Help Us Rise 2025

Combatting Barriers in Housing Security and Economic Safety

November 1–26, 2025

WHAT IS THE

Help Us Rise Campaign?

Help Us Rise is Canadian Centre for Women Empowerment’s national initiative dedicated to raising awareness about Economic Abuse and advocating for survivors’ empowerment. Held annually in November, it aligns with Financial Literacy Month and Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The campaign brings together a broad coalition of individuals, organizations, policymakers, and private sector representatives to advocate for comprehensive solutions to end Economic Abuse and help survivors reclaim their independence.

Help Us Rise 2025

Combatting Barriers in Housing Security & Economic Safety

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

Economic abuse continues long after separation, leaving survivors with coerced debt, ruined credit, limited financial literacy, and disrupted employment histories, all of which make securing housing nearly impossible. 

Recognized in the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, economic abuse is a prevalent but understudied form of gender based violence. Addressing these barriers and expanding opportunities for economic empowerment are critical to ensuring survivors can rebuild safe and stable lives.

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Why This Theme Matters

79% of service providers
say survivors remain in abusive relationships because they cannot access housing.
95% of domestic violence survivors
experience economic abuse.
Women are
among the fastest growing unhoused populations.
Safe housing is a lifeline.
Without it, survivors face unaffordable, inadequate, or unsafe living conditions.
Equity-deserving communities,
including Indigenous, Black, racialized, newcomer, and 2SLGBTQ+ survivors face compound barriers.
Survivors face systemic barriers,
coerced mortgages, credit sabotage, and inaccessible housing.

Join the movement

How to Get Involved

Join Weekly Events

Host or attend virtual sessions and workshops led by CCFWE staff and subject matter experts for the public, policymakers, service providers, and housing stakeholders.
Explore Events

Amplify the Message

Join our month-long bilingual campaign on housing security and economic safety. Show your support and share our messages.
Use Our Social Media Toolkit

Share Educational Materials

Help raise awareness about economic abuse by downloading and sharing our fact sheets and reports.
Access Fact Sheets

Explore Survivor Resources

Visit our Survivor Resource Hub to find tools like the multilingual STEAR mobile app for survivors and service providers. Share these resources with anyone who might need support.
Visit the Resource Hub

Partner or Sponsor

Collaborate with CCFWE to co-host events, fund programs, or develop resources that ensure survivors have access to safe, affordable housing and financial independence.
Become a Partner

Take the Pledge

Join the movement to end domestic economic abuse. Sign the pledge to stand with survivors and commit to building a future of safety and equity.
Sign the Pledge

TOGETHER WE CAN

Together we can advance system level change so survivors are housing secure, financially safe, and able to rebuild their lives free from abuse and exploitation.

Proclamations & Global Recognition

Further Resources on

Economic Abuse and Housing

Barriers to the spectrum of housing have consistently been a theme raised by our work with survivors of economic abuse. As a result, we have created the following reports to situated these unique needs and demands for action:

  1. Housing Brief: Ensuring Safe and Secure Housing for Survivors of Economic Abuse (2025)
  2. Submission to the National Housing Council on the Financialization of purpose built rental housing (2023)
  3. Intersectional Feminist Housing Agenda (2023)
  4. Mortgage Report

An Original song

Ascending

Released on November 26, 2024 — Economic Abuse Awareness Day — Ascending, an original song and dance video amplifies survivor voices and raises awareness of domestic economic abuse.

Past Campaigns

Thank you to our Sponsors