Get support

Support Hours

As of May 1st, AVP support hours are being offered by appointment only. You can schedule an appointment by:

In-person (B027), phone or video chat support

  • Available by appointment

If you are in need of immediate assistance, please contact the Vancouver Island Crisis Line at 1-888-494-3888 or see our list of emergency resources.

Emergency info & crisis resources

Support services

  • The Vancouver Island Crisis Line:  1-888-494-3888 – you can contact the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre’s 24-hour all-gender Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) via the crisis line
  • Community-Led Crisis Response Team: 250-818-2454 mobile crisis response team led by persons with lived/living experience and mental health professionals, who are able to de-escalate crises and develop community care plans with persons experiencing crisis  (currently running between 2pm and 9pm, Monday through Friday)
  • Trans Lifeline: 1-877-330-6366 (available 7am to 1am every day). Trans Lifeline provides culturally competent services to trans and gender-nonconforming people in crisis.
  • KUU-US Indigenous Crisis Line: https://www.kuu-uscrisisline.com/24-hour-crisis-line
  • You can also check out the Emergency Information, Organizations, and Resources list on AVP’s website: https://www.antiviolenceproject.org/resources/links/

If you have any questions about these changes or other information related to UVSS services, please contact the UVSS Executive Director at .

Support at AVP

Our support services are completely non-judgmental and confidential, and available to anyone who has experienced violence, anyone who has caused harm, and anyone who has supported someone who has experienced violence or caused harm.

We can provide you with emotional support, information about services on and off campus, and help in connecting with the services that might be right for you. We have a team of trained volunteers who provide peer support as well as staff members. To learn more about AVP peer support, click here.

We support everyone

Our services are available for:

  • All genders and identities, including trans, genderqueer, two-spirit, and gender non-conforming people
  • All members of the campus community and surrounding areas, including students, staff, and faculty,

You can access services regardless of your immigration status. We believe in access, not fear, and so will never ask your immigration or documentation status.

We also realize that the campus can be inaccessible so please let us know how we can better support you if coming to the campus is a barrier. We don’t require student identification or your personal information and you can access services anonymously if you wish.

Learn more about our support staff.

We have a lovely support room in the UVic Student Union Building (SUB), room B024, which you can drop by to check out during in person support hours. There you will find a trained peer supporter or staff member, along with cozy couches, warm lighting, and resources including zines and handouts. We also have a library in the support room with some cool books that may be of interest to you. You can read them in the space or borrow them.

The best way to find us is to start at the set of stairs located across from the entrance nearest Cinecenta. Walk down the stairs and follow the hallway to the right and walk to the end. There you will see the AVP support room (B024, on the right) and the AVP office (B027, on the left). If you have any trouble finding us, contact us by giving our office a call.

You can also schedule an appointment for support by sending us an email at .

Learn more about our location and how to access it.

To increase accessibility to support for folks who do not feel comfortable meeting in person, we began offering support remotely over the phone and will continue to make this available to the community.  

For safety reasons we cannot return calls unless a message is left asking us to return your call. Our staff will follow your lead to make sure you receive support that works for you, depending on what your needs are.

We take confidentiality and safety seriously. Staff will be taking your call from a private and confidential space. We don’t ask for any identifying information unless you want to share with us, however with your consent we may ask you some questions regarding your immediate safety, and you’ll have the option of providing us with your email so that resources can be sent to you.

You can reach us by calling 778-400-5007 and listen to the current message to find out the most up-to-date way to access phone support.

What is video support? 

In an attempt to better support our community and make support accessible to folks, we added the option to access peer support with our staff through video conferencing. Please note to access video support we will need your email address to send you a link to the Zoom video conferencing software.

To access video support:

Email  to book an appointment for accessing video support.    

We take privacy and confidentiality seriously, so you will be accessing video support with one of our trained staff members who will be carrying out video support in a confidential space.

We want to acknowledge that Zoom (the software through which we will be providing support) has some privacy concerns that are beyond our control. However, using video conferencing platforms allow us to continue to provide support remotely.

