Written By: Julia Vellucci, Social Justice Writer

 

As The Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment (CCFWE) calls for urgent action to address femicide, the most severe outcome of gender-based violence, often rooted in economic abuse, we must remind ourselves of CCFWE’s 2025 Help Us Rise Campaign.

 

CCFWE is Canada’s only national non-profit focused on economic abuse and empowerment. They work through research, education, policy change and survivor support to ensure survivors can regain independence and safety.

 

When survivors lack access to money, housing, or support, they are trapped in unsafe situations with few to no options to leave. Preventing femicide requires confronting the economic conditions that allow it to occur. Real safety comes from financial stability, accessible housing and having the means to live and leave without danger.

 

Help Us Rise is a CCFWE national initiative dedicated to raising awareness about economic abuse and advocating for survivors’ empowerment. It’s held annually in November, aligning with Financial Literacy Month and Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

 

The 2025 Help Us Rise Campaign highlighted the urgent need to address the structural barriers survivors of economic abuse face in securing and maintaining housing. After all, safe and affordable housing is a prerequisite for leaving domestic violence and without it many remain trapped in abusive situations. 

 

As part of this year’s campaign, CCFWE took part in an important national webinar exploring the connection between economic abuse, housing insecurity, and survivor empowerment. 

 

In this virtual event on November 20, 2025 titled Opening Doors, it focused on how housing access and stability are essential to breaking the cycle of abuse and rebuilding financial independence through research insights and survivor-centred perspectives.

 

In CCFWE’s own research, they found that 96 per cent of domestic violence survivors experience economic abuse while 84 per cent accumulate debt due to abuse.

 

They also found that 93 per cent have money taken from them (paycheques, financial aid, etc.), 79 per cent of social service providers report clients staying in abuse due to lack of housing and 72 per cent of landlords lack understanding of intimate partner violence when renting to survivors.

 

This campaign and CCFWE’s Housing Brief emphasized how housing is essential to leaving violence safely as survivors face systemic barriers: limited shelter spaces, credit checks, rental discrimination, coerced mortgages, and fragmented support systems.

 

Additionally certain groups such as Indigenous, Black, racialized, disabled, newcomer, 2SLGBTQ+ survivors face even greater barriers, with women and gender-diverse people being increasingly unhoused.

 

Economic insecurity, low-wage work, caregiving responsibilities, and economic abuse are all factors that make safe housing even less accessible.

 

However, there are opportunities for change by expanding immediate safe housing such as shelters, rapid re-housing programs and by making rental and home ownership systems equitable, trauma-informed, and survivor-centered.

 

More opportunities for change include economic abuse in housing and policy considerations at federal, provincial, municipal and private sector levels as well as the need for governments and organizations to adopt intersectional approaches to housing policies to address unique survivor needs.

 

For this to be possible, the public is encouraged to advocate, donate and spread awareness while the government is encouraged to prioritize survivors in housing policies, include economic abuse in legal frameworks and invest in affordable housing.

 

As for civil society and the private sector, they are encouraged to collaborate with CCFWE, adjust policies and services, sponsor awareness campaigns and provide resources and training.

 

CCFWE’s research has shown that financial institutions are often the first point of contact for victims disclosing economic abuse. Stigma, shame and the fear of not being believed prevent many from coming forward to family members or friends. 

 

Financial institutions therefore play a vital role in early prevention and in supporting survivors on their path toward economic safety and recovery. Minister of National Revenue of Canada, François-Philippe Champagne’s leadership reinforces that economic safety is national safety and that every Canadian deserves a financial system built on fairness, integrity, and compassion. 

 

At a press conference on October 20, 2025, Minister Champagne announced a major turning point in the fight against economic abuse in Canada: the establishment of a voluntary Code of Conduct for the Prevention of Economic Abuse. 

 

Overseen by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), the new code will be developed in collaboration with financial institutions and key stakeholders, including CCFWE. The initiative aims to set clear expectations for how financial institutions can identify, prevent, and respond to economic abuse, strengthening protections for Canadians.

 

Just days after receiving the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case, Meseret Haileyesus, Founder and Executive Director of CCFWE said,“Economic Abuse can have a devastating effect on women, directly impacting their mental health, physical safety, independence, financial well-being and ability to leave an abuser. CCFWE welcomes this historic action by the Government of Canada and looks forward to continued partnership with policymakers to advance systemic solutions to economic abuse.”

 

This year CCFWE joins the global UNiTE to End Digital Violence Against All Women & Girls movement through their Help Us Rise 2025 campaign: Combating Barriers in Housing Security and Economic Safety as well as for The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (November 25 – December 10). You can support this work by endorsing CCFWE’s Calls to Action and Recommendations from their Femicide Policy Brief: Femicide in Ottawa and Beyond:A Call for Coordinated Policy and Systemic Change before the December 10 deadline. Together, we can help create safer, more equitable communities for women and gender-diverse people across Canada.