Safety facts

The numbers behind why OurPwr exists.

Nearly every minute someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted.

Source: RAINN

At a glance

Every figure below comes from research on violence against women. They are here because they are the reason OurPwr exists.

  1. One in three

    Have suffered physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner, or sexual violence from someone else, at least once.

    Source: UN Women, 2025

  2. One in five

    Women is sexually assaulted while at college, and more than 90 percent of campus assaults are never reported.

    Source: NSVRC

  3. $7.4 billion a year

    Is what spousal violence costs Canada in a single year. Victims themselves carry 83 percent of that bill, in medical care, lost income and time.

    Source: Justice Canada, 2012

Violence against women

Every figure here describes something that is happening now, to people who had no practical way to call for help in the moment.

  • One in three

    have suffered physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner, or sexual violence from someone else, at least once.

    Source: UN Women, 2025

  • Fewer than 4 in 10 ask for help

    Fewer than 40 percent of women who experience violence seek help of any sort, and fewer than one in ten of those who do go to the police.

    Source: UN Women, 2025

  • 975 in 1,000 walk free

    Only 310 of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to police. Fifty lead to an arrest, 28 to a felony conviction and 25 to incarceration.

    Source: RAINN

On campus

Campuses are where the need is critical and where a circle of people is already in place. That is why students are a group OurPwr is built around.

  • One in five

    women is sexually assaulted while at college, and more than 90 percent of campus assaults are never reported.

    Source: NSVRC

  • August to November

    More than half of college sexual assaults happen in those four months, at the very start of the school year.

    Source: RAINN

  • 71% of students

    in Canada witnessed or experienced unwanted sexual behaviour on campus. Fewer than one in ten of those who did spoke to anyone associated with the school.

    Source: Statistics Canada, 2020

LGBTQ+

Who is most exposed.

Risk is not spread evenly, and neither is the willingness to report it. A tool that only works if you are comfortable calling the police leaves these people out.

  • Three in five

    gay men and lesbian women have experienced contact sexual violence, as have 56 percent of bisexual men and four in five bisexual women.

    Source: CDC, NISVS 2016/2017

  • 47 percent of trans people

    have been sexually assaulted, and 57 percent say they would feel uncomfortable asking the police for help.

    Source: 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey

  • Nearly 7 in 10 at work

    of LGBT people have been sexually harassed at work. Two thirds never reported it to their employer, and one in four of those who stayed silent feared being outed.

    Source: TUC, 2019

The cost

What it takes, from people and from everyone.

The bill arrives long after the incident, in health, in earnings, and in public spending. It is the part that almost never makes the headline.

  • 39% of women in Canada

    have been physically or sexually assaulted since the age of 15. One in three experienced unwanted sexual behaviour in a public place in the past year alone.

    Source: Statistics Canada, 2019

  • $7.4 billion a year

    is what spousal violence costs Canada, counting emergency care, lost income and the courts. Victims themselves carry 83 percent of that bill.

    Source: Justice Canada, 2012

  • 1,125 women and girls

    were killed in gender-related homicides in Canada between 2011 and 2021. Two thirds were killed by an intimate partner and another 28 percent by a family member.

    Source: Statistics Canada, 2023

Help right now

If you need help right now.

Our resource directory lists crisis, legal and empowerment services by region, including lines that answer 24 hours a day.

  • Lines that answer now

    Crisis lines in the directory are marked when they are staffed 24 hours a day, so you are not calling something that opens on Monday.

  • Legal and reporting help

    Organisations that explain your options, sit with you through a report, or take the call instead of you.

  • By region

    Filter by province or state, by language, and by whether the service is free, so what you see is what you can actually reach.

Open the resource directory