For more information about what kind of information Zoom collects, check out this blog post by the folks over at ProtonMail. Zoom also has information on its website about how it addresses privacy concerns. 

We strive to make support safe and accessible to folks in our community, however we want to ensure support is also safe for our staff members and volunteers. Below, we outline some behaviours that could hinder us from providing video support to you:

  • Disrespectful or violent behaviour towards staff (e.g. verbal abuse)
  • Any emergency situations requiring immediate attention

For folks who have survived or witnessed violence

We support people who have experienced any kind of violence. You don’t have to identify or use labels like “survivor,” “victim,” or “witness” to use our services.

We believe you. You didn’t do anything to ask for or deserve this and it was not your fault. However you reacted, resisted, responded, nobody deserves to be treated violently or to be subjected to witnessing violence.

We support people who are dealing with violence at any time in their life–including violence in a current relationship, violence that happened in a past relationship, or violence that happened a long time ago.

If violence is happening to you now, we will explore ways that you can protect yourself and get immediate help if you need it. Whenever the violence happened, we are here to support you to deal with what it is bringing up for you right now. You deserve and have the right to seek healing, when you want it and in ways that feel right to you. All support should be led by you and respect your wants and needs.

There is no right or wrong way to react to violence. There is a very wide range of responses and they are all normal. However you respond is what is right for you and your body – there is no right or wrong way for you or your body to react. Your reaction may be similar to, or totally different from, someone else’s, and it might change over time. The following is a list of some reactions and impacts people experience. This is not a complete list, nor is it necessarily a linear process – there isn’t a set start or end point. Although you might experience some of these things now, it doesn’t mean that you will always experience them. If you are experiencing any of these, or something totally different, we are here for you.

restlessness  * disruption of routine  * gastrointestinal issues  * numbing via drugs/alcohol/tv/food/sex/etc  * crying * lethargy * self-harm * shaking  * smiling * sobbing * infection * pain *  vaginal discharge * headaches * disruption of menstrual cycle  * soreness and/or bruising * nightmares * flashbacks * fatigue  * insomnia * change phone # * move * headaches * backaches *  trouble eating * restlessness * can’t engage in self-care * avoiding people, places, and things related to the event  * nausea * quit school/job * increase/decrease in appetite * easily startled * social withdrawal * confusion * disbelief  * side effects from anti-pregnancy and other medications * tension * feeling detached * flashbacks * dissociation * blaming yourself  * constantly alert * disturbing dreams * being withdrawn * being (extra) controlling * difficulty trusting people * negative views of the world  * memory loss * fear * humiliation * degradation * shame * inability to concentrate * embarrassment * anxiety * guilt * panic attacks * shock  * loss of pleasure * dread * depression * sadness * outbursts of anger * hypervigilance * grief * mood swings * feeling dirty * feeling abandoned *  agitation * phobias * feeling edgy * outbursts of anger * loss of hope * intensity of pre-existing mental health challenges * disinterest * feeling helpless  * feeling rejected * loss of interconnectedness * loss of faith

Thoughts like:

“I feel like I did something to make this happen. If only I had…”

“I feel so dirty”        “Did it really happen?”      “Why me?”

“No, I can’t tell my family. My parents are going to be so mad”

At AVP we support survivors seeking out justice in ways that fit for them. We take a neutral position on reporting (to UVic, an agency, police, etc.) — we don’t push survivors to report, and we recognize that there are many reasons why people might not want to report or might feel ambivalent about reporting, while for other survivors reporting violence feels important. If you want to explore the possibility of reporting, we are happy to help you access information so you know what your option are, what reporting might involve, and support you through the process of making a report. More information about reporting options can be found on our reporting page.

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For folks supporting survivors

If you are supporting a loved one who has experienced violence, we’re here for you too! It can be hard to see a loved one suffering as a result of violence, and also listening to someone share their story can bring up a lot of feelings and be overwhelming (sometimes this is called secondary trauma).

You can access our services if you need support yourself, if you are struggling with boundaries, if you want to learn more about providing support, or to help find information and resources to share with your loved one.

