Helping Women And Children Escape Violence And Rebuild Their Lives
Because we are committed to strengthening the communities where we live and work, Royal LePage is the only Canadian real estate company with its own charitable foundation. The Royal LePage Shelter Foundation is Canada’s largest public foundation dedicated exclusively to funding women’s shelters and violence prevention programs.
Every dollar raised goes directly to helping the more than 50,000 women and children who are served each year by the shelters and support programs we fund. Since 1998, the Shelter Foundation has raised more than $27 million and currently supports 200 local women’s shelters and national partners. Our agents donate a portion of their commissions and Royal LePage offices across Canada hold local fundraising events. Our brokers, agents and staff also volunteer and provide in-kind goods to benefit the women and children residing in their local shelters.
To read brave stories of hope from families whose lives have been touched by abuse or to learn more about domestic violence, please visit us at www.shelterfoundation.ca
Royal LePage real estate agents help Canadians find their dream home. For those who do not have a safe and peaceful home, Royal LePage is also there, helping families in the neighbourhoods where we live and work.
Violence against women and their children is a significant problem in all communities in Canada. We are proud to be working with women’s shelters and our national partners to provide safety and hope to women and children experiencing violence and abuse.
Research tells us the following:
• Violence against women happens in all cultures and religions, in all ethnic and racial communities, at every age, and in every income group
• Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 161
• Every year in Canada, an estimated 360,000 children witness family violence
• On any given day in Canada, 3000 women (and their 2500 children) are living in an emergency shelter to escape family violence
• On average, every six days in Canada a woman is murdered by her intimate partner. In 2009, 67 women were killed by a current or former partner.
• Physical and sexual abuse costs Canadians over $4 billion each year (taking into account social services, criminal justice, lost wages and productivity, and healthcare)
• By supporting women’s shelters, we are ensuring that women and children have a safe place to go to escape domestic violence. With our national partners, we fund healthy relationship programs for youth and support programs that help women and children heal from their experiences of abuse and rebuild their lives.
For additional research on family violence, visit www.canadianwomen.org
To make a meaningful difference at a local level, the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation matches Royal LePage offices with a women’s shelter in their community. Royal LePage brokers, agents and staff are passionate champions for their local shelter. They help organize fundraising events and many agents donate a portion of the commissions they receive when they help their clients buy or sell a home. All support stays in the local community and because Royal LePage covers the administrative costs of the Shelter Foundation, one hundred percent of the funds raised goes toward our cause. Since 1998, the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation has raised more than $27 million.
Women’s shelters direct our funding to meet their greatest needs and priorities. Shelters use our funding to provide critical services such as: trauma counseling; job training and placement; emergency transportation to the shelter; play therapy for children; homework help for youth; renovations to existing shelters; and building new shelters. In some cases, the funds are used to help women and children after they leave the shelter and move into their own accommodations.
In addition to addressing the immediate needs women and children have for safety and support, we also take a long-term view to stopping the cycle of violence. We are a founding partner of the Fourth R, a curriculum-based education program that has been delivered in 5,500 schools across North America, and we continue to help youth develop healthy relationships through annual funding of educational programs. With the help of our national partner, the Canadian Women’s Foundation, we support grassroots programs in every province that help women rebuild their lives after violence, that help children heal and prevent them from becoming victims or abusers themselves, and that help teenagers recognize and avoid abusive relationships. As a founding national partner of the online resource sheltersafe.ca, we are making it possible for women seeking safety to identify a shelter in a specific geographic area along with its 24 hour emergency phone line. This ensures that women and children get the help they need as quickly as possible.
While we appreciate the range of shelter and housing-related needs in the community, the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation does not accept unsolicited applications or make grants outside of our current commitments.
