blaming is a devaluing act that occurs when the victim(s) of a crime or an accident is held responsible for the crimes that have been committed against them.  Often this occurs because we believe in a just world where good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.  This is harmful – it devalues the survivor, minimizes or justifies the criminal act, and, most damaging – makes survivors less likely to speak out.

Sexualized violence is never justifiable. We believe survivors.

#WeBelieveSurvivors #FastFiveFundraiser #SexualAssaultAwarenessMonth

With so much information about the negative impacts of experiencing harm it can sometimes feel like we will never reclaim the playful puppy energy we had before we were hurt. Don’t believe it! Trauma may shift things in our life but so does healing, and when survivors receive care and support they can change and grow and reclaim themselves in deeply important ways. Believe in your capacity to heal because it is greater than you might think, and there can come a time where you meet yourself with the joy and excitement of a tail-wagging pup.

#FastFiveFundraiser #SexualAssaultAwarenessMonth #SupportSurvivors #HealingisPossible

Most people who experience sexualized violence have a number of challenging and even conflicting emotions that can arise. This is a regular human response to negotiating the experience of harm, and it is important to honour these emotions as they arise. Feelings give us information about situations we experience and although they shift and change they also give us insight into what our needs are! Anger, for example, often tells us that our boundaries have been crossed, and that we need to be respected, cared for, or listened to; grief often tells us that something has been lost, and that we need to be held and be shown compassion and softness. Even the absence of feelings is important and healthy – dissociation is how our mind protects itself from pain and disruption, and can be telling us that we are in pain and need time, space, and love. Your feelings, like your felines, need to be respected, listened to, and cared for with a curious and kind approach.

#FastFiveFundraiser #SexualAssaultAwarenessMonth #SupportSurvivors