For more information on how to support survivors and other folks who have experience violence, as well as some cool printable PDFs and other resources, please access our How to Support page.

We regularly run workshops to help folks learn the skills needed to support survivors. Throughout the workshop we discuss different approaches and tools that can be used when supporting someone, including active listening, believing survivors, busting myths, showing empathy and making referrals. We also cover the very important differences between support, disclosure and reporting.

More info and registration

Boundaries are important in daily life, they enable us to support each other without sacrificing ourselves. Boundaries are an important part of self-care and also an important part of community care. It helps the survivor if you only do support for them when you’re actually up for it — otherwise you can accidentally cause more harm. Almost always you are not the only option, there are other resources a survivor can access (survivors are super strong and creative!) including AVP as well as crisis services. You taking care of your boundaries also strengthens consent culture by practicing skills like checking in with yourself and saying “no” or “not right now” if that’s what you need. There is also evidence that having appropriate boundaries helps the person you are helping, by increasing your ability to feel empathy while preventing “emotion contagion”.

Capacity to provide support, and your boundaries around what you can and can’t provide support on, can change depending on the day and even on the moment. Here are some signs that people in your life might not be listening to your boundaries, that you are having trouble setting boundaries, and/or that you’re not listening to your own boundaries:

  • Pretending to agree when you disagree
  • Concealing your true feelings
  • Going along with an activity you don’t want to do without stating your preference, or declining to join an activity you really want to do
  • Pushing yourself beyond your limits (though you might not recognize it in the moment)
  • Working too long
  • Working too hard and doing too much for others
  • Ignoring your needs (e.g., water, food, sleep) if the person you’re with isn’t ready for or doesn’t want/need those things
  • Insufficient sleep
  • Too little or too much time alone
  • Too much or too little exercise
  • Insufficient contact with people you like to be around
  • Using compulsions to avoid yourself
  • Always deferring to someone else
  • You’re fearful of what others will think if you speak up
  • You stay in relationships when you don’t want to
  • Believing that your boundaries are never allowed to change or that you’re not allowed to change your mind

If you’re struggling with boundaries, that’s OK!  Many people were socialized not to listen to themselves and/or taught that their boundaries aren’t important. You’re not a ‘bad’ or ‘weak’ person if you don’t know how to set boundaries that get respected – you’re actually pretty normal. Like consent, we’re not supposed to know how (especially when identity is taken into account) because disconnection from our feelings is a key part of what upholds our current structures of power and privilege.

AVP is working towards returning to a culture where we can practice consent with ourselves and have everyone, including ourselves, respect our boundaries. Learning to check in with ourselves, listen to what our body/mind/heart/spirit is telling us, and then set boundaries based on that can be really hard and incredibly rewarding. We are here to help if you are struggling with this.

More resources on boundaries:

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For folks who think they might have caused harm

Have you caused harm to someone else? Has someone told you that you violated their boundaries or hurt them? Have you reflected on your actions and realized that you may have been violent towards someone?

It can be difficult and uncomfortable to confront the truth about hurting someone, or to begin to look within yourselves at the ways in which we’ve caused harm. But at AVP, we believe this is essential work, for if we want to end violence we need to find ways to examine our past action, take accountability, make reparations and change behaviour.

For this reason, at the Anti-Violence Project, we believe it’s important to work with people who have caused harm, as well as those who have experienced it. This work  requires that:

  • The person is willing to examine and take accountability for their own behaviour
  • The person is dedicated to the often messy and difficult work of unlearning harmful attitudes and understanding the broader social context of violence

At this time, we are not currently coordinating accountability and relearning processes for people who have caused harm. However, if you are looking for resources or referrals please reach out to our Support Coordinator at

To learn more about this work and why we think it is important, please read our page support if you have caused harm.

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Additional resources

Please see our Resources for more information and links about online, local and on- and off-campus resources for support, healing, information, advocacy and action.

We have a number of handouts and pamphlets that are available to download and print. You can also access these at our office or by contacting us.